The Fender Stratocaster or "Strat" is a popular guitar by Fender.
A Standard Stratocaster
Design
The Fender Stratocaster addressed some of the problems some guitarists had with the Telecaster. The body of the Telecaster is contoured on the back to fit around the guitarist's stomach, and there is another contour on the front to make the bottom left of the guitar easier to reach around. The body is a double cutaway, unlike the Telecaster. The finishes for for the Stratocaster are relatively the same as the finishes offered for the Telecaster, using solid colors and sunbursts. Stratocasters are most popularly sold in Black with a white pickguard(chiefly because of Eric Clapton's fame with this color scheme), white with a white pickguard (the style favored by Jimi Hendrix), and three color sunburst.
Electronics on the Stratocaster are completely covered by the pickguard. Usually, there are two tone knobs, one volume knob, and a pickup selector with 5-way switching. Some Stratocasters use two Humbuckers, or replace the bridge single coil with a humbucker.
Arguably, the most revolutionary feature about the Stratocaster is the Floyd Rose tremelo system that comes standard with all Stratocaster models. The tremelo mechanism can be accessed by a panel on the underside of the body. It is operated by three springs that keep the many tremelo block in place when not in use. The tremelo uses a variation of the string-thru-body method, except the strings are kept seperate from the body by keeping them in tubes in the tremelo block. Stock Stratocasters ship with Superbullet strings made by Fender, and the body edge of these strings are cyclinderically shaped to keep the strings from going out of tune. Other kinds of strings that use a loop end instead may have diffuculty staying in tune.
The ordi
Influence
The Stratocaster is one of the most recognizable electric guitars in existence. However, it wasn't always as popular as it is today. Artists like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Eddie Van Halen made the guitar immensely popular.
Jimi Hendrix used a Stratocaster for his albums and concerts with the Jimi Hendrix Experience. He single-handedly popularized both the Stratocaster and the Flying V designs, both of which he used actively. He is famous for burning his white Stratocaster at the legendary Berkeley concert.
Eddie Van Halen's skill with his custom "Frankenstrat" helped put the Stratocaster in a more modern light, showing how it could be dynamic for metal soloing. This inspired other artists to use Stratocasters for the metal genre. Companies like Ibanez also made Stratocaster copies that attempted to duplicate or improve the Stratocaster design.
Even among Fender's own products, the Stratocaster has been influencial. Fender has implemented design elements of the Stratocaster on their other designs.
- The Precision Bass headstock was changed from the Telecaster style to a more Stratocaster influenced style, and the pickguard and control plate both emulate the style of the Stratocaster, as well
- Fender also uses the Stratocaster headstock on some of their Acoustic guitars, namely, the California models.
The Strat headstock is so recognizable, in fact, that it is copyrighted. This is usually the easiest way to tell a copy from the actual Fender article.