Fender Stratocaster

Lore & Background

The guitar's distinctive body shape was revolutionary when introduced in the mid-1950s. The heavily contoured back was designed for better comfort while playing. The elongated top horn changes the balance when played standing up with a strap compared to the preceding model, the Fender Telecaster. While the original release of the Stratocaster included a vibrato system, Stratocasters without it ('hardtails') were added to the portfolio in March 1955.

The modular nature of the guitar, with its easily removable components, enabled players and luthiers to perform numerous modifications to their own guitars, changing out pickups or necks to fit the needs of the player. All of these design elements were popularized and later became industry standards due to the success of the Stratocaster. Many prominent rock musicians have been associated with the Stratocaster for use in studio recording and live performances, most notably Jimi Hendrix, David Gilmour, Eric Clapton, Buddy Holly, George Harrison, Mark Knopfler, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Johnson, John Frusciante, Kevin Parker, Yngwie Malmsteen and Jeff Beck.

The Fender Stratocaster is one of the most iconic electric guitar models of all time, and along with the Gibson Les Paul, Gibson SG, and Fender Telecaster, it is one of the most-often emulated electric guitar shapes. It is a patented design, and 'Stratocaster' and 'Strat' are Fender trademarks. Therefore, imitations by other manufacturers must be shaped slightly differently, and are sometimes called S-Type or ST-type guitars, while the term 'Superstrat' typically refers to third-party Stratocaster look-alikes from the 1980s onwards with innovative features such as new types of bridges or pick-up configurations.

Some of these features were subsequently also offered on Fender Stratocaster models or those made under the Fender-owned brand, Squier, and the Superstrat term is sometimes also applied to these Fender and Squier models. The origins of the name 'Stratocaster' are unclear: while it's generally agreed upon that it was named by Don Randall, sources diverge on whether he was inspired by the stratosphere or the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser.

Reader's Guide

The archetypal Stratocaster is a solid-body electric guitar with a contoured asymmetric double-cutaway body with an extended upper horn; the body is usually made from alder or ash. The neck is usually made from maple and attached to the body with screws, and has a distinctive headstock with six tuning pegs mounted inline along a single side; the fingerboard may be maple or another wood, e.g., rosewood, and has at least twenty-one frets. The Stratocaster's body is front-routed for electronics, which are mounted in a plastic pickguard.

Most Stratocasters have three single-coil pickups, a pickup selector switch, one volume control and two tone controls. Bridges generally come in two designs: the more common pivoting 'tremolo' bridges, and the less common 'hardtail' fixed bridge. Both types of bridge have six individually adjustable saddles whose height and intonation can be set independently. Early models of the Stratocaster came with a removable metal cover plate that fit over the bridge.

The plate tended to get in the way of important playing techniques such as palm muting, so many players removed it. By the late 1970s, Fender stopped shipping guitars with the bridge cover plate, though some more modern reissue and custom shop models still have them. The innovative tremolo system is balanced by springs mounted in a rear cavity. The output jack is mounted in a recess in the front of the guitar body.

Many different colors have been available. The Stratocaster's scale length is 25.5 in. There have been some minor changes to the design over the years and models with features that differ from the archetypical design. However, the essential character of the design has remained constant while Fender released countless variations of the Stratocaster over the years that differed in pickup configuration, types of wood, tuning pegs and modifications to the electronics.

Did You Know?

• The first model offered for sale was the 1954 Fender Stratocaster, with a solid, deeply contoured ash body, a 21-fret one-piece maple neck with black dot inlays, and Kluson SafeTi String post tuning machines.
• After 1965, the Fender company, under the control of CBS Instruments, saw a drop in sales of the Fender Stratocaster.