Fiesta red (again)

[Didier]

Every Shadows' fan knows that the Shadows received from JMI (Vox) a set of fiesta red guitars around march/april 1961, after JMI became UK distributor for Fender Guitar. Hank and Bruce then received their famous Strats with rosewood fingerboard, which they used until they got the Burns in 1964.

Looking more closely at an old interview of Hank Marvin in a French magazine I found something interesting about the fiesta red colour :
L'interdit venait juste d'être levé et les gens de chez Vox s'étaient assurés l'exclusivité sur l'importation du matériel Fender. Les premiers colis contenaient quelques Precision Bass, quelques Stratocaster et des Telecaster. C'est pourquoi, afin de faire une publicité pour la gamme Fender, Bruce posa avec une Telecaster et Jet avec une Precision Bass. Pendant ce temps on nous faisait spécialement peindre en rouge deux Stratocaster et une Precision Bass pour que nous ayions tous trois des instruments de même couleur. On les reçus quelques jours plus tard. C'est ainsi que je rendis ma première Strato, qui ne m'appartenait pas vraiment, à Cliff Richard.

Translation :
The (import) ban had just been removed, and people at Vox got an exclusive import contract for Fender products. The first packages contained some Precision Bass, some Stratocaster and Telecaster. This is why Bruce was shot with a Telecaster and Jet with a Precision Bass to promote the Fender range. Meanwhile two stratocaster and one Precision Bass were specially painted in fiesta red for us so we would all have a guitar of the same colour. We got them a few days later. So I gave back to Cliff my first Strat which wasn't really mine.

This confirms that Strats which were imported by JMI in UK (probably mostly sunburst) were repainted when needed in fiesta red to match the demand for this colour, and that the Shadows' guitars were part of the repainted ones !
What the story doesn't tell is if the fiesta red colour used in UK was exactly the same as the one used in the Fender factory...

BTW, the interviewer was no one else than guitarist Marcel Dadi, one of the best European finger picking specialist who died in the crash of flight TWA 800 in 1996, when coming back from Nasville where he was just introduced to the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Didier

[GoldenStreet]

This confirms that Strats which were imported by JMI in UK (probably mostly sunburst) were repainted when needed in fiesta red to match the demand for this colour, and that the Shadows' guitars were part of the repainted ones !
What the story doesn't tell is if the fiesta red colour used in UK was exactly the same as the one used in the Fender factory...

Didier

Presumably, Didier, the respraying was actually done by Fender, rather than in the UK after the guitars arrived here.

On another point, as far as the importation of Fender instruments is concerned, weren't Arbiter also involved in this, although it could have been at a later date?

Bill

[JimN]

Jennings had the first Fender franchise for the UK, but Selmer London were also awarded a concurrent franchise by Fender.

The main difference in the companys' behaviours was that Selmer stuck to the big sellers (Stratocaster, Jazzmaster, Precision and Jazz Bass, then later, from 1962, the Jaguar) and didn't even list other models in their Fender brochure. Additionally, they didn't list the Fender amp or accessory range, presumably not wanting to have two competing ranges within their offerings. It is possible that they would have obtained other models to order, but they didn't feature in their general plans.

Jennings, on the other hand, not only listed and stocked the "other" Fender guitars (Musicmaster, Duosonic, Telecaster, Esquire, Bass VI and - later - the Harmony-built semi-acoustic Regal* model), but also made a big thing of the amplifier range, from the Deluxe right up to the Dual Showman, though in keeping with Fender's own promotional practice, they never stated the power output of any of them in promo material - just the number of tube-equivalents.

In about 1964, and partly because Fender was peeved by Jennings' production of an "American" range of guitars (the Soundcaster, Symphonic Bass, New Escort, Consort and a Jazz Bass-alike) which were as near as anyone got to direct copies of Fenders in those days, they removed the franchise from JMI and from Selmer (perhaps sensing a conflict with Selmer's commitment to Gibson) awarding instead a single franchise to Arbiter (later Dallas-Arbiter). Arbiter is associated - through no fault of their own - with the CBS-era of poorer-quality Fender guitars. Perhaps Jennings and Selmer got off lightly.

JN




[* The Fender Regal was a re-badged Harmony H75. I've never seen one in the flesh. It was in the JMI brochure.]

[** I know some people love those 1970s-style guitars. Most don't, and for good reason. I had a new 1975 Strat. I grew to hate it. My 1984 Tokai copy is a better guitar.]

[Didier]

This confirms that Strats which were imported by JMI in UK (probably mostly sunburst) were repainted when needed in fiesta red to match the demand for this colour, and that the Shadows' guitars were part of the repainted ones !
What the story doesn't tell is if the fiesta red colour used in UK was exactly the same as the one used in the Fender factory...

Didier

Presumably, Didier, the respraying was actually done by Fender, rather than in the UK after the guitars arrived here.

There has been a few testimonies about the guitars being resprayed in UK. Most Strats were made in sunburst, and according to Hank's interview, the guitars which were repainted for them came from JMI.

Urban legand has it that English guitar shops found it easier to sell guitars that looked like Hank Marvin's Fiesta Red Stratocaster, than the standard sunburst finished Strat. Therefore, a lot of Fender Strats were rumored to be refinished from Sunburst to red on arrival in the UK to match Hank Marvin's guitar. The resulting color used by the Fender UK importers was not as red as Fender's factory "Fiesta Red", and was more of a "Salmon Pink" color. This of course added more to the confusion about what exactly Fiesta Red was, and the Salmon Pink color rumor.

Most of the red UK painted Strats where done right over the original sunburst. Also the UK painters did not seem to use the "nail hole" method of painting these guitars (lucky for us). Hence these 1960s refinished-when-new UK Strats will usually have painted nail holes, red-over-sunbuarst, and non-Tolex/weird cases. Therefore they are pretty easy to identify.

So is this "English refinished Fiesta Red" story rumor or fact? I personally tend to believe the story, as I received an email from an english gentlemen that claimed he worked for Selmer in the UK, and he in fact did some of the refinish work. I also owned a red-over-sunburst 1961 Strat in a Selmer case. But that's the only real proof I have that the story is true. Otherwise the jury is still out on this. But if the story is true, regardless, these English-refinished-red Strats are *not* factory original Fiesta Red guitars, and hence must be considered a "refin". Now if the nail holes are clear and present, I would consider it "original". But if there's no nail holes (or painted nail holes), by definition it's refinished and not original.
Source

Didier

[s4wgb]

Very interesting guys.Makes you think

[Mike Honey]

So if I want to re-spray my sunburst strat, am I better off just sanding it lightly (in order to take the paint), rather than taking it back to bare wood??

And what colour red can I use?
mike

[GoldenStreet]

Just to think that if #34346 had been in sunburst, like Buddy's, the great respray debate would never have taken place!

Bill

[Uncle Fiesta]

Mike, you can buy the correct colour paint these days:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FIESTA-RED-Ce ... 2c6596b1e2

And it's even cellulose, just like the original!

[Mike Honey]

thanks Steve, that links to a very interesting site!

I think i will leave my sunburst as it is (the colour wont do anything to improve my playing!!!)

mike

[RUSSET]

I understand from a friend that Ford do a Fiesta Red spray can, currently, that applies to their 'Ka' range of vehicles.