Guitar Reviews 4U - Brian Jones - Out of time

Brian Jones in 1965

Guitar Reviews 4U Why Brian Jones was 'out of time' by 1965

Brian Jones in Cheltenham had a dream of creating a British Blues Band playing the music in that style. He was not alone, in Home Counties Ripley, Surrey, Eric Clapton was doing the same. In Kingston Surrey, Keith Relf and Jeff Beck were into that music and in Dartford, Kent Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were likewise following that star.

Cliff Richard and the Shadows c. 1961

with Hank Marvin on the right with first Stratocaster 

By this time they had made films and were London Palladium top billing

The British music scene since the mid 1950's had been dominated by American artists with Rock n Roll, a music that like fashions changed quickly. By 1960, the last knockings of the original American RnR performers were still performing, but were being overtaken by smoother crooners and an emerging Detroit sound which would spawn the Motown sound.

The Crawdaddy Club, 1 Kew Road Richmond -

where the Rolling Stones had a residency

Britain had not been slow to copy the new music from the other side of the Atlantic, even that as we have seen was not immune to fashionable change. Cliff Richard and the Shadows it would be fair to say had a dominance on the British music scene from 1959-63.

Cliff Richard imported a Fiesta Red Fender Stratocaster for Shadows guitarist Hank Marvin in 1959, a guitar that would change British popular music history and Marvin's playing and this guitar would influence thousands of bedroom guitarists - some of whom would later find fame, Jeff Lynne, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Pete Townshend, Brian May, Mark Knopfler and countless others who never made it past the youth club or pub rock scene.

A very young Rolling Stones in 1963

Brian Jones at right with his Gretsch 6118 2 tone Anniversary guitar

By 1960 there was no shortage of bands in the mould of Cliff and the Shadows, but that did not stop some young players of the time delving back further into the roots of the 1950's RnR to the Blues aspect of that music, just as there had been a 'jazz revival' in Britain at the time in the late 1950's as a counter to rock and roll music.

In his Ripley, Surrey back garden, Eric Clapton would endlessly pick at an acoustic guitar, leading to his Kingston Art School studies giving way to a full time music career, fellow Kingston students Keith Relf and Chris Dreyja would also find fame with Clapton in the Yardbirds, before Clapton left to pursue a more authentic Blues vehicle with John Mayall.

The Yardbirds soon adopted a more commercial sound with hit songs from Graham Gouldman who also wrote for the Hollies and later his own band 10cc.

On a Kent railway platform back around the start of the 60's Mick Jagger saw Keith Richards holding a Blues vinyl LP a meeting of minds and people that ignited a musical flame. 

1965 - 'This can be the last time performance'

Brian Jones with the iconic Vox 'teardrop' guitar

A music paper advert by Brian Jones in 1962 sowed the seed for the young Jagger and Richards living an almost hand to mouth existence in bohemian Edith Grove Chelsea to audition for Jones. A spot at the Ealing Jazz club run by Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies followed and the band that Brian Jones started upa while previously had sifted out players and the Jagger and Richards compound made the formula complete.

Brian Jones in a telephone box on a call to a venue organiser was asked what his band was called, Jones had a copy of the Muddy Walters LP 'Rolling Stone' in his hand and looked at the cover and announced 'The Rolling Stones.' And so a band was born.

The 'British Invasion' pop bands had yet to hit America but this crop of bands that was growing underground in Britain very much located in the south of the country - the Home Counties and London. Motown music would soon hit the UK around 1964 with the establishment of the Mod scene as London became more modernised after WW2.

The Beatles now back from Hamburg in 1962, displaced thanks to the Cliff Richard and the Shadows mania, now in 1963 were starting to make a name for themselves. The future 'invasion bands' of the Yardbirds (with a soon to depart Clapton, replaced by Jeff Beck), The Kinks (Muswell Hill), The Who (Acton based), The Animals (Newcastle based) and the Stones Chelsea) came to the fore between 1963 to 1965.

Although Cliff Richard and many of the popular entertainers of the era managed to stay working, a new vanguard of popular music was hitting the airwaves, with Merseybeat and London sound and other movements such as ska taking the place of the old guard.

The early Rolling Stones chart output was initially confined to cover versions of Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly songs, the Beatles who had been doing some BBC Studio sessions in London, came down to Richmond to see the Rolling Stones play and offered them a song they had written - 'I wanna be your man.' 

Although this song was 'Bluesed' up by Brian Jones playing slide guitar on it, it was essentially a pop song and outside of the 12 bar 3 chord Blues structure. It was from this point that Brian Jones and his brief and dream of a 'pure blues band' died.

Spurred on by the gift of the Beatles song, Keith and Mick started writing songs together and Brian was effectively displaced in the Rolling Stones as leader. He was no longer the driver of the car. Just another of the riding mechanics. 

But Jones was not alone in this position, Eric Clapton too decided to seek Blues purism, outside of the Yardbirds.

We must not write off Brian Jones though, because from the early times of the band, Brian was a very gifted multi-instrumentalist - a fact that drove the Beatles on to constantly reinvent their music to remain commercially relevant.

Brian's formal musical education when most pop players were academically untrained in music, was a rarity. Brian also had that natural ability that allowed him to pick up an unfamiliar instrument and to quickly get something sonically useful out of it that would go onto a recording.

The management of the Rolling Stones saw Jagger and Richards as now the front and centre of the group, Brian's pure Blues band dream had been dashed and even the Blues enthusiast Eric Clapton found his dream of a blues band faded, he joined Cream. (The 'pure Blues' that those players wanted wasn't really realistic for these men, although in America, the old surviving Blues players suddenly found new interest in their music thanks to the British Invasion.)

And although a few of Cream's tracks were based on the 12 bar 3 chord blues, 'Sunshine of your love' and 'Cross roads' - the other tracks were often musical odysseys pushed forward by musicologist Jack Bruce's contributions to poet Pete Brown's often slightly surreal lyrics.

The only place for Brian and Eric's pure Blues would be in the 'revival' of the Blues by the players like Muddy Waters, Howling Wolf and John Lee Hooker as examples who had come back into musical fashion. However, we are deviating slightly here.

The Rolling Stones group's success was in part, besides Brian's vision that provided the catalyst that brought those 5 players together in 1962, was his ability to put Saxophone, Clarinet, Bass Pedals, Sitar, Harmonica, Vibes, Marimba, Piano and Hammond Organ onto the bones of the Jagger and Richards words and music and on the studio recordings.

By 1965, Brian Jones was like the Jagger and Richards song - and was literally 'Out of time'. Not because he was musically irrelevant but the band he had started had moved on and away from his original vision and musical brief. Brian's musical contribution to the songs doesn't always get the credit it deserves, sadly. Pop is a fickle business.

The Rolling Stones still performs many of those early songs that Brian helped to make iconic.

Perhaps their finest hour was with 'This can be the last time, the Riff was Brian's and they just looked at the height of their powers on this song. It has to be one of the greatest songs ever written and for the energy and the performances of it by the Stones we have on film.

As Keith Richards said 'you always remember the riff'.

We should also remember - No Brian Jones, no Rolling Stones.

Summer Holiday film at 60 - when Cliff and Shadows were at the height of the their fame

 

Cliff Richard in the cab of a London Transport RT Bus 1962

Its 1962 and London faces a shortage of Bus drivers and Cliff Richard and The Shadows are the top selling group in the British music scene - this spectacular collision of circumstances perhaps provided the ideal recruiting vehicle for London Transport and another Cliff film that would only increase his fame. So, how has society changed 60 years on?

By the end of 1959, the early rockers that Cliff had idolised were now mostly gone or in decline. Elvis was in the Army, Buddy Holly died in a plane crash, Little Richard had found religion, Jerry Lee Lewis had married his 13 year old cousin causing opprobrium when he toured England and Chuck Berry had his own minor problems, so to speak.

Apart from Bill Haley, most of the artists were in decline and out of the charts, music was changing from the 'old' Rock n' Roll and the new, slick, 'Booby' style was here. Bobby Vee was the personification of that new era, a young college-educated man in a smart sport coat, neatly cut hair, with a smart car and an adoring girlfriend from a white picket fence house in middle class America.

America was on the ascendant, buoyed by years of solid, commercial growth, with WW2 and the Korean war having made seemingly little impact on it financially.

In Britain, the post-war economy was starting to grow, but the nation was still heavily laden with debt from the recent last war and adding further debt by the purchase of Atlas missiles it could really ill afford, from America as part of the Cold War nuclear deterrent.

From 1956 in Britain, the economy did start to lift and by 1960 it was certainly on the up.

In 1960, Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent were on part of a package deal in Britain, it would end tragically, as did Buddy Holly's similar part of a package band travelling show would in 1959. Gene Vincent's US career was on the decline and Eddie agreed to go to buoy it up (and make it perhaps more marketable) by being an act and a draw as their music was still popular with British audiences. 

Supported by British musicians, due to a Musician's Union embargo, for Eddie this included a backing band with Joe Brown on guitar and a pre-Shadows Brian Bennett on drums. On the way back to London, the car they were travelling in with Gene and Sharon Sheelley (Eddie's girlfriend) as passengers, was involved in an accident at Chippenham and Eddie died shortly after in hospital. Perhaps that is when the original music died commercially.

This seemed like the coda for the original American rockers.

On their US tour in 1960, Cliff and the Shadows saw a lot on their tour that influenced their music, including the segregation in some of the US states which shocked them, something that they never saw in Britain which had a mixed race society. 

They did pickup the way the performers were dressing, watched their stagecraft, studied the whole presentation of the artist and the direction the music was going. It was a tremendous head start they could implement when they returned to Britain.

Although Cliff and the Shadows had remained popular since 1958, other artists of the time slowly lost ground and often through poorly chosen material by management and record companies, suffered poor chart placings and eventual obscurity that even a hardcore fan base could not provide sufficient record sales to help them with.

Thus many artists of the '2I's' era  of the late 1950's through no real fault of their own gradually faded from the charts over the next few years, artists and bands like Billy Fury, Marty Wilde, Terry Dene, Wee Willie Harris, The Vipers, to name but a few waned, whilst Cliff and his Shadows rocketed.

Theirs was a clever mix, a backing band who could perform in their own right and with Cliff, made them more marketable. With their No1 hit Apache, the Shadows set the tone for millions of guitarists to follow and as a result, many bands ditched their singers and went instrumental.

With chart hit after hit with Man of Mystery, The Frightened City, Kon Tiki for the Shadows, their success looked rosy. Cliff was reportedly paid £1000 a week, when the average wage in Britain was about £10. Heavily taxed on this by the British Government, Cliff was still doing very nicely. Plus the songwriting royalties were a bonus for the band too.

Through 1961 and 1962, Cliff and the Shadows both as individual units and collectively, had the British music scene just about sewn up. To the effect that the Beatles could not get a look in until at least 1963 and not gaining any real foothold until 1964, much to the chagrin of some of the Beatles members! 

John Lennon did say though that before them (Cliff and the Shadows) that 'there hadn't been much British music worth listening too'.  'Move it' really hit the spot musically and still sounds exciting and fresh today. With the gift of a Fender Stratocaster to Hank Marvin, the music just developed beyond expectation.

Cliff's 1961 film extravaganza 'The young ones' had been a great success, they continued as a unit recording and touring and in 1962, Summer Holiday was created as their next film project.

The opening sequence of a small brass ensemble playing on a bandstand in some godforsaken British coastal town (playing the Summer Holiday theme tune) before having to abandon the performance due to driving rain, summed up a lot of things in Britain.

The 'old guard' was on the wane. In Britain, national military service for 2 years had been abandoned in 1960 largely as a waste of time, although the reality was it was necessary to have troops in Germany in large numbers in case of the Cold War starting another military fracas and also to assist the West German nation to rebuild and restructure, the denazification of Germany as fares it went had to an extent been done.

