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Robb writes:
"Marvin and his fiesta red Strat. If memory serves, wasnt his accquiring
the famous red one a 'take what you can get' story? If anyone knows the
details, please share them!"
No, Cliff Richard special-ordered the Strat for Hank direct from the
Fender company, since there was an import ban on US-instruments in the UK
then (which was to lapse in '60 or '61). This was in '59. Hank and the
other Shads picked a Strat for him cause they probably had the '58
catalog, and they simply ordered the top of the line Fender - a custom
color Strat w/ gold hardware. If they had a '59 catalog, Hank would have
probably been playing a Jazzmaster! Anyway, they were big fans of James
Burton (in addition to Buddy Holly), who they knew played a Fender, but
didn't know which model. Being that Burton was so famous, they figured he
would be playing the top of the line model! Only later did they find that
he was actually playing a Tele! (a thought: remember that Gene Vincent's
Blue Caps also got matching Fenders sometime in '58 or '59, and they
weren't from SoCal)
Now, I'm pretty sure that a Strat was about the same price as most of the
Gretsches at the time. I don't think there was a big (or any) price
differential, and Guilds were not very highly thought of at the
time. It's true that the older guys that liked jazz and maybe country
didn't pay much attention to Fenders and probably thought of them as cheap
cause they were solidbodies, but I hardly think that proves them to be
cheap guitars. They were still expensive.
Anyway, besides the success of the Ventures pushing the Fenders (and I
thought we were talking about all Fenders, not just Strats - after all,
Strats were Fender's top of the line instrument from '54 to '59, and even
after that weren't much cheaper from their top of the line Jazzmasters and
Jaguars), we must remember the success of James Burton playing a Strat,
and the Beach Boys - those were the trend-setters of the time. And even
the jazz players started playing the Fender basses in the early sixties.
In Europe on the other hand, once the Hank-mania died down, Fenders were
still in the public eye with Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page all
playing Teles during their Yardbirds days, and even George Harrison
showing up with a Strat in the Magical Mystery Tour movie and associated
videos, and then in the Let It Be movie with a Rosewood Tele. The Kinks
were also playing Teles on occasion. So the Fenders were not exactly
unknown outside of SoCal until Hendrix came about!
