Most Assosciated With:

Mary Kaye
Born: January 9, 1924
Died: February 17, 2007

CURRENT OWNERSHIP:

Private Collector

Auctioned Off

PREVIOUS OWNERS:

• Fender Custody (50's)
• Johnny Cucci (1956-82)
• Jimmy Crespo
• Elliot Mechanic
• Michel Begue
• Ed McDonald
• Alan Rogan (89-95)
• Lloyd Chiate (95-98)
• Iain Andrew Hershey (98-2015
• Private Collector

This is a custom built 1955 Ash Stratocaster with a white transparent blonde finish that is fitted with all gold parts and a 1956 neck (more later about that). 

The guitar was not built for a certain player, instead it was used for promotional events and the  guitar was mostly kept in Don Randall's office most of the time.

It gained its fame at on one  photo shoot in the hands of Mary Kaye  Born (Mary Ka’aihue)

The Mary Kaye Trio consisted of Mary, Norman Kaye and Frank Ross and was active since the 40’s and 60’s.

The photo was taken between one of their shows at the Frontier Hotel in Vegas. and made its round in the 1956 catalog. Don sent a photo team to do the shoot:

Randall did loan out the guitar once more after Kaye got in touch with Fender and asked for a guitar to loan out.  He sent the very same guitar back to be used, this time for  the shoot of "Cha Cha Cha Boom".  and here is where you will see it be played:

It was never intended to gift the guitar to Mary Kaye. She was a faithful player of D'Angelico Arch-Tops. Only in her senior years did she actually pick up and play Fenders and came to like them.

Eventually It ended up going back to Fender and Randall's office for a few months.

Later the same year, Randall and Leo Fender would head over to the NAMM Show in New York  to demo some Fender products.

With them was the very same Blonde Strat that was used in Vegas with Kaye.

Before he left for N.Y, Randall had contacted musician Jody Carver asking him to help out to demo the Fender 1000 Lap Steel guitar over the duration at the event. Jody agreed and asked to bring his friend Johnny Cucci and was allowed. Cucci was a more accomplished musician, and the two had met in 1953, but was not an recording act at the time during NAMM. Cucci was simply there impromptu.

Randall and Leo took a liking of the duo and they decided that Cucci should keep the Blonde Kaye guitar.

A surprised Cucci was quite honored to receive it, but like Kaye, he played D'Angelico and Gibson arch-tops, but he eventually adapted to the instrument and ended up loving it full time.

Shortly after receiving the Strat, the neck of the guitar had to sadly be replaced as it developed a twist that rendered it unplayable. He contacted Randall asking for a solution, and Don in return decided to ship a new neck to Cucci to replace it in exchange for the warped neck to be returned for inspection. The new neck is dated September 1956. This explains the date gap of the body and neck.

Two years later, the duo finally manage to get a recording contract after much sweat and tears. The guitar was then featured on the cover of their album "Hot Club Of America In Hi-Fi". in 1958. If it was used on the recording is uncertain. I will let your ears decide.