Birds Eye Maple / Rosewood Neck

[Shadoogie]

I have often wondered about this.

Cliff bought Hank the famous stratocaster wit birds eye maple neck etc quite early on.

Yet there are many photographs of Hank and the Shadows - and film - of the use of a stratocaster with a rosewood neck.

How come the famous strat is not seemingly in use?

Just curious if the illustrious members here can shed light?

[Didier]

In 1961 JMI became UK distributor for Fender guitars, and supplied Hank and Bruce with a pair of rosewood neck fiesta red Strats in march or april 1961.
Hank then gave back the first maple neck Strat to Cliff, and Bruce stopped using the Jazzmaster he had before.
They kept using the rosewood neck Strats until 1964, when they switched to Burns guitars. Bruce complained about tuning problems with his Strat, and paid John Rostill an extra wage to tune the guitar for him before each concert.

Didier

[Shadoogie]

Thanks Didier.

Geoff

[MeBHank]

Although, Geoff, some of those "in the know" will tell you that Hank used Cliff's Strat in the studio for some time after the rosewood board guitars were obtained. As I understand it, the newer instruments were mainly used for performances. That makes sense to me. The Shads had continued to sharpen their presentation and everything had to match and be in good condition, from guitars to suits to shoes. Colin Pryce-Jones will wax lyrical about how much the Strats gleamed. I can't imagine those same immaculate guitars would be used every time the Shads needed an instrument (during composing, rehearsal, personal practise, recording, etc). Bruce carried on using Cliff's J200 in the studio for years so it is not hard to imagine that the original Strat would still be available for Hank's use for at least a while after he stopped using it on stage.

I am also convinced the same was true of the amplifiers. My belief is that the latest model AC30s were used live for cosmetic purposes but the band used older amps in the studio. That explains to me why we hear no Top Boost on the recordings made during the period in which we know Hank was using the TB pre-amp add-on for live shows (if the Wonderful Land amplifier didn't utilize the EF86 valve, as some have argued in the past, I'll eat my hat).

Careful now, I nearly started ranting there. I haven't ranted since the days of the old MSN ShadowMusic forum. Ah, the memories!

J

[abstamaria]

This is truly quite interesting.

Andy

[Shadoogie]

Thanks Justin - very en-lightening.

Geoff

[Bojan]

I agree totally with Justin because it seems so logical. This could also be one of the reasons why the Shadows had a diffent recorded sound and a different live sound; not only because of what the studio added to the recorded sound, but also because they used different guitars and different amps in the studio than during live concerts or on TV, where they had to pay more attention to their visual image. But their recorded sound kept changing and evolving so that we cannot know for sure even whether they used Strats or Burns guitars on certain numbers, let alone maple or rosewood necks . . .

[ernie1958]

I have often wondered about this.

Cliff bought Hank the famous stratocaster wit birds eye maple neck etc quite early on.

Yet there are many photographs of Hank and the Shadows - and film - of the use of a stratocaster with a rosewood neck.

How come the famous strat is not seemingly in use?

Just curious if the illustrious members here can shed light?

You know Geoff...now you mention this..I too have never understood why the "famous" red Strat had been "dropped" after some time
and been swapped for rosewood Strats and of course Burns.
If the first Strat that Hank got is supposed to be THAT great, you would have thought NO WAY he was gonna part with it!
I wouldn't have..
Anyway...Bruce still has it and as he said: "Hank's not getting it back.."

[abstamaria]

...But their recorded sound kept changing and evolving so that we cannot know for sure even whether they used Strats or Burns guitars on certain numbers, let alone maple or rosewood necks . . .

At least we're down to rosewood necks and EF86 valves. Imagine the problem of a Ventures historian, who is sometimes never quite sure who was playing in the studio.

Andy

[abstamaria]

You know Geoff...now you mention this..I too have never understood why the "famous" red Strat had been "dropped" after some time and been swapped for rosewood Strats and of course Burns. If the first Strat that Hank got is supposed to be THAT great, you would have thought NO WAY he was gonna part with it!
I wouldn't have.. Anyway...Bruce still has it and as he said: "Hank's not getting it back.."

Seriously, it was probably the allure of having a set of matching guitars. And in those days, the appeal of a new guitar must have been quite strong. Bob Bogle also swapped the Jazzmaster he used for Walk Don't Run for a newer model from Fender. That "Walk Don't Run" sunburst Jazzmaster is now gone forever.

I heard Hank say in a recent radio interview that Bruce has finally agreed that he just borrowed the guitar and will be returning it to Cliff. That seems a sore point among them.

Andy