Miss Daisy

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Jean-Pierre Danel with Hank Marvin playing "Miss Daisy"

Miss Daisy is the name given by French award-winning guitarist Jean-Pierre Danel to one of his rarest electric guitars, an original 1954 Fender Stratocaster. Some famous instruments have been nicknamed, such as the legendary Eric Clapton's Stratocasters Blackie, a 1957 model, and Brownie, a 1956 guitar.

Miss Daisy is a very rare one-piece ash body, sunburst Stratocaster, among the very first models built by Fender in spring/summer of 1954, before the real production starts in October with 200 guitars. Fender archives show a total of 268 Stratocasters built in 1954. This may not include a dozen of prototypes built around april of that year.

The two-tone sunburst color here is a rare amber variation, instead of the usual yellowish tone used on most of the Stratocastsers at the time.

The neck is dated June 1954 (signed "TG" for Tadéo Gomez) and the body indicates July of that same year. The guitar bears serial number 0585 (there was no chronological order in the serial numbers at Fender at the time. The first Stratocaster built after the few prototypes bears serial number #100, the #0001 guitar was built during 1954 fall, and a model bearing number #0049 shows the same neck and body dates than Miss Daisy).

Some of those scarce 1954 instruments can now be found in music or design museums.

Eric Clapton offered one to his fellow George Harrison. Mark Knopfler also bought one of what is seen now as the electric guitar' Stradivarius.

This particular Stratocaster has an outstanding reputation. According to various international specialists who tried and heard the prestigious guitar (Hank Marvin amongst others), Miss Daisy is an amazing instrument, and, without a doubt, one of the very best-sounding Stratocasters ever. The French official Fender Magazine describes the guitar as a "marvelous instrument" that they are "honoured to present", hoping the readers may have "once in their life the opportunity to play just a few notes on such a guitar". Miss Daisy is also said to be in the "Top 2" of the best Fender guitars ever heard by the company's team. Hank Marvin shares this opinion in the book "Tribute to the Fender Stratocaster", writing : "The Summer of 2007 offered me the chance to play a very rare Fender Stratocaster, a 1954 pre-production model of which around sixty were built. This guitar, Miss Daisy is her name, is owned by my friend Jean-Pierre Danel, no mean guitarist, and like myself, a Stratophile. I had the opportunity to play this lovely old Strat in his Parisien apartment, it was an experience to remember, this old guitar played so beautifully, very responsive, and had the most exquisite tone. Ah, if only all Strats could sound this good. Jean-Pierre, if you ever get tired of Miss Daisy I could give her a very good home."

Miss Daisy can be seen on the cover of the book "Tribute to the Fender Stratocaster" and on several Danel's hit records, including the Top 5 hit single "NZ Girl Blues" and the album Guitar Connection 3, on which all guitar parts are played on Miss Daisy.

In recent auctions, some sunburst 1954 Strats were sold for more than 180 000 US $. A "custom color" one was sold for more than 250 000 US $.

Among Jean-Pierre Danel's guitars, can also be found a Fiesta Red 1956 Stratocaster, nicknamed La Marquise, famous for being on the sleeves of his smash hit albums Guitar Connection 1 & 2.