DIY WORKSHOP RESTORING CHRIS BUCK’S HOUSE-CLEARANCE STRATOCASTER

Shortly before Christmas 2019, Buck & Evans guitarist and YouTube sensation Chris Buck sent me a grainy image of an old Stratocaster that was due to be sold at auction the next morning. Unlike musical instrument specialists such as Gardiner Houlgate, house clearances and liquidations tend to be Pontypridd Auctions’ stock in trade, so the details provided were sketchy to say the least.

“Somebody tagged me in a very pixelated video”, recalls Chris. “I could see this abomination of a Strat leaning up against a cardboard box and they just scanned over it really quickly. I’m not a vintage gear aficionado but I could tell it looked old and clearly had a lot of wear. I was nervous because if I’d alerted anyone to this who I didn’t have a particularly close relationship with, they might have beaten me to the punch.”

I offered to go with Chris to check it out and, early the following morning, we found ourselves in the Pontypridd Auctions sale room gazing at a truly dilapidated red 1962 Stratocaster. Other items included a fawn AC30 combo that had been converted into a head, along with a pair of vintage Vox speaker cabinets, a Roland Space Echo and a valve WEM Copicat. On balance, everything pointed towards the sad demise of a Shadows fan.

“I thought there was an outside chance that I was one of only a few people who had figured out what this instrument might be,” says Chris. “But, at nine o’clock, the floodgates opened and there was quite a bit of interest in the guitar. We were ushered into a back room, where the guitar was dismantled for closer inspection as we enjoyed some tea and biscuits.”