Fender Stratocaster

How did the Stratocaster get its break? Why is the strat so popular among guitar players especially the rock bands?

With the success of Leo Fender and Don Randal, the guitar world experienced a shift in guitar music and rock and roll.

With the rise of rock and roll music, the popularity of the Fender guitar increased. The Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, Bill Haley and the Beatles caused an uproar in the music world and this caused a great interest in the guitar.

Then in 1954, television, radio and long playing records caused the buying public to be fascinated with this musical instrument. Because of the hype of the market, the stratocaster was introduced. In the same year, the Fender catalog introduced the first three pick-up Stratocasters with a new approach,to guitar design. The Fender Stratocaster was able to give the player every advantage of playing.

The Key Advantages of the Fender Stratocaster:

* It has good tone controls - presence knobs.

* It also has bright switches for tone color.

* The vibrato is made to be foolproof and very simple.

* It also has a good leather strap and pad.

* The deep cutaway makes it easier to play the higher frets.

* The body contour makes the instrument fits well into a player's body.

* Sonic experimentation is possible with the way the pickups are set.

By positioning the switch lever between the settings, guitar players are able to find new sonic possibilities on the strat. Furthermore, the mixing of the pickups produced tones that revolutionized the electric guitar sound. The combination of half way pickup positioning produced overtones which was well received by guitar players. This combination of the half switch pickups was especially popular with many rock groups.

Eric Clapton and the Blackie

Eric Clapton made famous the strat called Blackie. From 1973-1985, the Blackie was Clapton's recording and touring guitar. In 1970 Clapton purchased six vintage strats, paying a hundred dollars apiece from Sho-Bud, a guitar shop in Nashville Tennessee. Generous Clapton gave George Harrison, Pete Townshend and Steve Winwood each a guitar.

With the remaining guitars, Clapton experimented by taking the best parts to combine with a 1956 alder body finished in black lacquer. He used a 1957 one piece maple neck that had a "V" shape and installed the hardware and pickups. A small block of wood was installed behind the vibrato to lock it in place and bingo! the famous "mutt" hard-tailed stratocaster was created.

Jimi Hendrix and the Fender Stratocaster

Jimi Hendrix was one guitar player who found creative ways of exploring the potential of the strat, he played on the rare models which had maple cap necks. These models were made by CBS/Fender in 1967.

In September 24th 1966, Hendrix came to London and jammed with Mitch Mitchel and Noel Redding. After gigging together on October the 5th, they entered Kingway Studios and recorded "Hey Joe" on 23 October. Hendrix and the Experience had set the precedent for the electric guitar.

Hendrix used a Fender Stratocaster which had a rose wood fretboard and used a Marshall stack. His music was recorded on a four track machine, with delay, compression, Eq and panning for effects.

In December 1966, Hendrix met Roger Mayer a electronics enthusiast who gave him an Octavia - a devise that produces a tone an octave higher than the note played. This devise can be heard on songs like "Fire" and "Purple Haze".

For distortion, a modified Arbiter Fuzz Face and other types of distortions and drivers were used. One of the tracks called "May This Be Love" has beautiful strat tones on it. After forty years the music of Hendrix and the Experience sure has made a statement in the guitar world.

Fender VG Stratocaster.

The VG Strat has four models - the modeled ash-body strat, Telecaster, humbucker pickups and acoustic guitars. Sixteen different sounds can be produced and sixteen more if the 12-string mode is selected with five magnetic pickup tones, rounding off to produce 37 different sounds. To activate the four digital models, the M knob is used to bring it on and to return to normal turning the N knob puts the guitar in normal mode.

By turning the M knob counterclockwise, a bypass position is reached which is the reverse of the normal strat which have all knobs in a clockwise position. Each model has different pickup sounds and it is reached by using the five way selector.

The fun thing about the VG is the T knob. It switches the sound between standard tuning and four others without changes in string tension or the need to use the tuning pegs. It also activates the 12 string mode but minus the alternate tuning mode. Being able to switch tunings and be in tune is a great bonus to guitar players.

Mode Control M Knob

N= Normal

Stratocaster= five magnetic pickup sounds

S= Modeled Stratocaster five sounds

T= Modeled Telecaster three sounds

H= Modeled humbuckers three sounds

A= Modeled acoustic guitars five sounds

T Tuning Control Knob

N= Normal standard tuning

D= Dropped D tuning D, A, D, G, B and E.

G= Open G tuning D, G, D, G, B and D.

d= D modal tuning D, A, D, A and d

B= Baritone tuning B, E, A, D, F# and B

12= 12-string, 16 sounds can be produced by M knob 5-way settings.

Specs Fender Musical Instruments Corporation: (480)596-9690; fender.com

*Nut Width 1 11/16"

*Neck bolt on maple, Fender Micro Tilt necl adjustment system.

*Fretboard 25 1/2" scale maple rosewood fretboard.

*Frets 22 medium jumbo

*Body Three piece alder

*Pickups Three Fender American Series staggered alnico single coils

*Bridge Two point tremolo bridge with stainless steel saddles

*Hardware Fender Deluxe sealed tuning machines, battery compartment(four AA) power indicator led.

*Controls Master volume, Tone knobs 5 way pickup selector Mode and Tuning controls for modeling circuitry.

*Battery Life Standard AA: approximately eight hours,

*Rechargeable NiMH AA: approximately ten hours.

*Factory Strings Fender Super Bullets, 009-042

*Weight 8.28 lbs with batteries installed

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