Fiesta is Another Word for Party!
1963 Fiesta Red Fender Stratocaster
We have a lot of cool guitars at Carter Vintage Guitars. Well, we always have cool guitars at CVG… but right now things are downright frosty! In the last week we’ve had three sunburst Les Pauls come thru the door. A few days ago I brought back a couple of pearl Martins from Los Angeles. We have a very nice stock of pre-CBS Fenders as well… and it’s one of those guitars I’d like to take the opportunity to discuss in this blog.
Our 1963 Fiesta Red Fender Stratocaster is certainly one of the coolest guitars we’ve had for sale in a hot minute. The guitar is all original. That’s definitely saying something is this day and age. Seems like so many instruments these days have had some sort of restoration, or modifications visited upon them.
To find an all original pre-CBS Custom Color Fender, especially when it’s the iconic Stratocaster, is a newsworthy event. This is an incredibly rare guitar.
I love music history and Fiesta Red Stratocasters figure mightily in that history. Why? Hank Marvin. Who’s Hank Marvin? Let me tell you a little bit about Hank, late ‘50s/early ‘60s pop music history, and Fiesta Red Strats.
Long about mid to late 1958 the initial blast of rock ’n’ roll that shocked the world was just about done. Elvis had joined the Army and was shipped off to Germany. Little Richard was on tour in Australia when he heard the Russians had launched Sputnik. Richard thought that having a Soviet satellite orbiting the earth emitting strange beeping sounds was definitely an omen. A bad omen. He promptly packed his bags in the middle of the night, left a note at the hotel desk for his band members that told them he was going home. Which he did. He bugged out in the middle of the night, went back home to the USA, quit rock ’n’ roll and enrolled in the seminary to become a preacher; not to be heard from again for another five years.
Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper died in a plane crash (“The Day the Music Died”) in Clear Lake, Iowa during the, “Winter Dance Party” tour of early 1959. Chuck Berry, the godfather of rock ’n’ roll guitar, was jailed on the Mann Act. Carl Perkins and his band were involved in a horrible car wreck, in the middle of the night, on their way to New York. They were to be featured on the Perry Como Show; which would’ve been their big national breakthrough behind their hit, “Blue Suede Shoes.” Carl missed his opportunity to promote his biggest song, took to drinking and it would be many years before his career would recover. And last but certainly not least, in 1957 Jerry Lee Lewis was on tour in England when the English press found out Jerry Lee had just married his 13 year old cousin Myra prior to leaving for the trip. The press had a field day with Jerry Lee. He cancelled the tour and fled the UK, with his child bride, in shame after a few days. Again, it would be years before Jerry Lee’s career got back on track.
A small aside, if you’ll permit me… Jerry Lee did issue a live record during this dark period of his life. In 1964 he recorded a live set at the famous Star Club in Hamburg, Germany. It’s the greatest rock ’n’ roll record ever made. If you’re in the mood for some absolutely unhinged rock ’n’ roll madness check out, “Jerry Lee Lewis: Live at the Star Club, Hamburg.” In that record the Killer stakes his claim that’s it’s not Chuck, it’s not Richard, it’s not Elvis, it’s not Carl and it’s definitely not those four guys from Liverpool that can claim to be the King of Rock ’n’ Roll. Nope, it’s Jerry Lee and if you don’t believe me, listen to the record. It’s all Killer and no filler.
Ok, we’re back to our regularly scheduled programming. It’s 1960 and rock ’n’ roll’s pretty much kaput, there was definitely not a lot happening. The airwaves were dominated by the likes of pretty boys like Fabian, Frankie Avalon, Bobby Lee and Paul Anka. Patti Page’s “How Much is that Doggy in the Window” was making a comeback, ugh. It was dark times for rock music. It was an era of very polite, incredibly formulaic, and bland music being sung by very polite, incredibly bland people. It all had the verve and zing of overcooked spaghetti. What was going on with the cool kids during this time? In the USA, the underground, rather revolutionary sounds of surf music kept the rock ’n’ roll flame alive.
