GuitarStory: Bruce Welch - That strat! 

A friend of mine met recently Bruce in a pub near were he lives and got a photo together, he is a really nice fella. So is my friend.

I understand their excitement at seeing their first Stratocaster!

Really great video! I haven’t met Bruce in years but he was always very nice to me whenever I met him

Wonderful start, cannot wait for the next.

Need more of this, just stumbled on this channel...FANTASTIC!!!!

Ricky's guitarist, James Burton, briefly endorsed Rickenbacker with his band . . . The Shadows. I wonder the UK branch knew about that.

The object of desire for many later masters including Mark Knopfler, David Gilmour or Eric Clapton

How good are these stories, and the rest is history :) Hank lives here in Australia, in the city of Perth. Stratocasters, I have 15 very nice guitars, Gresch, ects, a beautiful Les Paul 60's unburst, I play all of them for a while, but I always come to one of my three strats, I think it was Eric Clapton once said, it's like jumping into a pool of warm water :)

My favourite band of all time. I often wondered why the change to burns guitars mid sixties before going back to fender but you have answered that Thankyou. Lookin forward to the nxt episode

Thanks so much for this music history lesson wow, what a story and great to see Bruce looking so well. Keep up the great sounds guys, love this!

Well done Paul, please keep up with these great video's. I met Hank & Brian (B) back stage at the Empire, Liverpool, in May, 1961. They were both absolute gentlemen and they say 'never meet your hero's'!. I still have my 1962 Stratocaster bought for £172 gns from Frank Hessy's Music Centre, Stanley Street.

40 years ago it was my team to own a 1959 Fiesta red stratocaster, I managed that in 1999 and play Apache on it every year as the clock ticks over from the 31st December and the date becomes 1st of January, Apache straddles the year gone and the year to follow. I have owned 150 guitars since 1983. Finishing with a custom Shop 59 maple neck ST in Fista red and good hardware with birds eye neck.

Can you imagine how many out of tune guitars there were in those days since no electronic tuners existed. Yes, you can reference a piano and tune one string then relative pitch the rest but that takes time and work and not everyone is so good at that. Thank God for electronic tuners.

Love the story, which is quite well known. Was it the first Strat in the UK? or red Strat? There's nothing like a red Stratocaster. Beautiful guitar, Leo Fender's first two guitars were and still are very popular, along with the Precision bass and other guitars, he sure had excellent forsight into what was needed and excited the market with his innovative and iconic models.

I was a big fan of The Shads in the 60s but I was particularly fascinated by Jet Harris and his Fender Precision Bass. I eventually got one a few years later after starting off with a home made one (painted red of course!) Tuning was a always problem as often there would be no piano to tune to. So we would tune to a harmonica---it was all very approximate!

I'd like to hear about Cliff Richard and the Shadows 1959 tour. Was it before Holly died and what happen when they hit Lubbock?

Lovely. I love the Shadows sound. I subscribed your channel. Cheers.

Great little series...i often when hearing this famous story wonder how Bruce must have felt...ok so he was not the "lead player but had i been in his shoes...well gosh you'd have been able to sit on my bottom lip for a month..lol...he didn't even get a Telecaster....so he kinda deserves to have guardianship of this important fine instrument...im 55 and love all types of music and always thought the Shadows under rated....they had a great sound...i like to play them LOUD...looking forward to more episodes...ive just read an old copy of Bruce's 80s book Shadows i gave you the best years of my life...its a good read...i read it as a kid from the library...picked up a hardback copy for £4 off ebay

Great Paul and great Bruce, thanks for a fab video. The addendum is when I cloned the 59 Hank Strat for a recreation of that 1st Strat moment as the first ever Post CBS Strat in 1985 as a gift for Hank from Fender Cliff told me he had EMI issue an import license from Mannys and Cliff recently had it valued at Bruce’s house for insurance at a value of only £75k because The Shads blotted their copybook with Fender by dumping Fender for Burns which were not a good bet as they’ve gone bust several times ditto Vox sorry to say! Love Hank, love Bruce, love Fender love Vox, hate Burns!

Is it true that Cliff Richard took this guitar back around 61 and had it resprayed to WHITE? Because he paid for it, and it was technically his.? I also have read that Cliff GAVE this guitar back (in white) as payment for recording contributions and Welch had it restored to Fiesta Red. Wonder if this is true.

Hi Paul, thanks for the great video. Please release more as soon as you can! What was it like to hold? Is it quite heavy? Also, do you have more detailed photos of it to include? Thanks very much, from a huge fan!🎸

Didn't Hank borrow a Gretsch White Falcon for Living Doll?

The "cheesecutter" and the "plank" 😅

At 4.57 what is the tool called? Great thanks my friends

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THE ERD GUITAT IS NOT YOUE MR