The first fender Aloha guitar

The original Aloha guitar was built years before the special Custom Shop models. It was a one-of-a-kind guitar, designed by John Page and hand-built by Scott Zimmerman in the Fullerton model shop around 1982-1983. John Page officially named this custom guitar the “Fender Aloha” to honor their deep respect for Freddie.
Freddie Tavares was a lifelong musician, and even at seventy years old, he played multiple times a week. One day, he mentioned that he needed a new guitar. Freddie had a world-class guitar collection, including ultra-expensive Gibson acoustic jazz guitars from the ’20s. However, he wanted something small and manageable.
Freddie and John Page worked on the details, and once the guitar was designed, Freddie and Scott collaborated on refining aspects such as the body contours and neck shape—Freddie had very large hands. The Aloha featured a very small Strat-shaped body, a 24” Mustang scale neck with a small Stratocaster headstock, a one-piece American black walnut neck with an extra-wide fingerboard, a matching black walnut body, a single humbucking pickup, one volume and one tone control, and gold hardware.
Freddie loved the guitar, becoming his go-to instrument for most of his performances.

Freddie Tavares with the original Aloha Stratocaster (Courtesy of Scott Zimmerman)

THE CUSTOM SHOP MODELS OF THE ‘90S

The one-off Aloha Stratocaster by John English

The Aloha Stratocaster was a one-off guitar designed and built by Master Builder John English and displayed at 1994 NAMM.  John was inspired by metal resonator guitars built in the late 1920s. These guitars were often decorated with elaborate engravings and plated with gold or nickel.
With the Aloha, John wanted to go one step further. He has always liked Hawaiian and Deco Art, so he combined hand engraving with state-of-the-art color anodizing.
The guitar had an aluminum body engraved by Ron Chacey and anodized by Peter Kellett at P.K. Selective. It featured a high-figured flame maple neck with select abalone position markers, engraved and anodized headstock overlay, gold American Standard hardware, Lace Sensor pickups, 2-Point Synchronized Tremolo, Sperzel tuning machines, and custom-made knobs.

This guitar inspired the limited run of the team-built Freddie Tavares Commemorative Aloha Stratocaster, a guitar designed by John English, George Amicay, and John Page as a tribute to Freddie’s collaboration in the design of the Stratocaster, and more generally in memory of a man often dubbed the Fender R&D patriarch.
This instrument also featured an aluminum body hand-engraved by ​Ron Chacey, though showing a classic Hawaiian scene with Freddie playing ukulele under the palm tree and his wife Tamar dancing a hula with Diamond Head, where they bought their first house, in the background.

The Freddie Tavares Commemorative Aloha Stratocaster (Courtesy of Ten Guitars)

It’s interesting to note that only a few Freddie Tavares Commemorative Aloha Strat had a colored body, like that of the John English’s model, even though showing a different scene.
​

The Freddie Tavares Commemorative Aloha Stratocaster, nickel-plated version (Courtesy of Ten Guitars)

The Freddie Tavares Commemorative Aloha Stratocaster, colored version (Courtesy of Guitar Motel)

The John English's Aloha Strat body featured a different scene

The neck was made of highly-figured maple with exquisite pearl inlays from Larry Sifel: palm trees and “Aloha” writing on the 12th fret, palm trees and Diamond Head on the peghead — the John English’s Aloha Strat had instead an engraved and anodized headstock overlay.  Since this guitar was part of the Diamond Dealer Series, it sported a diamond set into the headstock.

The John English's Aloha Strat headstock

The Freddie Tavares Commemorative model headstock

This guitar came in a pale island-blue leather gig bag with a matching Aloha strap and SKB flight case.
The Freddie Tavares Commemorative Stratocaster was announced in the winter of ’95 and only 150 units were built, while three others were presented to the Tavares family.  However, Master Builder J.W. Black thought only 92 units were shipped.