In England a guitar master by the name of Hank Marvin was keeping the flame alive with his group, “The Shadows.” Hank’s music is a wonderful take on what was going on underground in the USA at the time. Hank and his crew made instrumental music with Hank’s guitar being the main melodic instrument. Hank and his band wore matching suits and they had, years before Motown, choreographed moves on stage. Their version of the instrumental standard, “Apache” is maybe the best version of that song ever recorded? For me, it’s either Hank’s version or the version recorded by the Incredible Bongo Band. You have to check out both of them. Yeah, I know… what about the Ventures? Hank’s version is way better.
Which brings us to Hank’s guitar. Initially The Shadows were a backup band for an excellent English singer/recording artist named Cliff Richard. Cliff wanted his group to look cool and sound great. Cliff and Hank decided that a Stratocaster was the way to go, as far as guitars were concerned. There was one problem and it was a pretty big problem for the two of them…. England had banned the sale of American made musical instruments. Yup. From roughly 1951 through 1960 British musical instrument dealers couldn’t import American guitars. England had it’s own guitar makers and they convinced the law makers that if you lived in Britain, and you wanted to play guitar, you were going to play one made in the home country.
Hank Marvin already looked like Buddy Holly and he really upped the ante on that when he started sporting thick, black horned-rim glasses, which looked a lot like Buddy’s. Now they had to find Hank a Stratocaster. In the ‘50s, American guitars were only available on the used market in England. US made guitars were scarce as the proverbial hen’s teeth; not to mention crazy expensive in the UK at that time. Cliff came up with an elegant solution to this problem. Although dealers couldn’t order from American guitar manufacturers, like Fender, individuals still could. Cliff sent away for a catalog from Fender in 1959. The most expensive guitar he could find in the catalog was a Stratocaster in the a custom color with gold hardware. He ordered a red one and it was painted the color that we now know as, “Fiesta Red.”
All of Fender’s Custom Colors were inspired by US auto manufacturer paint schemes. Leo Fender loved the cool colors that GM and Ford were offering for their cars during the ‘50s. By the late ‘50s the Fender catalog stated that any guitar they made could be ordered in a custom color finish instead of sunburst (for a Strat) or blond (for a Tele) for an extra $25.00.
Fender’s Fiesta Red was based on a 1956 Ford color used on their flagship sports car the, Thunderbird.” Ford called it, “Mandarin Orange.” Ironically, there is a, “Fiesta Red” on the ’56 Ford car color chart but that color is more like fire engine red.
A few months after ordering his guitar, the 1959 maple board, gold parts Strat arrived in Great Britain and Cliff promptly put it on loan with Hank to use in the band. About a year later Hank ordered his very own Fiesta Red Strat. This was a 1960 model with a rosewood board. It also had gold parts. When I was a kid learning about music I always got Buddy Holly and Hank Marvin mixed up. It’s easy to do as Hank took a lot of his visual cues from Buddy and both of them played Strats. I finally figured out that Hank was the guy who didn’t sing, “Peggy Sue” did play “Apache,” and he was the guy with the red guitar.
Our, (Fiesta) “Red” guitar is really something to behold. As mentioned before, it’s all original which makes it rare. It’s a custom color, which makes it very rare and, last but certainly not least… it’s a killer Strat. I’ve played it on a few occasions at the shop and listened to it as it was being played by friends.
Honestly, Strats can be little inconsistent and there’s some tricks to setting one up to play and sound it’s best. This guitar of ours is set up to play perfectly and it sounds definitive. My good friend, great guitarist and co-worker, Andrew White was playing it the other day. He looked over at me and said, “This is exactly what a great Strat should sound like.” He’s not wrong.
Come down and check out our Fiesta Red Strat; it might just be the party you’re looking for. Don’t forget to play Apache on it!
Gary Bohannon
Carter Vintage Guitars
May 2025
Gary Bohannon is Senior Authenticator and Acquisitions for Carter Vintage. If you have a vintage instrument you’d like to sell through CVG, reach out to info@cartervintage.com