By 1960, the teenager had been identified in Britain as a marketable commodity that could be marketed to and exploited financially. With disposable income, hire purchase finance and new found freedom, the teenager of 1960 had in some cases a life that their parents and grandparents, some from the Victorian and Edwardian eras certainly never had.

Modernity through design was now changing the face of Britain, modern looking cars, modern buildings, house furnishings, interior design, paint colours, all these were echoing post war America about 10 years earlier and casting aside the dusty and the old hat way of things.

Cliff and the Shadows did have one thing extra, they appealed to both the Bikers and the Mods. The guitar driven music appealed to the more working class Biker types, often to be found at the Ace Cafe in Willesden, North London and also to the suited and booted Mods, as the Shads and Cliff dressed in sharp, modern design stage clothing.

Summer Holiday also ushered in the era of the package holiday. Aviation had now made great steps in jet flight technology possible, with passenger jets able to reach many parts of the world in a few hours or less.

This opened up the 'package tour' era with flights and hotel accommodation combined in one deal price by Travel Agents. 

Summer Holiday's premise of 4 London Transport mechanics from the Aldenham bus overhaul works taking an older London bus across Europe to Greece on a self-contained package tour seemed the ideal vehicle as such for the basis of a film and perhaps to attract badly need drivers.

The late Lionel Blair put forward Una Stubbs for the role of Sandy, leading to a life long friendship and also to one that she had with Cliff until her death sadly this year. Although she was 5 years older than Cliff in real life in the film, she looked around the same age as he did then.

To serve the American market, American actress Laurie Peters was brought in so that the film might be saleable in that country, although she seems to have faded off the performing scene since and the film did not enjoy the success it did in Europe. A young Peter Yates is on the credit, famous later for his Directing role in the 1968 Steve McQueen film Bullitt, with its iconic car chase (in 1967, Yates directed a film with Stanely Baker called 'Robbery' where a precursor of the Bullitt car chase was filmed, leading to Yates's role in Bullitt).

Factor in the Shadows to provide musical support providing some great instrumentals and songs for the film and you have success all round. 

Summer Holiday featured the third Shadows lineup with Brian Bennett on Drums and Brian 'Licorice' Locking on Bass, a group of three Brians and a Bruce - as Hank B Marvin's name was originally Brian Robson Rankin!

The Shadows musical performance sequences could have been longer and the film's plot was very tame and perhaps syrupy by today's standards. The appeal of the film and the group was what sold it, the young women wanted Cliff to be their boyfriend or husband and the young  wanted to be the Shadows players.

It was only in 1963 it seemed that Britain discovered sex, in the Lady Chatterley's lover obscenity trial. Perhaps, it was the point when things started to go downhill with morals and standards diminishing by the day, some believed? With the events of the Profumo affair only adding more Petrol to the flames of discord.

Undoubtedly, the Cliff and the Shadows combination ensured that their joint and individual success due to their wide fan base would let them continue to be charting and successful years after more modern and different music formed most of the charts.

By the 1962 Summer Holiday era, Britain was really starting to prosper again for many. It was by no way out of the woods financially and the problems set in after the middle of the decade with trade unions demanding more pay and better conditions which helped to make Britain uneconomic as a manufacturing base, ultimately driving jobs abroad.

But from 1960 to 1968, Britain was the place to be, London was again on the map and even the Americans had to take notice. Thanks to Summer holiday, the package tour era had arrived!

The shadows first album from 1961 - 60 years later

 

The Shadows - their debut album from 1961

A rare Stereo version, signed by 3 on the back

The first Shadows album from 1961 was eagerly awaited, following the release of their groundbreaking instrumental single 'Apache' in June 1960.

Cliff Richard's backing group The Shadows shot to fame in their own right with their instrumental hit single "Apache" written by Jerry Lordan in June 1960, displacing a single they had written which Cliff had taken to no.1 in the charts. 

Following on from 'Apache,' they released a succession of hit singles -  'Man of mystery,' 'Kon Tiki' and 'The Frightened City' - chart singles that followed in fairly rapid succession and established their success as the leading group of the day.

