The Fender Stratocaster is perhaps the most duplicated and influential guitars of all time, its wide range of sounds making it one of the most used guitars of this century. Almost every accomplished guitar player has, at some point, used this guitar.
First
introduced in 1954 as an advanced version of
the Fender Telecaster, the Strat has
been in production until now. The Fender Stratocaster
shadowed other guitars by offering 3 pickups,
a vibrato system( which Fender called tremolo),
and a stylish sunburst body with horn-shaped
double cutaways.
By offering a choice of three pickups controlled
by a 3-way toggle switch, Fender planned on
offering three different sounds for the player.
However, they found out later that by lodging
the switch between positions, they could mix
the sounds from two pickups, and went forward
by introducing models with 5-way toggle switches.
The Strat was popularised by
many idols of the music industry, getting a
boost from people like Buddy Holly, who borrowed
money from his brother to buy a Strat in 1954,
and by Dick Dale, the self-proclaimed "King
of the Surf Guitar" who used it in the
60s to create superb reverb-drenched sounds.
However, the Strat was truly immortalized when
it was used by the greatest guitarist in history,
Jimi Hendrix
himself. As he was a left-hander, he played
the guitar upside down and reversed the strings.
Using his lean, mean Fender, Hendrix revolutionized
electric guitar playing, treating the guitar
as an entirely new instrument and exploiting
the Strat's full range of sonic capabilities
to achieve sounds that even modern-day guitarists
fail to copy.
