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I noticed recently that Hank seems to have been using a Rosewood Fender as well as his usual Cedarwood one.
On the cover of The Shadows LP from 1961 he has the Cedarwood one but in the clip of The Savage in The Young Ones (same year) he's using a Rosewood Fender.
You can also see him using the Rosewood one in photos from 1962 & 1963. So, maybe the Cedar one was not used on all the early hits?

Hi Roy

As i understand it Hank used the original strat 34346 from receipt in 1959 up to 1962 when the Shadows were given matching strats and precision bass in fiesta red with rosewood boards. They used these until 1963 when they got white ones with tortoiseshell scratchplates and then in 1964 they got the Burns guitars. Im sure someone else will confirm exact dates etc

Hank first used the maple neck Strat bought by Cliff from the US for him in 1959. In march or april 1961 both Hank and Bruce received rosewood neck Strats from JMI which had just started to be Fender importer for GB. Hank then gave back the maple neck Strat to Cliff. This Strat is now in the hands of Bruce.

Didier

Didier wrote:Hank first used the maple neck Strat bought by Cliff from the US for him in 1959. In march or april 1961 both Hank and Bruce received rosewood neck Strats from JMI which had just started to be Fender importer for GB. Hank then gave back the maple neck Strat to Cliff. This Strat is now in the hands of Bruce.

Didier

Almost correct, but JMI had already been one of the twp separate UK Fender distributors for a year or two (the other being Selmer).

I heard the 59 maple neck strat was used in the studio for most ( not all ) of the hits even after the arrival of the rosewood board strats, which gives the impression they were primarily for the matching lineup look for live performances, same with the meazzi wheel echomatics, in particular the vox model 2 which was in use on and off almost to the end of the 60s, not being taken out of use circa early 60s as has been previously stated, binsons maybe used in recording for a few things but again being used more for spare echoes during live performances ,The core shadows early 60s sound whatever guitar, strat or burns being used, was primarily the meazzi echomatic 2 machine, through about 6 variants of ac30.

Hi Phil, hope you're keeping well, I'm guessing that you got to play that strat when you were with Bruce, Does it sound that different from other strats you've played ? regards Gary

Hi Gary,
thankyou i am feeling much better now, yes i did play the guitar and its a great instrument , sounding really wonderful ,very resonant , but i guess no more than you would get from any good stratocaster, new or old , as much as its a great guitar the magic came from Hank, as well as the echo and amps .

Does anyone know if Hank still has his old Antoria that he used on the early records? He might have thrown it away because he's said years later is was a pretty poor guitar.

Fenderman wrote:Does anyone know if Hank still has his old Antoria that he used on the early records? He might have thrown it away because he's said years later is was a pretty poor guitar.

Hank didn't keep the Antoria after Cliff got the Stratocaster for him to use.

I once read an interview with Larry Macari (one-time manager of the Vox retail store in CXR, later proprietor of Macari's Musical Exchanges) in which he claimed that he had the Antoria for sale as a secondhand item at the Vox shop and that it attracted a lot of attention because it was ex-Hank (even in the spring of 1959) and sold for more than it was objectively worth.

But since he also (in the same interview) said that he (Larry Macari, of the Vox retail store) had ordered and supplied that first Strat (which is known not to be true), how much credence one gives the story is a matter of opinion. I suppose it is possible that Larry bought the Antoria from Hank for a tenner.