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Fender Stratocaster
Wikipedia (en)
The Fender Stratocaster, colloquially known as the Strat, is a model of double-cutaway electric guitar designed between 1952 and 1954 by Leo Fender, Bill Carson, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares. The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continuously manufactured the Stratocaster since 1954.
The guitar's distinctive body shape was revolutionary when introduced in the mid-1950s. The heavily contoured back was designed for better comfort while playing. The elongated top horn changes the balance when played standing up with a strap compared to the preceding model, the Fender Telecaster. While the original release of the Stratocaster included a vibrato system, Stratocasters without it ("hardtails") were added to the portfolio in March 1955. The modular nature of the guitar, with its easily removable components, enabled players and luthiers to perform numerous modifications to their own guitars, changing out pickups or necks to fit the needs of the player. All of these design elements were popularized and later became industry standards due to the success of the Stratocaster.
Many prominent rock musicians have been associated with the Stratocaster for use in studio recording and live performances, most notably Rory Gallagher, Hank Marvin, Eric Clapton, Buddy Holly, David Gilmour, George Harrison, Mark Knopfler, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Johnson, John Frusciante, Kevin Parker, Yngwie Malmsteen and Jeff Beck.
The Fender Stratocaster is one of the most iconic electric guitar models of all time, and along with the Gibson Les Paul, Gibson SG, and Fender Telecaster, it is one of the most-often emulated electric guitar shapes, It is a patented design, and "Stratocaster" and "Strat" are Fender trademarks. Therefore, imitations by other manufacturers must be shaped slightly differently, and are sometimes called S-Type or ST-type guitars, while the term "Superstrat" typically refers to third-party Stratocaster look-alikes from the 1980s onwards with innovative features such as new types of bridges or pick-up configurations. Some of these features were subsequently also offered on Fender Stratocaster models or those made under the Fender-owned brand, Squier, and the Superstrat term is sometimes also applied to these Fender and Squier models.
The origins of the name "Stratocaster" are unclear: while it's generally agreed upon that it was named by Don Randall, sources diverge on whether he was inspired by the stratosphere or the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser.
