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Quote from story on Cliff and his ‘Great 80’ tour by David Wigg in the Daily Mail:

‘He is particularly excited that the new tour will feature the priceless red Fender Stratocaster that Sir Cliff bought for Hank Marvin to play when he was in The Shadows in the late Fifties. The first Stratocaster to be imported into Britain, it is a piece of rock history’

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... stage.html

Surely Bruce has been using 34346 for years on stage? Maybe Hank is going to use it...

Doubt it. Cliff refers to “his band” throughout the interview. His band of late has been much younger than he is. If Bruce or Hank were going to be there I’m sure much would have been made of it! I guess it’s just as the article says: the guitar is going to appear.

OK, so in that case Bruce will be giving Cliff the guitar (34346) back for use during the tour.

Yes. I don’t think that’ll be a problem. It’s a well-hyped yarn!

Sir Cliff says: ‘I think the public will find it interesting that this beautiful guitar, which became a rock ’n’ roll symbol, still plays so well.’

It won't come as a surprise to most of us... nor, I suspect to many of those who will be at Cliff's concerts... having seen it (and heard it) pretty regularly during the 70s and 80s every year or so!

Yes, this is intriguing and I can only imagine that Cliff himself will be playing it... although it would be nice if either Hank or Bruce could get up and give it a little twang or a strum!

Here's Bobby Harrison who plays lead guitar for Cliff. Well worth a look.

https://youtu.be/X8FedS6kpl4

Hopefully a member of this forum will see the tour, and post a report. It would be nice to see Cliff play the guitar. Even nicer to see Bruce appear, but as he will be 80 in November and I believe he considers himself to have retired, sadly I think this is unlikely. But….one never knows…..and hope springs eternal?

Kindest regards,
Christopher

A lot of fuss about very little I'm afraid. Bobby Harrision played 34346 upside down on Do You Want To Dance, Gee Whiz and Please Don't Tease and it sounded like all his other guitars to me.
Perhaps just an excuse to get it back.

dave robinson wrote:A lot of fuss about very little I'm afraid. Bobby Harrision played 34346 upside down on Do You Want To Dance, Gee Whiz and Please Don't Tease and it sounded like all his other guitars to me.
Perhaps just an excuse to get it back.

I've just seen a bit of footage on Facebook. Harrison indeed plays it upside-down - properly upside-down! It appears to still be strung right-handed! I can't tell from the video how he's wearing the strap. It's clever however he's doing it, because even with Cliff's track record of spoiling that guitar, like hell would they drill a hole in the wrong horn!