50th Anniversary Fiesta Red

[John Boyd]

Dave,
Thank you for reminding me about the value of vintage Strats!!!
My very original '62, in Fiesta Red, was sold for 35 pounds in 1967 at a time when Les Pauls were flavour of the month.
I, like many others, regret my decision to this day.
These days I have to make do with reissues and at the moment, I have a CIJ '62 in as close a colour to my original as I have seen.
No point though, in posting a pic as they are notoriously difficult to capture the colour correctly.
Cheers,
JB

[ecca]

George, see this.....

http://www.concentric.net/~marlowe/curdef.shtml

[Amanda]

AAAAARRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!

SCREAMMMMM!!!


NOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Not the Fiesta Red thread again!!!!!

Please Mr Administrator can we please have a ban on Fiesta Red Threads!

One thing is definite though the 50th strat is a good match for Bruce's 34346,
perhaps it should be called "Bruce Red" or "Welch Red"!

Just think if a certain singer hadn't have painted it white, we'd all know exactly what it
looked like!

I tend to go with Dave Robinson on this one, backed up by several photos I've seen
of a 56 Ford Thunderbird in Fiesta Red.

Let's club together and buy the 56 Thunderbird, import it and we can all compare our
guitars with it, I'll look after It!!

Amanda

[Sleepwalker63]

curâ‹…mudgâ‹…eon - Pronunciation [ker-muhj-uhn]

–noun
a bad-tempered, difficult, cantankerous person.

[dave robinson]

The guitar in the photograph is an original untouched red 1959 Fender Strat and that's how it looks and always did, the lights on stage and the flash from a camera can alter the shade of red. The pictures taken of the two together are in daylight , without flash. The guitar that Bruce plays had a poor refinish regarding a colour match ( It's a darker red than the old photos that we have of the guitar on coloured record sleeves) and regardless of everybody's waining memories of what they think it should look like, this is the only actual 'hands on' example we have of an original from that year, unless anyone can point us into the direction of another - end of story. Sorry but there is no mystery.

[des mcneill]

Have looked at Dave's pictures,the colours look good to me.

Des.

[Geoff Alderton LH]

Hi all.
Jan 2010 edition of Guitar Buyer lets us know exactly how the Custom Red came about and was agreed apon by Bruce, Hank and Jet. It isnt Fenders Fiesta Red its a custom red as requested by the customer. If you havent read the article yet its worth finding a copy in your local W H Smiths and having a good read. Its a fitting tribute to a fantastic guitar that holds the top spot in the Shadows guitar history. Regards Geoff.

[Mike Honey]

I hope i'm not stating the obvious, but the design of the strat was based around the cool looking american cars of the time and used the same paints (dupont). The pigments in red paint have always caused problems and even today are prone to fading. The colour of any pre- CBS strat is going to be different now to when it was new. Makes matching a bit difficult!

Mike

[Geoff Alderton LH]

Hi Mike. You are correct in what you say about the change in colour over the years especialy the main body of the guitar but the bits under the pick guard, the neck plate and sometimes the neck pocket, do stay, in most cases, as per original. The guitar Dave speaks about is a fantastic piece of kit and the person who owns it is a luck man. I ocasionaly use one of the pictures of this guitar as a screen saver, when I want to look at a real vitage Strat.
Regards Geoff.

[Martyn]

If you care to look, I have placed some pictures in my gallery of a 1959 Fender Strat with a Brazilian rosewood board, which makes it just a month or two younger than the one that Hank had. The interesting thing is the colour, as it is almost an identical shade of red to my 1962 USA reissue from 1991 - which goes to prove that that Fender do remember the correct shade, it couldn't be that close by accident.
We sometimes use it on gigs and it sounds like no other Strat I've played - it's awesome!

Hi Dave,
That's pretty much exactly as I remember mine - presume the top one of the pair is the sixties strat as I'm fairly certain my trem arm's end shape was the same, with the less acute bend.
Cheers,
Martyn