A legendary guitar: the Fender Stratocaster

In 1954 Leo Fender conceived and created, together with Freddie Tavares, Rex Gallion And Bill Carsona new guitar: the Fender Stratocaster. The Stratocaster competes for the Gibson Les Paul the title of the most popular solid body electric guitar (that is, without a sound box) in history, and over the years we have seen it do everything: grind granite heavy metal riffs, ride the pressing grooves of disco music, shine on the solos that changed the history of rock and even go up in flames, in the hands of those who knew how to use it as a ferry between the primitive rock of Buddy Holly And Ritchie Valens and the music we listen to today.

There Fender Stratocaster, more than a guitar, it is a symbol. But also a traveling companion, who since April 10, 1956 – the day its creator filed it with the American patent office, Leo Fender – has never stopped accompanying rock by the hand. Because its secret, ultimately, lies in its versatility: the Strat may not have a particular tone like the Strat Gibson SGhis older sister Telecaster (which dates back to 1950), the Rickenbacker 325 or many other models which are also highly appreciated for a series of more than valid reasons, but it is virtually capable of anything. It is no coincidence that it was the favorite guitar of many fundamental and yet extremely different musicians, becoming a sort of lowest common denominator of what rock is today. Below are a handful of the most prestigious guitarists who have loved and used one Fender Stratocaster.

Wanting to trace the origins of people like Stevie Ray Vaughan or Jimi Hendrixin any case it would reach him: Buddy Guy was one of the first standard bearers of the Stratocaster, father – together with B.B. King – of the electric blues that has never betrayed her favourite, practically throughout her career. It is no coincidence that, years later, Fender will honor him by dedicating several signature series to him that are still available on the market today.

Buddy Holly he was perhaps the first of the high-level artists to be publicly identified with the Stratocaster: already in ’57, only three years after its commercialization, the artist showed up on none other than the Ed Sullivan Show with one of the first examples to come out of the Fender laboratories over his shoulder. Holly’s love for her guitar was a visceral love, so strong that it even surpassed the sadly known “day the music died”: a Stratocaster, in fact, was buried with the body of the singer and guitarist after the accident which also cost the life of Ritchie Valens And JP Richardson.

There is practically no need to say anything: even if Jimi Hendrix it wasn’t just the Stratocaster it was precisely with the creation of Leo Fender that the Seattle guitarist entered not only the history of rock, but of the global collective imagination of the second half of the last century. It was he who proved it to everyone – probably even to himself Leo Fender – what that guitar was capable of… and at the Monterey festival he even set it on fire.

The roots always remain in the Delta, but we move to the other side of the Atlantic: Jeff Beck he started with classical Gibson Les Paulbut then, even before becoming one of the greatest ‘Guitar Gods’ of all time, he decided to switch to the Stratocaster. He motivated his choice as follows: “With a Les Paul you can find yourself playing like anyone else. With a Stratocaster I finally managed to play like me”. Innovator in the use of vibrato, the former Yardbirds he is also the owner of a customized series produced by the US company.

Also Ritchie Blackmore he started with guitars from other brands and was then struck by the Strat on the road to Damascus: what convinced him to switch to the Fender model was – guess what? – participating as a spectator in a concert of Jimi Hendrix. After all, what better advertisement could a guitar ever have?

Obviously it couldn’t be missed Eric Clapton in the gallery of characters who contributed to the construction of the “Stratocaster myth”: faithful to the Fender model since the second half of the Sixties, ‘Slowhand’ he has owned an infinite number of them, among which ‘Brownie’his legendary six-string used in the Seventies sold at auction in 1999 for the record sum – at the time – of almost half a million dollars. He was the first artist to be honored by Fender with a customized series of models, including a replica of the same ‘Brownie’built by the company’s Custom Shop and sold for the remarkable sum of 15 thousand dollars.

As we said at the beginning, the Stratocaster is an extremely versatile guitar, which has not only made rock history: the Fender flagship has also become a legend in dance, especially in the hands of Nile Rodgersdeus ex machina of the Chicwho thanks to her has imprinted her irresistible and deadly riffs in the ears of generations, from the legendary “The Freak” to the most recent – and highly appreciated – “Get Lucky” of the Daft Punk.

Together with Jimi Hendrix and very few others, David Gilmour he explored new forms of guitar expression without ever separating himself from his trusty Stratocaster: the six-string adept of the Pink Floyd he has closely linked his career to Fender’s flagship model, developing such a passion for it that he went so far as to purchase (for what we imagine a sidereal sum) the first serially numbered Strat (not the first ever produced) by the American company. An excellent synthesis of the sound produced by one of the most famous duos in the history of rock can be found in the solo of “Comfortably Numb”defined by Tony Bacon as “one of the definitive Stratocaster moments”.

One of the first public appearances dates back to Monterey Pop Festival from 1967, but Pete Townshend – from the second half of the Eighties onwards – he has inextricably linked his music to Fender Stratocaster: specifically, his favorite model is the Fender Eric Clapton Signature Stratocaster equipped with Lace Sensor pick up.

Venerated as an authentic deity of the six strings by hyper-technicians, a bogeyman of guitar teachers and fascinated by more Paganini that gives Jimi Hendrix – he declared this to the specialized magazine Guitar World in 2012, attracting more than one criticism – Yngwie Malmsteen he is one of the most prominent virtuosos on the international scene, and his endless and fiery shredding sessions have always had as their counterpart a Fender Stratocaster. Anyone who is determined to imitate it not only in style but also in equipment, however, should prepare to face a considerable expense.