Bruce Welch - Two Early Time Guitars.

[bosunbob]

We've been musing on here about the Fender Telecaster as was used on the cover of the Shadows first
album release and in other examples, with much speculation, but with no real conclusion thus far.

For a short while and before the uniformity of the Shadows adopting all three guitars
painted red - two Stratocasters and a P Bass, there is another guitar being played
in the hands of Bruce Welch - a brown Sunburst Fender Jazzmaster.
Is there any information available about this particular guitar?

Cheers.
Bruce Gibbins.

[Didier]

I have never found any information about Bruce's Jazzmaster he got somehere in 1960.

Didier

[RUSSET]

Hi Bruce,
I met Jet Harris about 10-12 years ago at the Guitar show at the NEC, Birmingham, & had a good chat, inc. what happened to the original Fender guitars they used in those days. He told me that they were 'given' to them 'for free', which
I took to mean that they were some of the first Fenders to actually be acquired by the Vox amp company, who had the first import franchise agreement with Fender, after import restrictions were lifted by the government around that time.

As Vox were already supplying the amps to the Drifters/Shadows, & getting the advertising benefit from their enormous popularity, I believe that Bruce & Jet received the Jazzmaster & P. Bass to co-ordinate a full Fender compliment to the band. I also believe that when the band later received the full set of Fiesta Red matching Rosewood board models, the old sunburst pair were returned to Vox, who subsequently sold them on. So, they were in effect on loan from Vox. Of course, Hank's '59 Strat was never acquired via Vox, but by Cliff, bought direct from Fender.

The Jazzmaster was eventually acquired by the Lead guitarist of The Hunters, Brian Parker, from Cheshunt (rings a bell) who had success with their instrumental 'The Storm' . He is visible with a Sunburst Jazzmaster on their EP cover. They were the backing band for Dave Sampson, as the Shads were for Cliff. I presume Brian bought it from Vox afterwards, but this is my speculation.

Tony.

[bosunbob]

Hello Tony.
Many thanks for the detailed account of Bruce's Jazzmaster.
What better way for Vox to promote sales of Fender than to have their guitars in
the playing hands of a quickly rising band - The Shadows. It all makes sence to me now.
Thanks, Tony and Didier too.
Cheers.
Bruce Gibbins.

[JimN]

Bruce once told me that his sunburst Jazzmaster was his own property (and that by extension, the sunburst Precision Bass was Jet's own property).

This made sense, because those two instruments arrived some time after the arrival of the original red Stratocaster but without being part of a whole new matching set, meaning that Cliff's Strat was not affected. Bruce added that he couldn't remember what happened to the Jazzmaster, but was quite sure that it had been his. The implication is that Jenning's offer of the matching set (on loan) freed up the return of 34346 to Cliff, and allowed Bruce to dispose of his sunburst Fender (presumably with Jet doing something similar with the Precision).

[RUSSET]

Hi Jim,
That complicates the story a bit. Now , I'm not sure whether it's Jet's or Bruce's version is correct. I am wondering whether the two Shads would have had enough personal wealth to buy the Fenders at that point in their career. Didn't Bruce mention once that they were on £25 a week as wages from Cliff. That was a decent wage for a musician at that time in history, compared to average industrial wages, but with daily expenses, travelling up & down the country, rent for their homes in London etc., it would still have have made a new Fender guitar a rather expensive outlay. We do know that the F. Red matching set were presented on loan for the band to use, & were the great advertising opportunity for JMI, the Vox company.
Maybe that's what Jet meant when he told me they were 'for free'. We also know that Vox amps inc. spare sets were taken on tours, so JMI were obviously finding that the advertising benefits were paying off well. In the first few years after the Shads hit the scene, I can remember that every young guitarist was desperately trying to own one (if Dad came up with the cash or signed a Hire Purchase agreement).
When I checked the music store windows in 1963, an F. Red Strat was 160 gns. I think I am still inclined to think that all the Fenders they used were supplied on loan from JMI & returned when they were replaced.

Tony.

[JimN]

The management company would have seen to all reasonable business expenses. They were already providing amplifiers (Selmers, the first Voxes, etc).

Additionally, when Bruce and Jet first received the sunburst Fenders (not long after filming "Expresso Bongo"), they were still "just Cliff's backing band" and not regarded as the great role models they became just months later.

[bosunbob]

Tony & JimN

Confusing.
Do I have this right - Jet Harris said in a face to face conversation that the (sunburst) Fenders were loaned out,
by the importer.
And in yet another, separate conversation with Bruce Welch, that the Jazzmaster was in his ownership.
How does that work - it can't be both, surely?
But perhaps it can.
Jet told Tony that the (Sunburst) Fenders were on loan.
Bruce talks to Jim about the Jazzmaster being his own property and that he didn't know
what happened to this instrument.
Yet apparently the Bruce Jazzmaster ended up somewhere to be on-sold to a named individual.
If this were so, it would seem that, Jet received a loaned out instrument and Bruce was given his
and became his personal property or he bought it outright. On the surface I can't see the situation
going down quite that way.
Personal ownership seems inconsistent with the subsequient Red Fenders being loaned and with Jets experience
which seems the most likely of the two possibilities. For Bruce to have an established ownership his disposal of the guitar
would most likely be known to him because he had a personal interest in the guitar.
It's really quite remarkable just how clear the recall is of Shadows band members and Jet Harris.
Perhaps, what Bruce may have been saying was that the Jazzmaster was his because he is the Shadow who received
the guitar from VOX for his use - if that makes sence. Like, I can't see any reason why Bruce would want to buy his guitar when he could
use it without laying down any scratch just for the pleasure of owning the instrument?
Or: perhaps Bruce was given his Jazzmaster to keep and wasn't expected to pay for it.

So, those are my choices and for what they're worth.

Cheers
Bruce.

[bor64]

Bruce,

Everything depends on memory and if a item was important or not, noticed or not.
Bruce denied decades he used the tele for more as a loan for the cover-photo sessions.
Then a fan showed him pictures and later footage , his answer is not really suited for print
In those hasty misty times when they had to race from gig to gig, they didn't take notice....to give us the details decades later.
Hank told me once he never ever tried a VOX LT echo....well nearly a correct statement ...he use one in a different kind of box.
When I spoke with Hank about guitars he used on gigs that were filmed, so easy to proof...he almost every time he had trouble with the facts.
A sample, the 1984 together video, he was convinced he used his double six with the bass set strings in redburst.
It took 4 peeps to get his memory corrected, we told him nope it was the 1964 greenburst with the rezotube (this talk was pre 2009) with normal set of 12 strings.
His answer was just "really did I use the green one?"
This things are not important for the guys at that time and now even lesser.
We the trainspotters aka tiny detail brigade .....are discussing these things to death.
Owning a guitar that cost you 5 or 6 weeks wages, seems unlikely as stated before.

Cheers Rob

[RUSSET]

Yes, it is obviously difficult for them to remember the finer details from all that way back. I'm sure, at the time they had more important things on their minds. Like getting on with becoming famous, & making hit records. In the end, we cannot be anoraks about this stuff; it takes away from what we all love best, their superb music & the legacy they left us. I guess many of us would not even have taken up the guitar if we hadn't seen those four fabulous lads on the black & white TV all those years ago, & been amazed at the new sounds we were hearing. It was now OUR music & no longer that of our Mums & Dads.

Tony.