Could you describe Hank or Bruce as also being.......

[Moderne]

Hi Simon. The story is part of Shadows folklore...!
Marvin, Welch, Farrar were appearing at the London Palladium in, I think, early 1972. One night their roadie's van was broken into outside his house (can't remember his name - if Stuart Duffy reads this I'm sure he'll be able to improve on this story!). The thieves stole several Marvin guitars but couldn't manage the original Strat (34346) which Bruce had borrowed from Cliff and which they were using as a spare. Having no electric guitar to play, Hank borrowed the Strat which he'd originally played 10+ years earlier and liked it so much that he (and John Farrar) decided to buy new Fenders from Barretts in Manchester (the Burns Baldwin operation had ceased by then). I don't think Hank was too bothered as he'd never been totally happy with his Burns Marvins. Hank's new Strat was white but he later had it sprayed black and modified by Roka Sounds in Denmark Street. He used it throughout the rest of the 70s until he bought an original red Fender Stratocaster around 1980 (from Patrice, a member of this site). He also bought a sunburst Strat from Tony Hicks a few years later. He used these guitars until the Fender Signature Strats started to be made around the end of the 80s and has played those ever since.

That's the history of Hank's electric guitar usage from 1972 onwards - as I understand it...but I stand to be corrected!

[GoldenStreet]

This thread from 2013, amongst several others, refers to the topic of the stolen equipment...

viewtopic.php?f=11&t=9260&p=65747&hilit=roadie#p65747

Bill