Hank's Black Strat

[petercreasey]

Out of interest, I'm sure some of you boffins out there will be able to tell me..... How long did Hank play a Black strat?

Thanks

[dave robinson]

It was originally a white Strat which he told me in Sheffield he bought at Barratts of Manchester. It was sprayed black after I had seen him and fitted with various configurations of humbuckers and single coil pickups, the next time I saw it was on the 20 Golden Greats tour. Others around here I'm sure will have more detail - Stuart D, Jim N, Where are you ?

[iefje]

It was black in 1975, when Hank used it on The Shadows' concerts in June at the Paris Olympia. I think it had the two humbuckers then, one near the bridge and one near the neck, with (I think) a standard Fender pick-up in the middle. It still had this configuration, when The Shadows recorded the promotional videoclip for "It'll Be Me Babe", in 1976, or maybe late 1975. This particular videoclip featured Hank, Bruce, Brian and Alan Tarney, John Farrar having left the group to emigrate to the United States. When Hank used it again in 1977, I think he replaced the humbuckers with, what appear to be Fender pick-ups, but I'm not sure. Guitar experts on this forum will know better than I do!

[Hank2k]

is this the one thats now sunburst owned by Ben Marvin?

[JimN]

lefje and Robbo are both right. The guitar was still finished in blonde/white, and fitted with a Gibson humbucker in the bridge position, when it made its media debut in early 1974 (for promos of Jungle Jam, etc). It was still in the same finish in late 1974 when I saw Hank and John Farrar at the Bailey's nightclub in Liverpool, but was then equipped with a Fender Wide Range h/b in the bridge position and the Gibson unit had been moved to the neck position. The scratchplate was the original Fender tortoiseshell. This was before Fender dropped tort in favour of black.

It made its first appearance in black in 1975, as described above (and the metal parts had been gold-plated, with the [IMHO] poor-quality Fender tuners replaced by premium Schaller machines. The guitar stayed like that at least half-way into 1976, until that It'll Be Me Babe video was made (at the old ITN studio in Wells Street).

The first time I saw the guitar with three single-coils was for the "Twenty Golden Dates" tour, now also fitted with a replacement black pickguard.

If it is the same guitar used by Ben in the 1990s, only the body remains. He was using a different neck, different pickguard, different pickups and different hardware (as well as a different finish)!

JN

[StuartD]

Spot on Jim. The work on it was done by Ron Roka. Hank bought it at the same time as John Farrar bought his Telecaster from, as Dave said, Barratt's of Manchester. He told me he ought to but a guitar as, when the Burns were stolen, 'I didn't own a decent electric guitar'!!

Regards

Stuart

[petercreasey]

Thanks folks , Just wondered how long he used it for

[Geoff Alderton LH]

Hi Peter
The summer of 1972 to late 1981, aprox ten years. There is a picture of the Strat, in Barretts shop window along with the Tele John Farrer bought , on the Manchester Beat website.
He recorded some fantastic tracks with this guitar, Argentina, Deer Hunter,Riders In The Sky, Chi Mai, Summer Love 59, Misty, etc, etc the list goes on.
He then bought his 1958 Fiesa red , Maple neck Strat and the black one got put under the bed until Ben learned how to play.
Regards Geoff.

[petercreasey]

Thanks for that Geoff, That's just what I wanted to know, the reason being that on another thread the White Burns is referred to as iconic but wasn't used for as long as the black strat which is rarely mentioned.

Take care

[Simon Underwood]

I really liked the sound of that Strat in it's humbuckered state- I know it wasn't 'that sound', but the tone Hank was getting on Rockin' With Curly Leads, Specs Appeal and Tasty was superb.

I'm tempted to try and build a replica of it, although I'd probably have to settle for one of the reissue Wide Range humbuckers, as one of the originals would probably set me back an arm, a leg, and several major organs. It could also make playing the guitar a tad tricky.

Simon