Who owns it..Hank or Bruce?? read on ..

[Didier]

As I said, Hank 'acquired one of his own', not 'bought', which would've been a bit stingy on the part of Jennings, who were already well aware of the value of artist endorsements. Hank's freebie/loaner was obviously a bit special, because in the book 'The Shadows By Themselves' he describes it as having an ebony fingerboard, so presumably Jennings must've found him one with a smoother than usual length of rosewood!

May be that Hank thought it was ebony, when it was rosewood...

By the way, Jennings first ad to feature Fender guitars appeared in July 1960, this being about a year after the import embargo on US goods had officially been lifted by the British Board Of Trade.

Not sure there was import embargo, but rather currency exchange restrictions. I think there was a very limited amount of pounds you could exchange for dollars, making it very difficult to import something from the US, unless if you had dollars...
These restrictions also existed for other European currencies (includind the French Franc) and were lifted in december 1958.

Didier

[Paul Childs]

Has Cliff ever been asked why he had 34346 resprayed white?
Could have been because at the time late 60s / early 70s red guitars became unfashionable.

[donna plasky]

I happened to find this video on YouTube and I thought I would post a copy. It seems to be from 1993. You all may have seen it many times before, I don't know...to me, lots of Shadows stuff seems new . At about the 3:00 minute mark, Bruce is holding a red Strat and is referring to it as the first Strat in the UK, etc., but perhaps he is speaking metaphorically, not literally.

I know nothing about who does or does not have the guitar these days. I am just sharing this video because I enjoyed it. Their choice of backing track was interesting...they're playing the instrumental version of Wired For Sound, from the "Hank Plays Cliff" album. Good song, but odd selection.

Best wishes,
Donna

[GoldenStreet]

Judging by Bruce's loving touch, that would certainly seem to be THE strat at that time!

Although I've heard them before, Bruce's final comments say a lot...

Bill

[Hank2k]

Has Cliff ever been asked why he had 34346 resprayed white?
Could have been because at the time late 60s / early 70s red guitars became unfashionable.

I think it was because in the late 60s it was just a tool it belonged to cliff and wanted it sprayed white. I doubt very much if anyone thought that 50 plus years on we would all be talking about it and it's influence on us all

[Paul Childs]

34346, the guitar that played lead on all those early hits has spent most of it's life playing rythm guitar.

[dusty fretz]

Didier,
Earlier in this thread (back in March 2010) you raised the question of whether an import ban was in operation in the UK after the war and I duly replied as follows:

"Referring to the points raised by Didier regarding the reason why US instruments were unavailable in the UK at the time, a trawl through relevant back issues of Melody Maker uncovers some very informative facts.

The issue dated June 6th 1959 includes the following article: "The Board of Trade this week announced the lifting of the import ban on many goods, including records, instruments, radio and television apparatus, recording tape and gramophones from the dollar areas." This embargo appears to have been instituted in 1951, again as confirmed by an appropriate Melody Maker article from that year."

It therefore seems strange that the British Board Of Trade would refer to something by name if it didn't actually exist! Your comments suggest things were different in France and elsewhere, but as stated above, here in the UK official imports from America certainly weren't allowed until after June 6th 1959. The reason for this ban was obviously all about national and international economics after the war, but the actual embargo was very real and indeed quite rigorously enforced via regular inspections of shop stocks etc.

[Didier]

Didier,
Earlier in this thread (back in March 2010) you raised the question of whether an import ban was in operation in the UK after the war and I duly replied as follows:

"Referring to the points raised by Didier regarding the reason why US instruments were unavailable in the UK at the time, a trawl through relevant back issues of Melody Maker uncovers some very informative facts.

The issue dated June 6th 1959 includes the following article: "The Board of Trade this week announced the lifting of the import ban on many goods, including records, instruments, radio and television apparatus, recording tape and gramophones from the dollar areas." This embargo appears to have been instituted in 1951, again as confirmed by an appropriate Melody Maker article from that year."

It therefore seems strange that the British Board Of Trade would refer to something by name if it didn't actually exist! Your comments suggest things were different in France and elsewhere, but as stated above, here in the UK official imports from America certainly weren't allowed until after June 6th 1959. The reason for this ban was obviously all about national and international economics after the war, but the actual embargo was very real and indeed quite rigorously enforced via regular inspections of shop stocks etc.

You are certainly right, but the currency exchange restriction also existed.
BTW, I went to England every summer between 1956 and 1965, and I remember well the "buy British" campaign in the early sixties...
This is why when I first saw the Shadows in 1964 with new "Burns London" guitars, I though they had been asked to "buy British" !...

Didier

[RayL]

After World War 2, Britain was heavily in debt to the USA. Recovery during the 1950s was very slow - food was rationed for many years and there were still bomb sites in London awaiting redevelopment in the 1960s. The import ban was a way of preventing sterling being spent abroad.

Although The Shadows (and Hank and Bruce in particular) were very much part of Cliff's stage presentation and they were 'all friends together' when on stage and touring, there was a huge difference between the money that Cliff earned and the wages of The Shadows.

If The Shadows had not had hits in their own right (with all the sponsorship and free gear that followed), how long would Hank have had to wait before he could have afforded a top-of-the-range Strat from his own earnings?

Ray

[Didier]

If The Shadows had not had hits in their own right (with all the sponsorship and free gear that followed), how long would Hank have had to wait before he could have afforded a top-of-the-range Strat from his own earnings?

Ray

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to speak with Bruce Welch, and I asked him : "in 1960, at the time of Apache recording, did Hank had enough money to buy a Gretsch guitar ?", the answer was : "no, he bought it later".

The 1958 fiesta red Strat that Hank bought in Paris from Patrice Bastien on december 5th 1980 for 14,000 FF was paid by Polydor.

Didier