Hank's First Strat / Tremolo in UK?

[donna plasky]

I was reflecting on the story of The Shadows ordering that very first Stratocaster from the catalogue, based on their idea of getting a guitar similar to James Burton's guitar, which they say was actually a Telecaster. Do any of you know...does all this mean that Hank was the first professional musician in the UK (or maybe anywhere) to use a tremolo arm? I am wondering whether Hank and/or The Shadows were essentially innovators in that area...or were there other artists who used a tremolo and perhaps Hank noticed them and developed his own technique based on their example?

I suppose that first Strat came with a tremolo arm, so the hardware existed in 1958/59...but I am wondering what was Hank's reaction when he first opened the case and decided to play the guitar for the first time. Did he already have an idea of how he was going to use the tremolo arm? Or was this new to him?

Below is a YouTube video that I came across...it has some nice early photos of the Shadows. It's not related to my question about the tremolo arm. I just like seeing whatever guitars they used before the matching Strats came into fashion.

Thanks, and kind regards,
Donna




PS: I just found a second video that is interesting. Bruce's Strat seems to be different than Hank's...it's darker, maybe sunburst. And I think it has a tremolo arm, even though Bruce doesn't use it. In the last of the three songs, Cliff gets out his acoustic guitar and strums it a little. He doesn't have a capo on it like he usually does. None of this stuff is important, really...it's just different.

[Uncle Fiesta]

Bruce is playing a Fewnder Jazzmaster in the second clip - I've seen loads of photographs of him with it, and always assumed he bought one shortly after Hank got his first Strat.

[George Geddes]

There are photographs of Bruce around that time with a sunburst Strat, though the Jazzmaster was more common.

It's safe to say that Hank had one of the first Strats, but I'm sure - Jim may conform or otherwise - that the guitarist with the Hedley Ward trio had a white model about the same time.

George

[JimN]

There are photographs of Bruce around that time with a sunburst Strat, though the Jazzmaster was more common.

The Jazzmaster belonged to Bruce (it and the sunburst Precision seem to have pre-dated the Jennings long-loan arrangement). The sunburst Stratocaster was revealed by Bruce a few years ago to have belonged to Chas McDevitt, who kindly allowed Bruce to utilise it (on shows which featured The Shadows and the Chas McDevitt / Shirley Douglas act) as a spare on-stage instrument.

It's safe to say that Hank had one of the first Strats, but I'm sure - Jim may conform or otherwise - that the guitarist with the Hedley Ward trio had a white model about the same time.

That story does persist, and Hank has said several times that he has never claimed to have had the first Stratocaster in the UK. But the question is a little wider than that: there would also be the question of the Bigsby unit. It seems at least possible that a Bigsby-equipped guitar might have made its way to the UK prior to May 1959.

JN

[Didier]

Hank Marvin wasn't certainly the first to have a Strat in Europe (I keep thinking that UK is part of Europe, altought many people think it's not the case... ), neither the first one to have a guitar with a tremolo.
But he was certainly the first among well known guitarists to have one, and to use it on a large scale. There was no users' manual delivered with the guitar, but obviously Hank thought the tremolo was meant to be used, and he developed his own playing style using it !
I wonder what would have been Hank's playing style if he had received a Tele rather than a Strat...

Didier

[George Geddes]

Found photos of the HW Trio on flickr, but the guitarist is using... a Burns!

George

[donna plasky]

Was the tremolo arm invented by Fender in response to other guitars being fitted with a Bigsby? I think I assumed, perhaps wrongly so, that it might have been the other way around. I've just looked at some videos on YouTube and I do see Bigsby's being used (or at least they were attached to the guitars) in "rockabilly" music from around the same time that the Shadows/Drifters were formed, but I think I was looking at North American-based artists. But I still think it is amazing that Hank seems to have gotten that guitar and taught himself. I am definitely not an expert on The Shadows, but it seems that even the earliest videos/films you can find of the Shadows performing...Hank did not really look/sound like someone who was new at it, hitting sour notes here and there. I am sure he got better as time went on, but it is impressive that he started off with such a command of the instrument.

