The Fender Stratocaster Guitar Turns 60

The Fender Stratocaster guitar turns 60 in 2014, and it wears it well. You see the instrument everywhere, and hardly a day goes by when you don’t hear its signature sound. It was so essentially and remarkably right from the very start in 1954 that it has shaped popular music for 60 years virtually unchanged. A great deal of the music you love the very soundtrack of your life was and is made with a Stratocaster. It is the guitar behind the sound of “That’ll Be the Day” (the Crickets, 1957), “Purple Haze” (the Jimi Hendrix Experience, 1967), “Smoke on the Water” (Deep Purple, 1972), “Pride and Joy” (Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble, 1983), “Even Flow” (Pearl Jam, 1992), “Dani California” (Red Hot Chili Peppers, 2006), “Get Lucky” (Daft Punk, 2013) and countless other hits.

After 60 years, the Stratocaster remains a fantastic tool at heart. It delivers unmistakable sound and timeless design that have made it the first choice among players everywhere. “I’ve moved around with many guitars and tried many different things, and I’ve always come back to the Stratocaster,” said Eric Clapton, whose long devotion to the Stratocaster began in earnest in 1970 when he used his 1956 model, “Brownie,” to record his eponymous debut solo album in January of that year, and Derek and the Dominos magnum opus Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs that fall. Jeff Beck attributed the “ultimate sounds known in the 20^th century” to the Stratocaster, and George Harrison once asserted, “You can’t beat the Strat … I don’t care what you say.” 

After the introduction of the Telecaster ,and Precision Bass guitars in 1951, company founder Leo Fender turned his attention to a bold new guitar design. The instrument, designed by Leo Fender himself and named the “Stratocaster” by Fender sales chief Don Randall, debuted in 1954. An extraordinary new guitar with several ingenious design innovations, the Stratocaster proceeded to revolutionize popular music as an indispensable tool of phenomenal creativity, and even transcend that role to become a cultural symbol. The Stratocaster is an archetypal electric guitar. When many people think of an electric guitar, it is the one that immediately comes to mind. Those who invented it and built it, those who played it then, those who play it now, and those great many more who have lived their daily lives with a wonderful soundtrack provided by it have elevated the Stratocaster to much more than the sleek sum of its smartly designed parts. 

Perfected by 1957 into the form that has remained largely unchanged ever since, the Stratocaster sang with a sparkling tone that captivated players. Further, its mid-’50s arrival also coincided nicely with a powerful new musical and cultural phenomenon called rock ‘n’ roll. It didn’t take long for the Stratocaster to catch on, especially after millions got a good look at one when Buddy Holly played his on The Ed Sullivan Show in late 1957. And from the 1960s onward, players have put the Stratocaster to wildly imaginative uses never envisioned by the guitar’s creators and earliest champions. It really has revolutionized popular music everywhere.

The Stratocaster is still the future of electric guitar as of its 60th anniversary in 2014, just as it was the future of electric guitar when it debuted in 1954. Fender continues to innovate with the Stratocaster, developing brand-new models equipped with the very latest electronic and digital technology. These new Stratocaster models will deliver electrifying new playing experiences to guitarists everywhere and usher the world’s greatest electric guitar into a bright and bold new era. After six incredibly colorful and wonderfully musical decades, the Stratocaster is beautiful, as always. It is timeless, as always. It sounds phenomenal, as always. The Stratocaster is poised for a brilliant future, as always.