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The '59 Strat came from Manny's in New York over ten years ago and was previously owned by American blues man Taj Mahal. It is one of the very first rosewood slab boards when Fender decided to make the switch from maple. A certain guitar dealer from Doncaster who had a shop in Leeds, tried to get it from my friend for in excess of £35,000 but he declined the offer.
I can confirm the neck date is 1959 as it is with the documentation from Manny's sale receipt, but Malc couldn't remember the month and he wouldn't take the neck off to have a peep.

Based on the posts by Dave and Rob, the color of 34346 was most likely the shade we call Fiesta Red now, give or take some tonal variation. We do not know whether Fender referred to it as “Fiesta Red” in 1959; that is probably likely, at least in the factory, because that name was already in Dupont’s list (having been used on the ‘56 TBird) and the fact that Fender used the name in its 1960 color chart.

Last Friday night (Sept 4th) BBC4 did a re-run of 'Rock'n'Roll Britannia' which included Bruce with 34346 on the table in front of him. It may have been re-sprayed in its long life but the colour looked a good solid pink to me.

From interview with Bill Carson:

"Tell me about Fender’s custom colors. Did you see those on offer at that time?"

"As nearly as I can remember, George Fullerton suggested this—in fact he went to a local paint store to do the first custom colors to be put into production. I was working for Fender on a full-time basis and was involved in that to some degree, however it was not my idea, because some of the colors that he picked I thought were very feminine. I did not think that we would ever sell any of them, especially like fiesta red and ocean turquoise and some of those sissy-looking things—and they went on to do very well [laughs]. I didn’t think much of them".

Paul

Hi Paul,

I've read Bill's comments about custom colours and at that time I had a good laugh about his statements....
One of his personal strats was also red ... Cimarron red....also in the same ballpark as that sissy colour fiesta...
The Bill Carson's signature strat of later years was also Cimarron red.

Hi Dave,
Off course your mate isn't looking forwards to brake the bond between body and neck for a peak....neither am I (the last time I removed one of my pre -cbs necks (set up)was years ago).
35K is a lot of money, you can buy a almost pristine f red strat for near about that price....so I reckon the purchase price for the dealer is way lower.
So I can imagine if "that" dealer was intended to pay 35k the selling price would be

Cheers Rob

With this picture all of the above mentioned "sorrows" began

https://app.box.com/s/a661sfms2viemygr60h8pap3317vzn5z


Cheers Rob

Thanks, Paul. In Duchossoir's book, George Fullerton recounts he had the shade he had in mind mixed at the local paint store, and Fiesta Red was the result. He reckons it was late 1957 or early 1958.

What bothers me about the story is that a color very similar to what we now regard as Fiesta Red was used on the 1956 Thunderbird, which Dupont supplied and Ford called “Fiesta Red.” Before it cane out with its first color chart in 1960, Fender offered custom paint in any Dupont color and appears to have used Dupont almost exclusively. All that seems to run counter to Fullerton’s recollection.

Andy,

That's my vision too.....it's to much coincidently .
I've wrote is a earlier reply, my guess is it was the other way around .
Walking by a Fiesta red 2219-H T-Bird a few times...and presto....
In that same reply I mentioned that a few of the old hands from the early days at Fender are claiming all the same influence on the development of the strat.
Even the ex- head of sales is talking Freddy Tavares down... and claimed, he had more influence in the development part of the strat....

Cheers Rob

Well the Fender employees can claim as loud as they like, but the colour 'Fiesta red' already existed before it was used on a Strat. It's a Dupont Ducco colour - end of.

bor64 wrote:Andy,

That's my vision too.....it's to much coincidently .
I've wrote is a earlier reply, my guess is it was the other way around .
Walking by a Fiesta red 2219-H T-Bird a few times...and presto....
In that same reply I mentioned that a few of the old hands from the early days at Fender are claiming all the same influence on the development of the strat.
Even the ex- head of sales is talking Freddy Tavares down... and claimed, he had more influence in the development part of the strat....

Cheers Rob

Your story is far more credible, Rob.