Well, thanks for listening. I just got kind of awestruck when I started thinking about it.

Kind regards,
Donna

[JimN]

Was the tremolo arm invented by Fender in response to other guitars being fitted with a Bigsby? I think I assumed, perhaps wrongly so, that it might have been the other way around.

It was definitely the other way round.

The Bigsby was marketed earlier than the Strat (and even the Bigsby was not the first vibrato unit to be made available):

http://www.bigsby.com/vibe/about/history/

QUOTE:
In the 1940s, Paul Adelburt Bigsby was a skilled foreman at a machine shop in Los Angeles owned by Albert Crocker of the famous Crocker Motorcycle Company. Paul’s interest in motorcycles and Western music brought him into contact with Merle Travis. As they both were avid motorcyclists and music lovers, Paul and Merle became good friends.
During this same time, Merle brought his Gibson L-10 guitar to P.A., as Bigsby was called, with a worn out Kaufman vibrato that wouldn’t stay in tune. “Can you fix this for me?” asked Merle. “I can fix anything” said Paul. But seeing the shortcomings of the Kaufman vibrato and at Merle’s suggestion, he ended up designing a whole new mechanism which worked perfectly. This device set the standard and became the vibrato of choice for most guitar manufacturers the world over and remains so today.
ENDQUOTE

In turn, the Kaufman vibrato (an example of one model of that was originally fitted to John Lennon's Rickenbacker 320) had had a long history. Believe it or not, seminal jazz guitarist Charlie Christian (who died in March 1942) was pictured with a Gibson ES-150 fitted with a Kaufman Vibrola:



Not a brilliant version of the photo, the uncropped original shows Charlie holding that guitar to the right of Benny Goodman, with another guitarist holding a Gibson ES-250 on his left. For some reason, I cannot trace the full pic at the moment, but the Kaufman Vibrola is visible and this shot has to be no later than the summer of 1941 (after that, Charlie was too ill to do much work with the Goodman band).

JN

[cockroach]

I suspect that dear old Bert had Bigsby units on his Hofners well before the appearance of Hank's Strat in the UK...

[Arpeggio]

As I'm most definitely not a guitarist I enter this thread with some trepidation. Hank was already a fantastic guitarist by 1959 but it was clear to everyone involved with Cliff / Shadows that he was being hampered by the technical limitations of the Antoria. Hence the decision to purchase a top quality instrument for him. Isn't it amazing (in this technological age) to think that the Shadows (who were big James Burton admirers) hadn't really seen any photos or film of JB in action & so assumed that he probably played a Strat! The Strat of course was Buddy Holly's guitar of choice. Hank may not have been the very first player in the UK to own a Stratocaster - but there can only have been a handful in the UK in 1959. By the time he took possession of it, he was most certainly the most high - profile guitarist in the UK with a Stratocaster. I recall interviews when Hank & Bruce recall opening up the guitar case and they all stood in loving awe gazing at the beautiful instrument. Hank mentioning that it seemed like something from "from another planet". There are lots of interviews too with Hank casually mentioning how he loved the "whammy bar" and simply taught himself to use it for maximum effect. So......the Strat was one part of Hank's sound + the improving / developing amplification too (I'll leave anything more technical to people who know what they're talking about). The final piece in the jigsaw was the Meazzi echo unit. Serendipity indeed. Noted guitarist Joe Brown had come into possession of one. Basically, he hated it. Fate.....Joe wondered if his mate Hank Marvin (so this must have been very soon after Hank took delivery of the Strat) might be interested in it and apparently took it along to a Cliff / Shadows show the Granada, Edmonton* & more or less gave it to Hank. The rest, as they say, is history.

Rob

* I was lucky enough to interview Joe Brown in some depth c. 20 years ago. I recall that he did actually say something along the lines of "The Granada, Edmonton ...or somewhere.." With further information coming to light down the years....it could well have actually been the Regal, Edmonton on Friday, June 26th 1959. Cliff and the Drifters did appear there that night. The first recording to feature the Strat was the Shadows' "Saturday Dance" (25 / 8 / 1959).