Fender Custom Shop 56 NOS & 56 'Hank Marvin' 22 fret neck Custom shop guitars
Overview
We're looking at two Fender Custom Shop 56 Stratocasters today, both are NOS 'New Old Stock' finish and Fiesta Red coloured.
56 NOS Guitar
The Neck is finished in a clear coat cellulose lacquer and the whole guitar feels very resonant.
The body is Alder, 3 piece and has vintage contouring. As this is a custom shop guitar, the body contours are cut more deeply than on many lesser priced models. The body is to the well known 'vintage' dimensions, routed for 3 single coil vintage pickups and for a 6 screw tremolo bridge.
The one piece 21 fret vintage profile Birdseye 2AA Maple neck is nicely shaped, more of a D shape than a C and is quite full. The radius is 9.5" which is an improvement over the vintage radius and playing is easier with no note choking.
The neck is quite deep, which may be an issue for some with smaller fingers or used to the later C shape neck, which I tend to prefer. The frets are quite chunky and not the 'vintage wire' type which some may wish to change.
Hardware is Gold plated Fender with Fender stamped Kluson design machine heads at the headstock, butterfly wing string post for the E and B strings (which could be a round type if strictly a 56 replica), gold screws and vintage 6 stamped saddle 6 screw tremolo bridge.
Electric hardware is old style push back cloth covered wiring, full size 250k potentiometers and a 3 way pickup switch. This is a real step backwards, a complete waste of time as most players will change to an Oak 5 way at the earliest time. As they have changed the neck radius then why not logically, install the 5 way switch at the time of build?
About the first thing anyone is going to do is to replace the archaic 3 way switch! -
like I'm doing in this photo. Fender Custom Shop - please take note -
don't waste time buying and fitting a 3 way switch here. Fit a 5 way, from the outset!
Pickups are the new Custom Shop 54's and they sound very nice, when you fit the 5 way and can slot into the in between sounds, they really sound nice for those 'Mid position' tones, which it is more difficult to get by 'balancing' a 3 way switch 'out of phase'.
The scratch plate is the 50's single ply white type in brilliant white, the other plastic parts such as pickup covers, back plate, trem tip and pot knobs are also in 'new' white and not the 'aged' white. So essentially, the guitar looks like you just unpacked it.
Many who buy the 56 NOS in Fiesta Red are trying to have a guitar like the one that British guitarist Hank Marvin first used in 1959, bought for him by bandleader Cliff Richard. Although this guitar has a C shape neck.
56 NOS 'Hank Marvin' 22 fret neck NOS Stratocaster in Fiesta Red
The 56 NOS 'Hank Marvin' 22 fret Custom Shop Stratocaster
Overview
The 22 fret guitar came about as a result of British guitarist Hank Marvin's signature model Stratocasters. The first ones made in the 1990s with Lace pickups Hank wasn't that happy with, lower priced signature models were the Squier Japan and Fender Japan 'vintage reissue' guitars, the Squier having a c shape neck and the Japan Fender a completely incorrect V shape neck.
Both these signature models were limited run of 500 pieces and are collectible in their own right these days. A short run of 250 Mexican made signature guitars had the correct C shape neck.
A custom shop run of 54 '1959' replications of Hank Marvin's original Stratocaster was made for Oasis Music of Ringwood, Hampshire, these featured the 1958 C shape neck.
When Hank Marvin embarked on solo tours with his backing band in the 1990s, Fender again became involved in building him a signature guitar. By this time, Hank was in contact with Chris Kinman who was building his Kinman pickups, initially for Stratocaster guitars.
Hank became an endorsee of the pickups for a few years and had them installed on his new custom shop guitars with a Di-Marzio pickup in the bridge position.
Hank was seen in photographs sporting his 'new' Stratocaster, these were almost an 'upgrade' to the vintage pre-CBS (1958) guitar he had been using in the later Shadows up until 1990. The 'new' 90's guitar had a vintage single coil routed body, Birdseye Maple neck, Truss rod adjuster at the Nut end, Sperzl locking machines and Kinman pickups fitted. The 12th fret dots on the fretboard were also closer together in the '1963 spacing' style.
Hank had sets of 'Vintage' and 'Modern' Kinmans in his Custom Shop guitars, so he could use them on either modern or old Shadows tunes accordingly. Hank incorporated the 'Easi-Mute' tremolo arm designed and made in the UK which allowed easier palm muting of notes. More recently Hank has reverted to Fender pickups of the 50's variety.
Comparison of headstocks of the 56 NOS (top) and the 56 NOS 'Hank Marvin' (below)
The Fender Custom Shop 56 NOS 'Hank Marvin' Stratocaster in Fiesta Red
Our example here is a team built 2007 year made guitar. Essentially a replication of Hank's late 1990's Custom Shop guitars. These are not officially called the 56 NOS 'Hank Marvin' but the buying specification was all but that in name!
The build came about as players wanted to own a guitar like Hank's contemporary guitar from the 1990s, so a couple of UK music shops put in a specification to the Fender Custom Shop to make replicas of Hank's then current guitar.
The body is a 5 piece lay up of Alder with single coil routing and vintage contouring. Now you may think that 2 or 3 piece bodies are preferable, but the woods here are so good in tonal quality and density that they work as well as the 3 piece on the other 56.
Some years on and the cellulose has started to sink around the joints of the wood blocks, but this is normal for cellulose.
The neck is a 22 fret one piece 2AA birdseye maple, with a slight 'overhang' onto the scratch plate for the 22nd fret. The profile is a 'soft V' shape but is more like a slightly fatter 'C' shape, it is easy to play and not too wide or deep. The truss rod adjustment is at the head end and the wood in this area where the peg head starts is thicker than on a vintage 50's type neck. This does not affect playability as it is beyond the playing area. The neck also has the '1963' closer spacing for the twin dots on the fretboard at the 12th fret.
This guitar was purchased secondhand with 11-56 Elixr strings on, the neck was quite bowed and a set of 9-42 interim D'Addario 9-42's was fitted and the truss rod adjusted, as bought the guitar was barely playable. It has now been set up and is about as slick standard of my other guitars.
The finish is Fiesta Red nitrocelluslose with a slight honey tinted neck.
Hardware is Gold plated Fender standard fare with Gold Sperzl locking machine heads as standard. Essentially as used on Hank's guitars.
Originally the guitars were fitted with Fender's Noiseless single coil pickups as Fender allegedly would not install the 'non-Fender' Kinman pickups in the guitars, so the pickups were changed in the UK to Kinmans before sale. Although Fender installed Humbuckers in some of their guitars, it is curious why Fender did not install the 'correct' pickups for the specification?
This specification guitar was of quite limited in production, about 12 being produced per year for a limited amount of UK retail outlets. Thus, they are rarer than the 'standard' 56 NOS standard guitars.
With a choice of Modern, Vintage or Future Vintage 'Gipsy Jazz' Kinman pickup options, all variants used by Hank Marvin, the pickup sounds to replicate Hank's material whether old or new was there.
This guitar has the Future Vintage hotter pickups with a 64 in the bridge and 63's in the neck and middle pickup positions. A standard 5 way oak type switch is fitted, the wires are the solderless push together harness option from Chris Kinman, along with a Kinman K-9 harness which features a push button pot on the lower tone pot and the middle pot also acts as a variable position pickup selector switch, allowing one to get the mellow 'Gypsy Jazz' sound on one setting, if desired.
Side by side comparison
These 56 NOS are really 'a tale of two Stratocasters,' similar but different, the 56 'as was' type of build to the 56 'evolved' type of build. The sound of each variant is different due to the electronics, the 54 pickups give a nice vintage tone and are not 'crashy' sounding as some pickups were from the pre-CBS era.
The Kinmans give a real 'Hank' sound. Both sets are clear for both rhythm playing or single note work. Its a choice of what sound you're after.
Playing wise, the 'Marvin' 'evolved' model is easier to play due to the neck shape. Side by side for the money, even if I wasn't looking for the Hank Marvin sound, I'd choose that one for the easier playing neck and the 5 way switch fitted from 'new.'
Finding the 'Marvin' type of 56 NOS is not that easy these days, so if you do find one, don't delay if you really want it! The 'stock 56' is not a lost cause neckwise, there are people who will reduce the wood on the back to make it easier to play if that is an issue.
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