The ShadowMusic Web Community

Thumbing through this web site produced this little snippet:

http://www.gear4music.com/news/article/ ... 2010-03-04

Guitarist magazine did an interview with Bruce some years back, and he told a different story. In short, after reviving Cliff's career in the mid 70's, Cliff asked was there anything he could do for him? Bruce referred to the original strat which Cliff dug out from a cupboard and to Bruce's dismay, had been resprayed white, but he got it anyway ......... and he said he was keeping it.

There was a subsequent article in Guitarist by Cliff, who had a different recollection, so who really knows.

Could that have been the reason for the falling out between Hank and Bruce?!

No.

AlanMcKillop wrote:Guitarist magazine did an interview with Bruce some years back, and he told a different story. In short, after reviving Cliff's career in the mid 70's, Cliff asked was there anything he could do for him? Bruce referred to the original strat which Cliff dug out from a cupboard and to Bruce's dismay, had been resprayed white, but he got it anyway ......... and he said he was keeping it.

That's the story I have always heard.
If Cliff wanted the guitar back, he would ask for it...

BTW, the wasn't an import ban on American guitars, there was only currency exchange controls, and the amount of pounds you could use to buy US goods was strictly limited. I guess that Cliff was able to pay in dollars when he bought the Strat for Hank in 1959.
When restrictions were lifted in 1961, JMI beacame a Fender distributor for UK.

Didier

.... and you couldn't buy one in Canada because?

Cliff paid in sterling, from memory, in the region of £149. Pictures of the receipt are in a number of publications.

I like the pact story. It's still in the family, so to speak. Actually, does the 'longest survivor keeps it' remind anyone of the Tontine in The Wrong Box?

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.

Following on from this welcome return to import normality, the issue for Sept 19th 1959 is the first to include various dealer ads declaring either "orders taken for US guitars" or that they are "in stock now". Subsequent ads list new electrics from Gibson, Guild, Harmony and Vega, while Ivor Mairants is the first shop ad to show Fender, this being in the June 18th 1960 edition.

Incidentally, the first Jennings block advert to feature Fender instruments appears in the issue dated July 30th 1960, the same week that Apache enters the Melody Maker Top 20 at number 15.