It was in 1961, sometime after their initial success in their own right that they released their self-titled first LP. Rather than just go down the easy route of re-releasing their previous hit tracks as part of the new album as a compilation, they took a rather daring and different step.

None of the tracks on the new album were from their chart hits. This was a masterstroke in that it gave the buying public 14 brand new tracks to enjoy and also showed the Shadows had a musical direction and ability.

With 4 tracks on this new album penned by themselves, the Shadows started a path that they would continue to follow during their career - that of mixing the output between established tunes along with a few of their own compositions.

 

From Shadoogie, side one's opener, the classic Blue Star (covered later by the Ventures), Nivram, the jazzy Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch and Jet Harris theme with a great bass solo, See you in my drums featuring Tony Meehan's drumming talent beyond his years, All my sorrows a nice vocal ensemble piece - compare it to the Drifters (as they were) 'Feeling fine' single from 1959, the studio sound is a world away with 'Sorrows' showing how much they had matured musically and benefited from a great studio set up. Stand up and say that rounds off side 1, with Hank Marvin on piano giving his best Floyd Cramer style performance - Hank had started on piano and banjo before gravitating to guitar.

Side 2 kicks off with 'Gonzales', a rip roaring track that took 58 takes to get on tape - even though this version has a couple of minor errors it still has great energy, Find me a golden street evokes a street scene from some old late 50's B movie, Theme from a filleted Plaice shows the Shadows having fun with the title wording which they would use throughout their career and on this track, the doubled guitar sounds good (a technique that was also explored on Nivram), 'That's my desire' is a quality ensemble vocal, 'My resistance is low' is a great old track given the echo laden guitar treatment by Hank with the notes becoming almost ethereal in the highest part, 'Sleepwalk' has become a Shadows and Hank Marvin live performance favourite for decades and the album rounds off with 'Big Boy' - likely based on the American Steam locomotive's beat - there was a locomotive called the Big Boy in America.

This album is pure quality, even 60 years later the tracks sound fresh, the playing and the studio sound is superb and this lineup of Marvin, Welch, Harris and Meehan lasted a mere year and a half lasted for one album, before Tony Meehan departed to be replaced by Brian Bennet for 'Out of the Shadows' their second album.

(This next line of Marvin, Welch, Harris and Brian Bennet lasted a short time before Brian 'Licorice' Locking joined for about a year until 1964, when John Rostill became the Shadows Bass player until their split in 1968). The early Shadows lineups (pre John Rostill) were drawn from the old 2I's Club in Old Compton Street players - all those had played in various bands in that famous venue. Out of the Shadows featured some Jet Harris and some Brian Locking tracks.

The treat of the first album's colour cover photo is to see Hank Marvin's original mythical Fender Stratocaster guitar in the famous Fiesta Red colour bought by Cliff Richard, looking a lovely pinky shade here. As with many of their future album covers, they were almost an unnofficial advertising opportunity for Fender instruments! The album was mostly sold in the Mono version as few people had proper true Stereo record players then, so the album pictured a 1961 Stereo version is very rare, more valuable being signed by 3 band members. I have one of these Mono LP's signed by all 4 members which is very rare as they were not long together in this lineup before Tony Meehan left not long after the LP's release.

Indeed, many Fender instruments were sold on the influence and sound the Shadows had. Demand for Fiesta Red Fender guitars was driven across the world by the Shadows without a doubt and demand could not keep pace lithesome being refinished in Britain to keep up with the demand. As George Harrison later said 'No Shadows, no Beatles.' 

I came to this album in 1983, I had just purchased a Tokai TST50 Stratocaster as close to Hank's Fender as I could get and ironically copied from the same 1958 era guitar as Hank played on this album!

With a Sound City Valve amplifier and tape echo machine I was well on the way to the Hank Marvin sound. Now I use Vox Valvetronix AD60 or 120 and Tonelab Studio and Stage SE boxes to get that great sound.

I was able to follow the style and technique of Hank Marvin and this has given me a lot of pleasure over the last 40 years! Even today when I hear the tracks on this album, they still sound fresh. I have backing tracks from this album and enjoy playing along to them.

