Fender Stratocaster - a true tone monster!

Me with my tone monster!

The Fender Stratocaster is one amazing guitar. I have owned a 1975 model for about 25 years now. I refinished the strat as shown on this page.

This guitar was the brain child of Leo Fender. He designed the guitar in 1954 along with George Fullerton and Freddie Tavares. It has been in non-stop production since then.

The Fender Stratocaster has a double-cutaway design, three pickups, one volume and two tone controls, a three way (or five way) selector switch and an angled output jack. There has been a few variations along the way, but the main design has held true.

The Stratocaster has been used by many leading guitarists including Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Robin Trower, Brian Wilson, Buddy Holly and Stevie Ray Vaughn. It's probably the most recognized guitar in the world.

It originally came out in a two color sunburst finish ash body, one piece maple neck and Kluson tuners until the late 1950's when Fender changed to a solid alder body.

Custom colors were also added to the line. They were mostly car lacquers. The single ply pickguard was designed to have all of the electronics (except the output jack) mounted on the back side for easy access.

The guitar shape has been widely copied with the term "Strat" used to identify the body shape. Although the Fender Stratocaster was designed in the early 50's, it's not the first Fender solid body guitar, that honor would go to the 1950 single pickup Esquire.

The body was sculpted to fit the players contours. The three pickup arrangement gave the player unlimited tonal range. The tremolo bar bent the strings when pressed and also gave more variation to the guitarist. And unlike the Telecaster before it, a wide range of colors were introduced included the iconic sunburst.

It seems most collectors are only interested in the pre-CBS models of the Fender Stratocaster. This is because CBS bought the company in 1965 and Strats produced after that year are considered inferior (some were, but I think it is more snobbish appeal). If you are considering collecting these guitars there are plenty of websites out there to help you through.

After all these years, I still love playing my Strat. The only original pieces on this guitar is the body, neck plate and tuners. I replaced everything else years ago. New electronics, output jack, neck pickguard, pickups ( I did keep all of the original electronic though).

The guitar is lightweight, unlike my Les Paul Custom which ranges in the eleven pound neighborhood, and is easy on my shoulders. I love the tone you get with the five way selector switch. The only negative I have is the short neck scale.

Some day I will increase my collection with another Strat. Maybe a sunburst lefty with a rosewood neck, flip it over and play like Hendrix!

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