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The Fender Stratocaster is a model of electric guitar produced by the Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company from the early 1950s until the present and used by many leading guitarists and on many historic recordings. Its popularity shows no sign of decreasing.
The Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, now known as Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, was founded by the late Leo Fender and played a leading role in developing the electric guitar. The company’s first electric guitars were the Telecaster and its variant the Esquire. Though these guitars were successful in the market place, many guitar players of the time insisted on using a Bigsby vibrato, a moveable bridge piece that varies the tension of the strings for a vibrato/tremolo effect. This effect was not incorporated on the Telecaster or Esquire. Instead of adding a Bigsby’s, or similar device to their line of guitars, Fender decided to produce a new line of guitar altogether (the Stratocaster). Leo’s decision to invent a new guitar was also influenced by several notable guitar players of the time, Bill Carson and Rex Galleon, who requested a more contoured body design to eliminate the irritating feel they believed the Telecasters rigid edges had to the rib cage and strumming arm area.
The relatively simple Telecaster remained in production. This decision was a good one, as both the Stratocaster and the Telecaster continue to enjoy their own followings among guitarists.
In designing the Stratocasters body, a significant area of the back of the guitar, and the top left area where the strumming arm rests, were cut away to accommodate the comfortable design, and consequently, the “Custom Contour Body” was invented. The new body, along with the “Synchronized Tremolo” bridge made the Stratocaster a revolutionary design for its day. The guitar also featured a screw-on 21 fret maple neck with maple fret board, three single coil staggered magnetic pole pick ups, a selector switch used to switch between the pick ups, one volume knob and two tone controls for the first two pick ups. Patents were applied for all these new designs, and production line Stratocasters reached the market in early 1954 for $249.50. The basic production line model had a a nitro-cellulose 2-tone “sunburst” finish, chrome hardware, and bakelite plastic parts.
In 1959-1965, the Stratocaster came out with a thick rosewood fret board, now known as a slab board (much sought after today), as well as different colors other than sunburst. After 1965, they could be purchased with either maple or rosewood fret boards. Oddly, sales began to wane in the mid-sixties, to the point where Fender reduced its price and considered removing it from their production line. However, during that time an innovative guitar player of the time, Jimi Hendrix, started playing Stratocasters, with other famous players such as Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and David Gilmour following suit. Soon after, Stratocaster sales soared and the Stratocaster has been a mainstay guitar for modern music ever since. Though Fender still manufactures their guitars in the United States, they also have manufacturing facilities in Japan, Korea and Mexico.
Due to overseas production, Stratocasters can be purchased affordably today, and the quality is quite good. However, Stratocasters of the early years through the mid-sixties are very collectable, bringing very high prices, especially for those in all original condition and of custom colors.