This band was immensely talented back then and remain so. This album is a musical milestone of the early 1960's from a band that helped define the music of the decade that followed.

Hank Marvin at 80 - a guitarist for all seasons - one of the guitar greats and needs the recognition he truly deserves.

 

A young Hank B Marvin with his Antoria guitar 1958

One British guitarist broke onto the music scene in 1958, his playing style revolutionised British popular music and influenced guitarists across the globe for decades.

For his 80th birthday, we pay tribute to Hank B Marvin, this groundbreaking guitar player who influenced many famous players of more recent years - Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Andy Summers amongst many thousands of young amateur players in bedrooms, school  playgrounds and youth clubs trying to emulate his style! 

Hank planted a seed and many followed, learning to imitate his unique style ever since.

Cliff Richard with the Fender Stratocaster 

he imported for Hank Marvin to play in 1959

The skiffle boom of the 1950's propelled many young people to play musical instruments - but by 1958, the music had changed - pushed forward by the innovators from America - Elvis, Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochrane, Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee Lewis and a handful of others who held the senior positions in the genre that was Rock n Roll.  

Hank Marvin learnt how to play their style of music, being  particularly interested in the sounds and style of Buddy Holly, Scotty Moore (Elvis Presley's guitarist) and Cliff Gallup (Lead guitar for Gene Vincent).

In 1958, Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch, 16 year old Newcastle school friends, journeyed to London to take part in a talent competition with a couple of other bandmates. Attaining third place in the contest, Hank and Bruce stayed on in London to seek their fortune and gravitated to the 2 I's coffee bar in old Compton Street, Soho where they would meet Cliff Richard and also future Shadows players Jet Harris, Tony Meehan, Brian Bennet and Licorice Locking. 

The legendary 2I's 

By chance, Hank was offered a tour with Cliff Richard and the Drifters - who had scored a No2 hit with Move it - perhaps one of the greatest British Rock N Roll songs ever written and recorded. Bringing along Bruce Welch and encountering Bassist Jet Harris on the tour, they went on to become the nucleus of Cliff's backing group.

The Drifters personnel gradually were replaced by Hank Marvin, Bruce Welch, Jet Harris and Tony Meehan over a short span of time - a group that would in early 1959 became known as the Shadows.

The early Shadows line up of 1959 - 

Hank plays the original Fiesta Red Stratocaster imported by Cliff Richard

Cliff Richard imported a Fender Stratocaster guitar for Hank Marvin from the Fender factory in California to play and Hank teamed it with a Meazzi tape echo machine and a Selmer Tru-voice amplifier (later a Vox AC15 amplifier) and the Shadows sound was created. 

As they say the rest is history. 

Hank with his 1959 guitar in 1960

Apache  - the Shadows hit single from June 1960 -

The Jerry Lordan penned hit that launched a thousand bands

Hank in 2005 with a Custom Shop Stratocaster

Hank Marvin defined a unique sound and style of playing that has kept him in the musical scene continually since 1958. His clean and pure sound pre-dated the US Surf instrumental scene and has kept him employed either in the Shadows or with his own band ever since, he sells out venues whether as part of the Shadows, with Cliff Richard and The Shadows or with his own bands even 50 + years after starting in the music business.

Yet Hank Marvin is not that well known in America, sadly if he was he would be lauded for his style - American players like Jeff Baxter (Steely Dan, The Ventures) were influenced and regard Hank as an inspirational player and Hank has a small following in America and a larger interest around the globe which is well deserved.

You can instantly recognise Hank's playing or at least his style being played by someone else. There are many great amateur players who can portray his guitar work getting the right sound and feel - perhaps this is the greatest compliment Hank could attain - in that he has helped and inspired many to play the guitar and do so for decades. I am one of those inspired by him to not only play but to own the legendary red guitar like his.

He has given many ordinary guitarists like me the example to aspire to and learn from. From the days of Apache in 1960, overnight, bands in many cases ditched their lead singer and went instrumental, trying to perfect that sound and own that Fiesta Red Stratocaster, Meazzi echo machine and Vox amplifier.

60 plus years on from Apache, we owe Hank a great thank you, as part of the Shadows and in his own right, he has given us countless musical pieces to try and play in his style and to also enjoy listening to.

There are few pop musicians with the wide catalogue of work that Hank has brought to the popular music genre, so thanks Hank, we continue to enjoy your work and look forward to your new musical releases in the future.

 

And best wishes for your 80th birthday

Guitar reviews for you 1960 Rosewood board Stratocaster - A re-creation of the Hank Marvin 1960 Stratocaster

Building a re-creation of Hank Marvin's second Fiesta Red Stratocaster 

from 1960, using a Hosco neck on Fender Mexican body and Fender USA parts

The Shadows at Abbey Road in 1961 with Fiesta Red instruments -

(L-R) Bruce Welch, Jet Harris, Hank B Marvin

I was looking to create Hank's guitar from this picture.

This wasn't a guitar that I intended to build as I have owned a number of Rosewood board Stratocasters and tend to prefer all Maple neck ones. But a Mex 50's body came up for sale and I decided to give it a go.

In the past I have built Hosco bodied guitars with Fender necks and they have turned out very well. This time, I will be using a Fender Mexcan 50's Fiesta Red body with a Hosco Rosewood board 7 1/4" vintage radius neck to recreate a version of the guitar that Hank Marvin guitarist with the Shadows used from 1961-63. 

Here are some detail pictures to start with:

Basis of the 1960 Stratocaster guitar project - 

An Alder body from a used 2002 Fender Mexican 50's reissue in Fiesta Red

It has been foil shielded which is a bonus. Generally good with a few signs of use.

Hosco vintage radius 1959-62 slab board Rosewood on Maple neck.

Rosewood board necks are difficult to get so probably my last chance 

to build a guitar with one. This one is from Hosco and made in Japan and came from Axecaster in England whom I have bought Hosco parts from before for my projects .

Unlike the recent Fender Mex 60's neck, this Hosco version replicates the 1959-62 neck better, with a proper 'slab' board, not a 'veneer' board as the Mex 60's uses which 

also has the narrower 12th fret dots fitted. This Hosco is stock 1959-62.

I have used Hosco bodies which are very well finished. This neck is no exception and the wood is quality with some light flaming and Birdseye in the grain.

Single line Kluson machines to original 'single line' text pattern.

I could have used Fender stamped ones but these are just like the originals.

I greased them before use. There is a hole in the rear cover that you can push the grease in using a plastic syringe without the needle on. 

A 1.5mm drill is required for the screw holes and be careful and mark your drill bit with tape so you don't drill through the headstock! Check and mark carefully!

Single line patent number decal used until 1962

A nice quality repro decal with gold ink.

Aluminium antiference shield with wiring as fitted on mid 1959 onwards guitars.

This shield came from Charles guitars and is a practical and attractive feature.

It was also pre-wired so I only needed to solder on the pickup wires.

The Fender Fat 50's pickups fitted.

They really do give that authentic sound with a bit more power.

They are not 'too powerful', but have a bit more go in them than 57-62s.

I have a set of 57-62's in another Hosco guitar and they sound good.

The inclusion of a 5 way switch is a useful bonus here.

I chose a Parchment 62 guard and rear plate from Custom World

guitar parts in Holland, I have used their parts in previous builds.

Many use the 'Mint Green' tint white guards, I chose Parchment to look like the guitar

was near new and from 1961-2 era of use. Colour pictures of Hank's guitar from the time (on EP covers) show the guard as white and not 'mint green tinted' as some guards went due to the nitro-cellulose plastic material's reaction.

The control knobs were Parchment shade too. I like this shade as it is not too 'bright' and suits the guitar body colour too and I achieved the look I wanted. 

Hosco Bone nut fitted along with Kluson machine head bushes.

I used the Dremel with a sanding band to get an 'interference' fit on the bush 

holes in the neck so that the Bushing ferrules just pushed in and stayed in place by themselves.

The neck is very nicely made and finished for the price, 

I carefully hand-sanded the edges of the fingerboard to take off the 

sharp edge which improved the playing feel and made it feel like a well played guitar. 

