Fiesta Red???

[Didier]

With all this discussion about the colour of 34346 at the time of its purchase, are there no high-quality colour photographs from that time (preferably with other objects in the picture to give a colour reference)?

Colour films had little stability at this time, and didn't age well.

Hank's own comment in the 1980s was that ". . . . when it arrived the body was coloured flamingo pink, not an unsubtle red"
Ray

I remember that when I saw it on stage at the Paris Olympia in 1961, it looked more red than pink.

Didier

[dave robinson]

With all this discussion about the colour of 34346 at the time of its purchase, are there no high-quality colour photographs from that time (preferably with other objects in the picture to give a colour reference)?

Colour films had little stability at this time, and didn't age well.

Hank's own comment in the 1980s was that ". . . . when it arrived the body was coloured flamingo pink, not an unsubtle red"
Ray

I remember that when I saw it on stage at the Paris Olympia in 1961, it looked more red than pink.

Didier

The colour of the stage lighting effects the 'redness' or 'pinkness' of out guitars - ~I have noticed that a blue wash filter will make the guitar look more red and there's another that makes the guitar appear pink, but I can't be certain which, I have noticed all of our lighting variations make the fiesta red on our instruments change to the naked eye. The only way is to take a picture in pure daylight, as I did with our 1959 fiesta red Strat - that's the one . . . . Why ? Because it's what it is !

[Didier]

With all this discussion about the colour of 34346 at the time of its purchase, are there no high-quality colour photographs from that time (preferably with other objects in the picture to give a colour reference)?

Colour films had little stability at this time, and didn't age well.

Hank's own comment in the 1980s was that ". . . . when it arrived the body was coloured flamingo pink, not an unsubtle red"
Ray

I remember that when I saw it on stage at the Paris Olympia in 1961, it looked more red than pink.

Didier

The colour of the stage lighting effects the 'redness' or 'pinkness' of out guitars

There was no stage "colour lighting effects" used at the Paris Olympia in 1961 when I attended the Shadows' concert !...

Didier

[ecca]

When I saw them at Cannock in 1960 the colour burned into my brain was PINK , not red.
I didn't see the right colour again until 2000 .
I remember some dope telling me ; " Well Mark Knopfler said it was it red, " like his colour vision was any the better than mine because he was famous.

[Derek Misselbrook]

I reckon the guitar Hank got form the states is not the colour as I and loads of other people remember it, his was brought back from the States,it was sprayed from new in the states.... I bet all the Strats I saw were resprayed in the UK , hence the pinkish colour we all remember, I don't care what anyone say's, what I saw all those years ago was very pink, not the Fiesta Red we see today.............Unless....................Our eyes are all knackered.......... :D

[JimN]

Derek, those photos of Coral Pink Strats (and the Vox guitars) were taken in the USA!

And many of the pink guitars (especially Jaguars, Jazzmasters and Jazz Basses) had painted headstocks, which would have required a replacement decal - unlikely in the circumstances, wouldn't you say?

JN

[keithmantle]

There is a good colour photo of 34346 on page 152 Haynes fender strat manual and it looks the colour of todays 56 NOS's, definately not 'pink' !!

[dave robinson]

Didier wrote;

"There was no stage "colour lighting effects" used at the Paris Olympia in 1961 when I attended the Shadows' concert !..."

OK, so they played in the dark ?

[JimN]

There is a good colour photo of 34346 on page 152 Haynes fender strat manual and it looks the colour of todays 56 NOS's, definately not 'pink' !!

But surely, since 34346 is known to have been refinished twice and since Paul Balmer took those pictures in quite recent times, there is no suggestion that they represent any of the historic guitars shown in his books in original condition?

JN

[Didier]

Didier wrote;

"There was no stage "colour lighting effects" used at the Paris Olympia in 1961 when I attended the Shadows' concert !..."

OK, so they played in the dark ?

No, there was only normal lighting, no "colour" effects...
And also, the PA was used for voices only, the Shadows' amps were not miked. They only had their AC30s to fill the 2,000 seats venue, and it was enough...
Things have changed a lot since then !

Didier