The Vic Flick Stratocaster
A Legacy in Olympic White
Any historical review of popular music from London, England in the 1960’s and 1970’s is not complete without mentioning studio musician, Vic Flick.
Vic is most famous for writing the James Bond guitar line for Dr No, the first of many James Bond films that he and his band, the John Barry Seven, would work on.
1. Musical Credits
Vic Flick played on original recordings with many musical artists including:
- The Walker Brothers – Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore
- Englebert Humperdinck – Can’t Take My Eyes Off You
- Burt Bacharach – Trains And Boats And Planes
- Dusty Springfield – I Only Wanna Be With You
- Herman’s Hermits – No Milk Today
- Tom Jones – What’s New Pussycat?
- B.J. Thomas – Hooked on a Feeling
- Cliff Richard – Theme for a Dream
- Sandy Shaw – Puppet On A String
- Cilla Black – You’re My World
- Bee Gees – Spicks & Specks
- John Williams – Romanza
- Petula Clark – Downtown
Few studio guitarists have played on more hit songs. His recordings have endured the test of time and have been resampled by contemporary artists such as Public Enemy, Fatboy Slim and Kanye West.
2. Movie Soundtracks
Vic Flick has a prolific movie soundtrack catalogue including:
- Burt Bacharach – Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid
- John Barry Seven – On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
- Rita Coolidge – All Time High (Octopussy)
- Andrew Lloyd Webber – The Odessa File
- John Barry Seven – James Bond Theme
- Shirley Bassey – Diamonds Are Forever
- Matt Monro – From Russia With Love
- Nancy Sinatra – You Only Live Twice
- Shirley Bassey – Goldfinger
- Tom Jones – Thunderball
3. The Stratocaster
This particular vintage guitar was Vic’s second 1961 Fender Stratocaster as an insurance replacement of the first one was stolen from him in the street.
Sporting a re-finish in Olympic White, the guitar has maintained a lot of it’s original parts including the pickups, pickup covers and green pickguard which were removed at one stage.
The maple neck has a slab Brazilian Rosewood board with Clay Dots and original Spaghetti Logo.
The original Kluson tuners have been replaced with modern Kluson replacements.
The bridge pickup was rewound and put back into the guitar. Previous to this, a Seymour Duncan rail pickup was in the bridge position. That pickup and the replacement pickguard came with the guitar in the case.
4. Price
In 2013, the guitar was sold by Vic Flick to Rick Harrison of Pawn Stars.
Vic was asking USD $70,000 for the piece initially, and settled on a sale price of USD $55,000. Below is the footage of the sale of the guitar by Rick.
5. Useful Links
More information is available below: