It’s interesting how some instruments pass hands from one person to another. How one owner’s prized axe ends up in the hands of another who appreciates it just as much. The Fender Stratocaster on the cover of Hot Club of America is one such example of an owner’s quest for such a prized guitar and the unraveling of the thread to trace its history and lineage.

Early in the 1980s an issue of the Guitar Trader’s news bulletin had a picture of a blonde 1956 Stratocaster with gold hardware for $3,500.00. The current owner, a die hard blonde ‘Strat’ fan fell in love immediately with this elusive beauty. $3,500.00 however, was an impossible sum to raise for a struggling guitar player in New York City. Little did he know at that time that he would someday actually own that guitar!

Thirteen years passed and the struggling guitar player changed coasts and was working at a vintage amp shop in Hollywood when Alan Rogan (than tour manager with the band AC/DC,) came into the store. Both loving vintage guitars the talk quickly turned to a blonde ‘Strat’ with gold hardware that Alan had gotten from John Entwistle. John had gotten the guitar from a guitar collection he had bought when the Who was playing in Toronto in 1989 and Alan had headed up the transaction and eventually ended up with this guitar.

Later in 1995, in the August issue of Vintage Guitar Magazine a local Hollywood vintage guitar dealer advertised a ’56 blonde ‘Strat’ with gold hardware. Living in the area, the struggling guitar player immediately checked it out and also found out that this was the same guitar that had been Alan’s.

After taking pictures the guitar player was struck with how similar the ’56 looked to the one on the Guitar Trader News Bulletin from 1983. Digging out a copy of the Special Re-Issue of Guitar Trader’s Vintage Guitar Bulletin – Vol 2 by Timm Kummer, he compared that picture with the one he had just taken. Everything matched, the wood grain, even all the little nicks. This was the same guitar!

A guitar ‘Junky’ and fascinated with the history of vintage guitars the current owner was again looking through Richards Smith’s book Fender – The Sound Heard ‘round the World. This time he really zeroed in on a picture of this album cover Hot Club of America (1958). On the cover of this LP was Johnny Cucci holding a blonde/gold plated ‘Strat’. Even from a small picture it looked suspiciously like the same guitar. The player contacted Richard and requested a slide of the album cover. Upon blowing up the picture and comparing the grain of the wood…there was no question it was the same guitar!

But now the dealer no longer wanted to sell the guitar which actually was rather fortunate as our guitar player didn’t have the funds to buy it anyway. So began the waiting game.

Finally in 1998, our player approached the dealer with a serious offer for the guitar. They worked out the details and finally the current owner got to bring the ‘Baby’ home. At this point he figured that that was as good as it was going to get.

Curious about its early history, the owner tracked down Timm Kummer (formerly with Guitar Trader). Though Timm was not sure where they got the guitar he did remember that they sold it to Jimmy Crespo of the band Aerosmith who eventually traded it back to them. Unfortunately, he couldn’t remember to whom they eventually sold it. Well, his luck was about to change!

The current owner asked Richard Smith if Jody Carver might know anything about the guitar. Richard said that when he next talked to Jody he would ask. Eventually, the owner got an e-mail from Jody Carver saying that he understood that the current owner now had Johnny’s guitar. He went on to say, “By the way, I was there when Johnny got the guitar and if you have any questions about it, please ask.” Jody worked for Don Randall (then president of Fender.) Apparently, this ‘Strat’ was the first one made in this blonde/gold combination (January of 1956.). Don Randall kept the guitar in his office for six months before giving it to Johnny in the summer of ’56 at a NAMM show in New York. Johnny loved this guitar, more than his D’Angelico and Gibson Super 400, played it constantly but with failing health his wife sold it in the early Eighties to someone who sold it to Guitar Trader.

Jody also mentioned that before Don Randall gave the guitar to Johnny he let it be used for promo pictures by other Fender artists including Mary Kaye of the Mary Kaye Trio. Jody later confirmed this through Tom Walker (who at that time was Don’s ‘Right Hand Man’,) who not only remembered this guitar but also that it was the one that he actually brought to Vegas for the Fender prom shoot with Mary Kaye. She had also used this ‘Strat’ on another occasion in the 1956 movie Cha Cha Cha Boom!

The story was almost complete! The final gap between Guitar Trader and Toronto was closed when reaching the dealer out of Toronto (that Alan Rogan confirmed that they had bought the guitar collection from,) suggested that the guitar might of come from Elliot Mechanic!” Upon contacting Elliot in Montreal he confirmed that he sold the guitar to a friend of his, who than in turns sold it to the guy in Toronto. He also confirmed that he had bought the guitar from Guitar Trader in the mid Eighties. Bingo! There was the entire lineage of the guitar’s ownership as well as a time line.

Regardless of the history and rarity of Johnny’s guitar... it is a beautiful instrument, a modern day Stradivarius which is still today making beautiful music as well as impassioned with Johnny’s soul, brilliance and passion.

Please enjoy. And Listen to the Hot Club Of America in all their Glory