Fender Stratocaster

Fender Stratocaster, model of electric guitar created by American inventor and manufacturer Leo Fender and known for its elegant design and tonal versatility. The Stratocaster, or “Strat,” as it is known by guitar aficionados, is easily recognized by the two horns that highlight the guitar body’s cutaways above and below the neck. Unlike the Fender Telecaster, whose bridge is locked in place, the Stratocaster version in widest use possesses a floating bridge, which allows the player to modulate the pitch of the tone by reducing the tension on the strings. The Stratocaster is a fixture in modern Western popular music, especially in rhythm and blues and various forms of rock.

History and design

After the release of the Telecaster in 1951, Fender set out to construct a modular solid-body electric guitar that could compete with manufacturers of upscale electric guitars, including Gibson, which distributed the Les Paul. During this period, he and his staff solicited feedback from guitar players and salespeople alike about the kinds of features that were sought in a new guitar. Several prominent guitar players offered suggestions for ergonomic improvements, and Fender incorporated many into the Stratocaster’s design before the model’s initial release, in October 1954. As the Strat has evolved across the decades since then, several variants have been introduced featuring different neck profiles, pickup configurations, and colour schemes.

The Stratocaster’s basic double-cutaway body shape, which contrasts with the single-cutaway shape of the Telecaster, largely mimics that of the Fender Precision Bass guitar (released in 1951). This shape allows the player’s hands increased access to the high frets (that is, the raised metal strips on the guitar’s neck that separate individual notes on one or more strings) and reduces the instrument’s weight. Several sources credit Rex Gallion, the guitarist for the popular 1940s radio program Dude Martin and His Roundup Gang, for improvements in the body’s contouring. He remarked that the Telecaster’s squared edges pressed uncomfortably into the player’s ribs, abdomen, and picking forearm, and he suggested that smoother and more-rounded edges would make the instrument more comfortable to play.

Discover how ordinary objects work, and expand your understanding of the familiar.

SIGN UP

" height="20" alt="HEW Logo">

Thank you for signing up!"

Back to homepage

By clicking "Sign Up", you consent to the Britannica Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Britannica Quiz

Sound Check: Musical Vocabulary Quiz

The Stratocaster also offered two other major improvements over the Telecaster and other guitars of the period. The first was the addition of a third contact microphone, or pickup (that is, a transducer that uses magnets to convert the mechanical energy created by plucking a string to an electric current). Although versions of the Stratocaster made between 1954 and 1976 featured a three-way switching system that allowed the player to switch between the neck, middle, and bridge pickups, units made since 1977 have featured a 5-way switch that enables the player to alternate between five different timbre settings: the neck, middle, and bridge pickups individually, along with the neck and middle pickups together and the middle and bridge pickups together.

The most significant improvement was the addition of Fender’s vibrato system, called the Synchronized Tremolo, which allows the player to flatten and sharpen the pitch of a note or chord by changing the tension of the strings on the bridge. During the early 1950s other guitar companies were using the Bigsby vibrato tailpiece, created by Paul A. Bigsby. This device allowed the player to flatten the pitch of the strings by turning a roller tailpiece, which anchored the strings, within a set bridge attached to the guitar’s surface. Pushing down on a metal arm slackened the strings by rolling them forward. Releasing the arm brought the strings back to their original level of tension. However, mid-20th-century Bigsby vibratos had a reputation for being unreliable: the strings would not always return to their original tension, and thus the guitar would go out of tune because of uneven friction between the string and the roller.

Fender’s early attempts to design a vibrato system also involved placing the strings on rollers, but he could not get the mechanism to work properly, so he developed a system that moved the bridge and tailpiece together. Like the Bigsby vibrato, the Synchronized Tremolo, completed in 1953, was activated by a tremolo arm (also called a whammy bar), but it differed from the Bigsby vibrato in that it rocked the entire bridge and tailpiece forward and backward, pivoting (or “floating”) on six screws. Pushing the tremolo arm flattened the pitch, pulling it outward sharpened the pitch, and releasing it brought the strings back to the original level of tension—all while avoiding the friction issues associated with the Bigsby system. The first run of the Stratocaster gave buyers the choice between a guitar with the Synchronized Tremolo or one with a fixed bridge and tailpiece.

Famous Stratocaster players

1 of 2

2 of 2

Still, despite the Stratocaster’s innovative design, guitar players were slow to embrace it. Fender sold fewer than 750 units between late 1954 and the end of 1955, which was attributed to most guitar players being unaware of the Stratocaster and many of those who were regarding it as a gimmick instrument. The appearance of a Stratocaster-playing Buddy Holly and his band, the Crickets, on The Ed Sullivan Show in late 1957 changed this perception. Not only did his performance reveal the Stratocaster to a wide audience, but, more importantly, it showcased the guitar to many who would become influential rock guitarists of the 1960s and beyond.

Explore Britannica Premium!

The trusted destination for professionals, college students, and lifelong learners.

SUBSCRIBE

The musical styles of several famous artists are closely tied to their use of the Fender Stratocaster. Two of the best known were blues rock players Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Other Stratocaster-playing performers included rhythm-and-blues musicians Ike Turner and H.E.R.; blues guitarists Eric Gales and Robert Cray; blues, folk, and country rock musician Bonnie Raitt; rock guitarists David Gilmour, Jeff Beck, Mark Knopfler, and Ronnie Wood; and rock singer-songwriter-guitarists Jimi Hendrix and John Mayer.