Bruce's Decision to Play a Stratocaster

[shadows_guitarist]

Is it true that the white Fenders (only the Strats probably?) had white scratchplates but they were changed to tortoiseshell? I've never seen a pic of the Shads with this combination.

[Paul Childs]

Is it true that the white Fenders (only the Strats probably?) had white scratchplates but they were changed to tortoiseshell? I've never seen a pic of the Shads with this combination.

From what I can remember, I think it was only for a very short period.
I can vaguely remember seeing them this way on a TV show with Cliff, I was only 10 at the time so I cannot remember a lot about the show or what the show was. I know they played The Boys and Cliff did a version of Walk Right In with them.

[dave robinson]

I saw them on the Palladium with white Strats with dark pick-guards, probably a sweetner for the new Burns guitars that followed. I think they played either Shindig or Dance On, can't quite remember.

[Gary Allen]

white pickguard

[Gary Allen]

[Paul Childs]

Read somewhere a while back about 12 years or so ago ( I think it may have been in one of those UB Hank magazines) that the pickguards were custom black and not tortoiseshell?
It was difficult to tell back in the early 60s with black & white TV that wasn't always a clear picture.

[JimN]

Read somewhere a while back about 12 years or so ago ( I think it may have been in one of those UB Hank magazines) that the pickguards were custom black and not tortoiseshell?

They were brown tortoiseshell - similar in appearance to the material later used for the Marvins.

Definitely.

JN

BTW:

[shadows_guitarist]

Thanks for the pics, Gary and Jim. The photo of Hank with the white pickguard Strat must be the rarest one I've seen! Did Bruce and Licorice's guitars also have white pickguards?

[George Geddes]

No, the P Bass always had the tortoiseshell pickguard - the Strats were white originally.

Several years ago, I had to send a photo to Bruce showing the all-white Strats, as he was convinced they had never used them...

George

[cockroach]

There were a few Fiesta red Precisions with white scratchplates- my bass playing bandmate has one which he bought in 1964 along with his sunburst Bass VI.

Maybe they changed to tortoiseshell plates instead of the white ones because people might have got the Shads confused with the Fentones!!