The Fender Stratocaster guitar is probably the finest electric guitar ever made in the history of fine electric guitar making.

 

This is a Fender Stratocaster.

 

 

On this page are videos of fine exponents of the "Strat"

 

First, a short history of the Strat.

 

The Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company (now known as Fender Musical Instruments Corporation) developed the first commercial solid-body 'Spanish' (as opposed to 'Hawaiian,' or lap steel) electric guitar beginning in 1948 - the Telecaster, a simple design whose earliest models were offered under the name Broadcaster or the single pickup Esquire. While the Telecaster and its variants were successful, many guitar players of the day used a Bigsby unit, a spring-loaded vibrato device that players use to bend notes up and down with their pick hand. Instead of adding a Bigsby, Fender decided to produce a new, more expensively-made ash or alder line of guitars with his own design of vibrato, which Leo Fender incorrectly referred to as a "synchronized tremolo" (see tremolo arm for more on the evolution of such mechanisms). His decision was also influenced by guitarists Rex Gallion and Bill Carson, who requested a contoured body to temper the harsh edges of the slab-built Telecaster; the new ash body shape was based on that of the 1951 Precision Bass.

The name, 'Stratocaster,' was intended to evoke images of new jet-aircraft technology (such as the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress), and to express Fender's modernistic design philosophy. In designing the Stratocaster's body, a significant area of the back of the guitar, and the area where the strumming arm rests, were beveled to accommodate the player's chest and arm. The upper bouts featured two cutaways, for easier access to the higher frets. The new 'Custom Contour Body' and 'Synchronized Tremolo' bridge made the Stratocaster a revolutionary design.


The headstock shape of the Stratocaster is patented by Fender.

The guitar also featured more complex electronics than the Telecaster: three single coil pickups, each with staggered magnetic poled alnico magnets (a mix of Aluminum, Nickel and Cobalt, hence the name); a three-way selector switch (five-way since 1977); one volume knob, and two tone controls, one each for the neck and middle pickups. A three single-coil pickup design was an innovation already in use by Gibson in their ES-5 model since 1949. However, Fender's pickups were much more compact.

In the book "The Stratocaster Chronicles", page 33, Mr. Fender explains how the inspiration for the headstock came from his seeing instruments played by visiting Croatian musicians. "it was originally a Croatian design" Leo Fender said. He was speaking of the instrument called "Tamburica".

Patents were applied for all these new designs, and production line Stratocasters reached the market in early 1954 for US$249.50 (approximately US$1,850 in 2007 currency). The basic production model had a two-tone nitrocellulose 'sunburst' finish, one-piece maple neck, ash body, chrome hardware, and Bakelite-like thermoplastic parts. Other manufacturers began imitating these innovations immediately. An early-model Stratocaster was a key component of Buddy Holly's signature look, along with his black-rimmed glasses, and he was among the first players to popularize the Stratocaster in rock music.

 

Now the vids: