by Allclaphands » 04 Aug 2016, 13:12
Having started out playing piano, clarinet, and banjo, his 16th birthday present was a Hofner f-hole acoustic, to which he attached a small pickup alongside the neck. Like most British guitars at the time, its strings were extremely heavy, in the neighborhood of .024.
That year, 1957, the bespectled teenager joined a skiffle group called the Railroaders, which included a young rhythm guitarist named Bruce Welch. Attempting to adapt to the newly amplified sounds of rock and roll, Marvin purchased an American-made Vega electric guitaro
Although he had piano lessons for three years from the age of eight, and later became enthusiastic about the clarinet, Hank Marvin's first musical instrument was a banjo which he bought from a teacher at school for £2/10/- (paid up at 2/6 per week). His first guitar was a 16th birthday present : an acoustic Hofner Congress which he equipped with a pick-up. He bought an American Vega guitar from Eddie Silver and used it on the 1958 Kalin Twins tour, before changing to a £30/00/- Antoria solid-body (also marketed as a Guyatone LG50): "It was a solid bodied guitar with a single cutaway, a very small body, and I believe it had two pickups. What attracted me was that it looked like a really good rock 'n' roll guitar. The neck looked enormous because the body was so small, and the machine heads were on one side like a Fender."
Anyone know about the American Vega guitar Hank used as mentioned in the above a lot is made of the Antoria
because it was used in the early recordings but not the Vega I don't know if there are any demo or recordings of it.
Pete
HANK.jpg
