The Stratocaster is a Fender guitar originally designed by George Fullerton, Leo Fender and Freddie Tavare back in 1954 and has been continuously manufactured by Fender ever since. Its design is that of a double-cutaway that features an extended top horn to improve the balance while played standing.
It is one of the most common as well as oldest guitars currently produced today. The Gibson SG, Fender Telecaster and Gibson Les Paul are the only other currently manufactured guitars that share the title as the most common and oldest designs. The Stratocaster has helped to mold and shape the music industry into what it is today.
The very first Fender Stratocaster came in a two-color sunburst style finish along with a body composed of solid ash. The neck featured 21 frets and was composed of a solid piece of maple. It came with black colored dot inlays as well as Kluson heads. The original design stayed the same until 1957 when Fender changed the body from ash to alder.
It was not until 1960 that Fender would begin to offer alternative color options standard. Prior to then any other color options were completely customized. The Stratocaster was finished Dupont lacquers for an additional 5% increase in the cost.
The pick-guard was of a unique design that was developed to allow all of the electronics other then that of the jack plate to be surface mounted for easy access. While the design has gone through a number of changes over the years as a means of improving sound and usability, but many guitarists still prefer the feel of the older designs.
So popular is the Stratocaster that it has been copied and imitated on a number of occasions since its introduction. It was because of these copies and imitations that the term strat is used generally to describe any guitar of similar design. However, the term itself is a copyrighted on which is held by the Fender Musical Instrument Corporation.
The Fender Stratocaster is a unique and radically contoured design which has been dubbed the comfort contour body by Fender. It is easy to tell the Stratocaster from a Telecaster due to these sleek contours.
There are three single type coil pickups in the Stratocaster which are selected through a 3-way. By jamming the selector between the 1st and 2nd position, people found that they could utilize two of the pickups. As a result, Fender realized a change was needed and introduced the 5-way selector which is commonplace today. This particular guitar along with its 5-was, has been used by a number of famous musicians including Bob Dylan, Mark Knopfler as well as Eric Clapton.who often used positions 2 as well as 4 to create their well-known quirky tones.
While there have been a number of changes over the years to the original design, the Fender Stratocaster has been able to stand the test of time in order to become one of the greatest guitars in music history.
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