A 1954 Stratocaster, from the guitar’s first year, at the Experience Music Project museum in Seattle. Photo John Seb Barber, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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The Fender Stratocaster
What it took directly
- documentedthe Stratocaster's body took from Freddy Tavares's spring-1953 sketch, which adapted the two-horned shape of Leo Fender's Precision Bass"In spring of that year, however, new arrival Freddy Tavares sketched out a new body shape that sleekly adapted Leo’s balanced two-horned shape for the Precision Bass." Jeff Owens, Fender's company history of the 1950s Stratocaster (fender.com, archived January 2025). MusicRadar (2011) also says the body was lifted from the 1951 Precision Bass
- documentedthe Stratocaster's name took from Don Randall, Fender's sales chief, in early 1953"Fender sales chief Don Randall came up with a name for it: the Stratocaster." Jeff Owens, Fender's company history of the 1950s Stratocaster (fender.com, archived January 2025)
- statedthe Stratocaster's contoured body took from Bill Carson's bruised ribs: he told Leo Fender a guitar should fit "like a well tailored shirt""Carson found that tucking the oblong Telecaster into his ribcage for hours every night often caused bruising. The guitars should be reshaped to fit the player's body "like a well tailored shirt", Carson told Fender." Bill Carson, as quoted in Dave Laing, obituary of Bill Carson, The Guardian (14 May 2007). MusicRadar (2011) quotes the same line from him
- documentedthe Stratocaster's contoured body took from the guitarist Rex Gallion, who asked Leo why a body should keep digging into your ribs"Guitarist Rex Gallion is often credited with suggesting that a solid-body guitar didn’t need squared-off edges since it didn’t have an internal sound chamber, and with asking Leo himself, “Why not get away from a body that is always digging into your ribs?”" Jeff Owens, Fender's company history of the 1950s Stratocaster (fender.com, archived January 2025). Fender says Gallion is "often credited"; the other sources here credit Carson
- documentedthe Stratocaster's vibrato bridge took from Leo Fender's wish to improve on the vibratos of his former partner Doc Kauffman and of Paul Bigsby"Leo was eager to better the designs by his former business partner, Doc Kauffman, and by his contemporary, Paul Bigsby." Jeff Owens, Fender's company history of the 1950s Stratocaster (fender.com, archived January 2025)
- statedthe Stratocaster's vibrato bridge took from a failed first design on rollers, which Leo's right-hand man in the factory, George Fullerton, said "sounded terrible""Leo and guitarist/advisor Bill Carson apparently thought prototype units sounded fine at the factory, but Leo’s right-hand man in the factory, George Fullerton, said they “sounded terrible.”" George Fullerton, as quoted in Jeff Owens, Fender's company history of the 1950s Stratocaster (fender.com, archived January 2025), from Richard Smith's Fender: The Sound Heard 'Round the World
- documentedthe Stratocaster's second vibrato took from a gram scale, which inspired the rocking bridge Leo finished in late 1953"Inspired by a gram scale, he hurriedly completed an entirely new design in late 1953" Jeff Owens, Fender's company history of the 1950s Stratocaster (fender.com, archived January 2025)
- documentedthe Stratocaster's headstock took from the instruments of Paul Bigsby"The guitar’s distinctively shaped headstock—more fully curvaceous than that of the Telecaster and Precision Bass—was undoubtedly influenced by instruments built by Paul Bigsby" Jeff Owens, Fender's company history of the 1950s Stratocaster (fender.com, archived January 2025)
- documentedthe Stratocaster took from Fender's need for a top-line guitar to answer Gibson's Les Paul of 1952"particularly Gibson’s Les Paul, introduced in 1952 in response to what Randall once called the “plain Jane” Telecaster" Jeff Owens, Fender's company history of the 1950s Stratocaster (fender.com, archived January 2025)
What it learned to do
- documentedthe Stratocaster learned from Bill Carson, its "test pilot", whose notes on contours, pickups and controls set it apart from the Telecaster"his input regarding body contours, pickups, and control placement differentiated it from the slab-bodied Telecaster." Willie G. Moseley, Vintage Guitar (September 2022)
- documentedthe Stratocaster learned from western swing guitarists who tested its prototypes in local nightclubs"Leo and his staff were ably abetted by several western swing guitarists in addition to Gallion and Carson who were happy to field-test Stratocaster prototypes in local nightclubs." Jeff Owens, Fender's company history of the 1950s Stratocaster (fender.com, archived January 2025)
- documentedthe Stratocaster's "in-between" tones learned from players, who balanced the three-way switch between its notches to get two pickups at once"Players quickly found, however, that they could get two combinations of pickups—the neck and middle pickups together and the bridge and middle pickups together—by carefully balancing the switch in the two points between the three notched positions." Jeff Owens, Fender's company history of the 1950s Stratocaster (fender.com, archived January 2025)
- documentedLeo Fender learned from radio repair work, fixing musicians' amplifiers on the side"At the time, Leo was a radio repair man who helped musicians on the side fixing their amplifiers." NAMM Oral History Program, entry for Billy Carson (interview recorded July 21, 2001)
The tradition it sits in
- inferredthe Stratocaster's body contour comes from the same complaint from several working players: the Telecaster's sharp edge dug into their ribs"Over the years, Billy related his frustration over the way the sharp edge of his guitar would cut into his ribs." inferred: the NAMM entry and The Guardian give the complaint to Carson, Fender's history to Rex Gallion; no source says it was more than one player's idea
- inferredthe Stratocaster's vibrato comes from the steel guitar, which Fender was already building"Leo and his staff envisioned a steel guitar-like sound with only very slight pitch changes" inferred: Fender's history says Leo wanted a steel-guitar-like sound from the vibrato and that the company already made steel guitars; it does not link the two
- documentedthe Stratocaster comes from western swing: its big, full sound was designed for Carson and his contemporaries"whose big, full sound was designed for use by Carson and his contemporaries in western swing." Dave Laing, obituary of Bill Carson, The Guardian (14 May 2007)
- documentedthe Stratocaster comes from the Telecaster, which grew out of the Broadcaster heard on Arthur Smith's "Guitar Boogie""The Telecaster had evolved from Fender's Broadcaster, featured on Arthur Smith's hit Guitar Boogie (1947)." Dave Laing, obituary of Bill Carson, The Guardian (14 May 2007)
Where the whole form comes from
- documentedthe Stratocaster comes from an outsider to the guitar trade: Leo Fender, who had little background in instrument building"Leo Fender wasn’t a serious musician, had little background (or interest) in the traditional crafts or lore of instrument building" Tom Wheeler, The Stratocaster Chronicles, quoted in Jeff Owens, Fender's company history of the 1950s Stratocaster (fender.com, archived January 2025)
- documentedthe Stratocaster comes from a group of designers and musicians, not Leo Fender alone"it was in another sense the collaborative work of a remarkable group of designers and musicians." Jeff Owens, Fender's company history of the 1950s Stratocaster (fender.com, archived January 2025)
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