All Information and Cover Photo about this guitar from Vintage Guitar Magazine written by Iain Hershey

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 got its fame at on particular photo shoot.

A popular Las Vegas act named Mary Kaye Trio had been signed to appear in a movie directed by Howard Koch. Kaye got in touch with Fender and asked for a guitar to loan out. Don Randall sent a promo-team from Fender with the blonde beauty and left for Hollywood to the shoot of  "Cha Cha Cha Boom". and this is where you will see it be played:

Between or after the filming sessions, they decided to do a photo publicity shoot for their Fender catalog that year. And it is at this sessios where the famous photo of the trio was taken, standing in front of a Fender Amplifier.

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 demo the Fender 1000 Lapsteel over the duration of the event. Jody agreed, and got permission to bring his friend Johnny Cucci to play with him. Cucci was a more accomplished musician, and the two had met in 1953, but was not a recording act yet at the time. Cucci was simply there inpromtu. Randall or Leo took a liking to the duo, and then decided that Cucci should keep the Blonde Kaye Strat.

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.

They never saw great stardom, and over time, the duo drifted apart. Jody actually ended up working full time for Fender and Johnny Gucci kept playing guitar for other acts. Sadly, Cucci health worsened towards the end of the 70's and he quit the business and moved to Florida to spend his last years.

His wife sold off all of his guitars while his health was failing him. This included the Blonde Strat that went to GuitarTrader in New Jersey in 1982. Cucci passed away in November 1986.

Since then, 'The '56 Kaye' has changed hands with several collectors and musicians (Including Aerosmith stand-in Jimmy Crespo. more are listed below) Iain Hershey was the the last known owner of this guitar for several years until he passed away in 2015. Word on the street says it is now in the hands of a unknown private collector. Some say Hersheys family has it. It is a little unclear. However though, the gold hardware and the blonde color will forever be tied to Mary Kaye. For Kaye herself, the Strat has kept her from fading into obscurity and her name is well known within the guitar community, and the "Mary Kaye Strat" kept her name relevant. The hazy blond-see trough finish has been forever dubbed "Mary Kaye Blonde" and Fender does now and then issues out tribute models of this timeless guitar. If you ever put together a Blonde see-trough with maple neck and gold hardware, its instantly a "Mary Kaye" no matter how you twist it around.

Mary herself died in 2007. The only interview of Mary was done by Fender themselves during the release of the Tribute Stratocaster they issued out.