Fender Guitars And Amplifier
These are all guitars and amps that I have owned since new.
1978 Blue Shell Translucent Stratocaster. This was bought by me in 1978 in Kingfisher Music in Fleet Hampshire and it was in a finish called Antigua. It was a limited run by Fender using water-based colours which unfortunately faded over time under stage lights. Also, the pick-guard was painted, and so this too faded and was easily worn or scratched.
At the time of purchase, I had the shop replace the black Fender pickups with a matched set of three DiMarzio HS2 stacked humbuckers in cream.
So I had it resprayed red in 1996. In 1998 I had it sprayed the current colour – a light blue translucent shell colour. I replaced the front pickguard and rear vibrator arm with a pearl colour plastic. Reserved for my children.
1990 Two Tone Sunburst Telecaster. This was modeled on a late 1954 Fender Telecaster This was bought by me in 1990, and I replaced the bridge pickup with a Seymour Duncan . I still have the original pickup. It has never been gigged and rarely used. ALREADY SOLD!
1993 Hank Marvin Signature Squier Fender Stratocaster, Fiesta Red . It’s a limited edition of 1500 with the Hank Marvin signature on the headstock. I have replaced all the hardware and pickups and shielded all the wood cavities. All hardware is now gold fittings. Serial Number K014989.
I bought it from Nevada Music in Portsmouth. They had ordered four of them, and as I was the first to buy, I got to choose the one that played and sounded best (in my opinion).
It’s an authentic Fender instrument with a hard rock maple neck as well as being a signature model.
It has never been gigged and rarely used. FOR SALE.
1993 Fender Blues Deluxe™ This is a vintage-style tube amp with a boutique tone. It pumps 40 watts into a single 12” Special Design Eminence® speaker fueled by two 6L6 Groove Tubes® output tubes and three 12AX7 preamp tubes.
Its two channels (normal with bright switch, and drive) are voiced for classic blues, country and rock; other features include Fender® spring reverb, effects loop, two-button channel foot-switch, tweed covering, chicken head knobs and chrome control panel.
It has never been gigged and rarely used. Reserved for my children.
Taken in 1978 – My new Fender Stratocaster Antigua
The same Fender, but resprayed Fiat Red – the picture was taken late at night in the 1990’s at an open-air concert on the banks of the River Seine, Paris.
Over the past two months, I have placed two or three orders with NWG to gradually completely refinish my 25-year old treasured 1993 Hank Marvin Signature Squier Stratocaster.
I took the opportunity to reduce the hum and noise and totally coat the inside of the pickups and electronic cavities with heavy-duty aluminum foil (much better than copper as it also stops RF noise from appliances like computers and microwaves – they didn’t have that stuff back in the 50´s!)
EVERYTHING was replaced with hardware, pickups, electrics, and the usual vintage pick-guard and rear cavity cover. ALL the hardware comes from a range of gold parts, this included the three vintage pickups.I also added a brand new gold Wilkinson vibrato bar – it plopped straight into my Hank Marvin Signature Squier, and feels really smooth….The extra mass has added a nice bottom-end to the tone on all three pickups – it really does sound like vintage Hank!
Of course, I have left the original neck and body parts untouched as they are blemish-free.
I did not want to replace the Fender basswood body since the original colour remains unblemished (since I have only played it for a few hours).
Plus they had given it a more pink-orange hue – rather than the regular Fiesta Red – and far closer to the mythical “Flamingo Pink” colour that Cliff ordered for Hank way back in 1959 (when I was 13 years old!).
As for the C profile neck/vintage frets, they are not even ‘worn-in’ due to my onset of arthritis, it has only been played for about 10 hours at home over the past two decades…
I have attached a handful of pics showing the electrical shielding steps of the guitar cavities. Your vintage single-ply pick-guard is FAR better than the Fender version as it has full reverse side coverage with shielding pre-installed….all I had to do was screw it down to the body to get an automatic electrical bond with the cavity shielding and new electrics which used Fender vintage-correct cotton covered wiring:
