Cheap Instruments

[Alan Brookes]

...in the early 1960's guitar players over here had been influenced by "The Shadows" who used Fenders (notably led by a pink Strat,...initially Epi/Gibbo choice was down to what USA guitars were available...

Absolutely. The Shadows were the first English group to use Fenders. Cliff Richard bought them in the U.S. and brought them home with him for his group. He was a Buddy Holly fan and was impressed with the way the Crickets sounded. I'm not sure what they used before then. Every time I saw the Shadows they were playing Fenders.


Some confusion was created because the Burns company showed Hank Marvin playing a Burns Bison in one of their catalogues.

It should be emphasized that the Shadows were not a phenomenon of the Mersey Sound. They predated the Mersey boom by about five years.

[Jerry Overstreet]

BTW Fender has used both spellings on their headstocks over the years.

Grins, Peter

I won't say it never happened, but I'd have to see some official Fender documentation to that effect. Only the Squier name is registered as a FMIC ™. No Squire.