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In the 2019 Hank Marvin interview subject of a recent post, Hank says that the color of the famous Strat was “Roman Red.” I wonder now if that’s true.

The story that Cliff and his manager ordered "Fiesta Red", which was the 1959 listed colour, but received an old-stock 1958 "Roman Red" makes more sense than any other explanation that I've heard.

There's no way of proving it of course but, while Fender "Fiesta Red" is a vague and variable colour, "Roman Red" (2931LH) was a standard Dupont colour (an option on the 1959 Chevrolet Corvette) and can be recreated precisely.

http://paintref.com/graphics/sample/cor ... WA2622.jpg

http://paintref.com/graphics/sample/cor ... WA2622.jpg

http://paintref.com/cgi-bin/paintdetail ... ont=2931LH

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DaveC.

An interesting article:

https://planetbotch.blogspot.com/2014/0 ... d.html?m=1

On the TV programme about the Chirping Crickets Album Cliff said that the ordered the Fender Stratocater thinking it would be the same colour as Buddy`s on the album cover and when it arrived Cliff said it was pink.If they had got the right one then The Shadows would be playing the sunburst ones,

It seems, Derek, from the letter in Cliff’s biography, that he ordered a red guitar. He and the Shads pwere probably expecting a standard red color and were surprised by 34346’s unusual color. If they had gotten the red they expected, we would be playing standard red guitars. That would be quite boring, and we would not have these discussions.

This is also quite instructive. It seems Fender put out its first color chart in 1960, but nevertheless made custom colours available before then, using any DuPont colour. That provides support for David’s conclusion on his post above.

https://www.google.com.ph/amp/s/www.vin ... 1960s/amp/

davec wrote:There's no way of proving it of course but, while Fender "Fiesta Red" is a vague and variable colour, "Roman Red" (2931LH) was a standard Dupont colour (an option on the 1959 Chevrolet Corvette) and can be recreated precisely.

Fiesta red was also a standard Dupont colour (2219-H) used on the 1956 Ford Thunderbird.



Most vintage guitars specialists state that Hank's first Strat bought by Cliff in 1959 was indeed fiesta red.

Didier

There you go. Thanks, Didier. You must have liked that Thunderbird.

Since Fender offered Dupont paint colors pre-1960, 34346 could have been Roman Red, as Hank notes, or Fiesta Red, or some other standard Dupont color (maybe sone shade of pink).

I think the question might be: what is Hank’s basis for saying 34346 was Roman Red? Unless the precise name of the color appeared in an invoice or other literature accompanying the guitar (which doesn’t seem to have been Fender’s practice) or in the brochure they pored over (it doesn’t seem to have been the case), Hank’s statement might have been a conclusion formed some time after.

Andy

Maybe Hank was being a bit mischevious!! The discussion about the colour of that original Strat has been going on for ages, & knowing this, perhaps he is stirring things up intentionally.
We all know what his sense of humour is like!

If you talk to most ladies you'll discover they all have a different opinion as to what 'pink' is. Actually pink is a tint of a red (with white added), but many women call a cool red (magenta) pink, which technically isn't a pink at all. I suspect Hank's original Strat was a slightly cool (with blue added) red...not real pink as you see some current manufacturers painting Strats nowadays.