I oiled the neck Rosewood board with three applications of D'addario oil and also used Renapur Beeswax to 'feed' the wood before buffing with a soft cloth for a nice shine.

The critical part of the build was to get the neck perfectly aligned so that the strings aligned over the pickup pole pieces correctly. 

In past projects I'd used small G clamps to hold necks in place, but recently saw on the BBC Repair Shop program use of Irwin Grip Clamps, so I bought a couple of those. They allow better access for the drill than the small clamps I previously used which had cast iron bodies.

Irwin Grip used to hold the neck

I needed to place 4 strings on the neck for alignment over the pickups and used the wood packing block and 2 wooden coffee stirrers as packing for the neck so that I didn't mark the fretboard when holding the neck in place with the clamp. The strings passed over the wood easily, so I could see exactly the string path alignment.

Also this gives you an idea of how the string spacings will be near to the fretboard edges in reality! Correct alignment in all aspects is vital here. A few moments well spent are better than a lifetime of regretting you didn't get it right! Check before you drill to avoid having problems with holes that are not in the right place!

The Irwin clamp has a micro trigger which allows final and precise clamping, making it easier to do one-handed clamping than when using small G clamps. I put on the 4 strings, lightly clamped up the neck and once the alignment was correct, clamped the neck more firmly but not enough to mark the fretboard.

I drilled the neck bolt holes carefully with a 2mm long drill which I had carefully marked on the shank with masking tape the max drilling depth - to avoid the schoolboy error of drilling right through the board! Always check before drilling! I then drilled the start of the holes with a 2.5mm drill to allow the screws to start and used Renapur Beeswax sparingly to help the screws start.

Delay in the Fender Fat 50s pickups arriving from the USA put me back a couple of weeks but I decided that the neck alignment was paramount, so put off attaching the neck until I had the pickups installed. The neckplate was custom stamped by a guitar parts supplier in Derbyshire.

The neck secured - the trouble taken was well worth the end result 

and it is starting to look more like a guitar.

The fictitious '60162' number on the plate was chosen to cover

Hank Marvin's use of his second Stratocaster

like this one from 1960-62 and is about in the range of 

Stratocasters from that era, my 1961 had a 75--- number.

In early 1963 the Shadows went over to white Fender guitars.

The rest of the guitar was relatively straightforward to assemble as the body had been used before and had holes drilled. Standard Fender chromed parts were used. I did shorten the trem arm buy 1/2" inch to replicate Hank's 1960 one.

I had various Stratocasters to hand to compare with for measuring purposes too which helped in this build. I should have adjusted the neck truss rod 'off' before mounting so that led me having to remove the neck once strung as the relief was too flat, a quick turn back 1/4 on the nut screw plus a tad and it came to the right shape. 

(Always an unknown quantity in this situation & a slight inconvenience on the vintage models that the adjuster is hidden, unlike the modern ones where it is at the nut end!)

Being a new neck and never previously fitted, I allowed the guitar to 'come to' after stringing it to the right pitch for the first time. Having discovered the neck relief was not enough, I then detuned, unbolted the neck, adjusted the relief and again tuned up the guitar and let it rest for a couple of days before checking again. It is best not to rush this process. New wood needs time to acclimatise and also to stabilise.

This adjustment method worked well and I did a first set up after doing the intonation of the bridge saddles. I found that in the 18th fret area I was getting a flat out, it proved to be a fret that had risen, so I carefully tapped it down using a wooden block on the fret crown and a small hammer. Apart from that issue the neck was fine and it is not unknown for this to happen on necks that have been made and in store for some time before fitting.

After a second set up at the nut end, the strings are nice and low without fret buzzing and the guitar sounds nice and resonant and great plugged in too. 

All in all, I am pleased with how the guitar has turned out

It has the look of the 1960 Hank Marvin guitar and also the sound

which is what I wanted to achieve.

For about £450 in parts it is in my view comparable to buying a £1600 version.

The action is nice and low and the sound is right, so I am pleased all round with it.

I find the Hosco parts are good quality maybe I might do a complete Hosco one?