Stratocaster

The Fender Stratocaster Electric Guitar By Johnny Moon
The Fender Stratocaster (Strat) electric guitar was first designed and manufactured in 1954. Great Guitarists Who Play (Or Played) The Fender Stratocaster Electric Guitar

Jeff Beck - Played guitar for The Yardbirds among many other projects. George Harrison - The lead guitarist of The Beatles. I love my guitar."

John Lennon - The rhyhthm guitarist for The Beatles. Bonnie Raitt - One of the few females known for her guitar playing abilities, Raitt plays a 1969 Stratocaster.

Stevie Ray Vaughan - The Texas blues legend played a Strat.

Frank Zappa - Zappa was a truly incredible guitarist.

History of the Fender Stratocaster By John Nystrom

Serial number are on the plastic tremolo cover plate instead of the metal neck plate.

The Bakelite knobs are a slightly different shape, with smaller "skirts".

Ash bodies were used on Fender Strats until mid-1956, when Fender switched to Alder (for all colors except Blond).

In addition, Fender finished the sunburst Ash bodies slightly different than how they finished Alder sunburst bodies, so the overall look of the sunburst from those years are slightly different. Fender didn't always put a body date in the pot of the Stratocaster. There should be "nail holes" in the Strat body. If the nail holes are missing or have paint in them, the body was refinished. Fender used this nail technique until about late 1964.

Underneath the single layer pick guard. Fender maintained this tooling hole until the late 1960'.

The back tremolo cover plate has string access holes that are round. PEND." opposed to reissue Strat saddles which are stamped "FENDER FENDER" instead.