Is that OK ?:


The last "IN"
Fender Custom Shop Robben Ford Ultra FM; you won't see many..maybe only that one

Beautiful as always Alain!!

Thanks
I'll talk more about her in the relevant Forum
Just: the result of a 5 year hunt

Looking forward to it. See you there when you do!

Very Sweet Alain

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

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Beautiful guitar. Thanks for sharing that one Alaine.

1)The first one was a prototype made by the CS at the request of Arbiter according to the specs of HBM.
After some months, without any news from HBM, Arbiter gave the green light to the CS to build a first batch of 25.
Then HBM woke up and said no: Arbiter recalled all to retrofit them but 5 escaped So I own one of these "survivors".

2) In 1992 The HBM CS Signature Strat appeared : about 140 made. I had one I sold because of the deceiving sound

3) in 1995 the CS Scratch Autograph (they had two pickguards, one signed by HBM) HBM Strat appeared : 200 made. I still have one

4) in 1998 the CS 40th Anniversary HBM Strat appeared: 40 units, retrofitted by Arbiter with a led decorated neck

5) in 2008 Oasis Music (Arbiter is now out of the picture with Fender which has its own UK Office) tried to sell a 50th Anniversary HBM Strat , a batch of 25 but I haven't heard about them since last year; the one too many

6) Fender Japan issued an HBM Squier in 1992 : about 1500 were made; then two additional batches of 500

7) in 2000 a limited batch of HBM Strats MIM was released: about 200; they were delivered with an additional tremolo bar : the EasyMute. I had one which I sold after retrofitting it with Kinman pick ups.

As of today, that's all, as far as I know.

But each new series is depreciating the ones before: Limited + Limited+ Limited ..etc = Unlimited with all the resale consequences.
Greed Kills. Specially as the Market Target is very narrow: Old European Shadows Fans and Japanese ones. Most of the Shadows Fans can only afford one at best. Roughly an HBM CS Strat still fetches about US$ 7000

I hope it helps

Alain

Excellent, it does. Thanks so much.

I see plenty of these kinds of CIJ Strats sold:

http://www.mijfenders.com/

At least that one has the decency to describe itself as "Hank Marvin style", because it is obviously intended to be a Hank Marvin Strat - in all but name.

Still: pretty...

Cheers - C

C
mijfender is a reputable dealer known all over Europe.
They also sell MIJ Strats fitted with Made in USA pick ups for a reasonable price. Some friends of mine bought some and are quite happy with them.

Really? That's interesting. I had such a difficult time communicating with them I gave up. Now I have a nice shop trying to purchase a Japanese '57 Strat from them for me instead.

A month into that process, no news as yet. But you give me hope...

Cheers - C

alain that is yet another beauty. You could put together a desk calendar for us with a different beautiful guitar every day if the year!!

Alain -- Beautiful guitar!! I think Fender should bring back these and/or the Esprit.

As far as I know , you can still order this kind of guitar from the CS but without any reference to Robben Ford of course.
Greg Fessler is THE Masterbuilder for these

So you got one of the 5 survivors/escapees! That figures. Great! Thanks Alain!

I must confess I never heard of Hank Marvin until this year. I have known of Cliff Richards for decades, but neither he nor the Shadows nor Hank Marvin ever made any impact in the US. I have seen some of Marvin's performances on YouTube and he is undeniably a superb guitar player.

So not all of the British Invasion made it across the Atlantic into the US mass market. I'm sure there are pockets of Marvin fans, but I can't recall anything that every charted highly here, and I would probably have noticed.

Another very popular UK guitar player that I have known about for a long time, and who is equally unknown in the US is Chris Rea. Great songwriter, too. The reason I know about him is that I used to spend a lot of time in the former Soviet Union, and Rea is just huge there.

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