Classic Axe -- An Introduction to the American Standard Stratocaster Electric Guitar

Hi and welcome to Gas Music. Today we're talking about the iconic American-made Fender Stratocaster. If you're trying to decide which kind of electric guitar to buy, and you're relatively new to the world of buying instruments, this article will help. We're here to give you the basics, as well as some things to think about that the salesman at your local guitar shop may not tell you.

So let's start out with the Fender Stratocaster, a beautiful instrument that's not just a brilliant sounding electric guitar -- it's also a classic piece of American culture. The Stratocaster has served as the main instrument of some of the greatest players of all time, and its characteristic sweet-yet-biting tone is all over the most powerful new and classic rock. 

There are many decisions to be made when we start thinking about picking up a new instrument. Guitars tend to have a number of intangibles and small details that can make you tearfully happy or just plain tearful.


The American-made Fender Stratocaster: The Pickups

If there's one reason to look into picking up a new Strat, it's those amazing pickups. Not only do they sing, scratch, and bite, but there are three of them -- this is a famous feature of the Stratocaster. For the uninitiated, the three-pickup configuration means one near the bridge, one near the end of the neck, and one in the middle between the two. Typical Strats feature single-coil pickups, which have a ringing, clear tone -- think "Dissident" by Pearl Jam, or almost anything by Eric Clapton. The opposite end of the stick is the double-coil or humbucking pickups, which typically sound fatter and heavier  -- think Zeppelin's "Whole Lotta Love" or almost anything by Guns and Roses. So if you plan on being the next Slash, you might want to stop right here and go test-drive a
Gibson Les Paul.

                        

One thing about the 3-pickup arrangement is that it gives you all kinds of flexibility within the single-coil sound. The tone from the neck pickup is warm and round, while the bridge pickup is the essence of twangy bite. The middle one is, you guessed it, somewhere in the middle. But the American-made Strat has a 5-way toggle switch, introduced in 1977 after guitarists started jamming the switch between positions to get the tone they wanted. Combined with the tone knobs, the palette of the Strat impressively broad.

Some of the players who take advantage of the rounded tones of the neck pickup include Stevie Ray Vaughan, Mark Knopfler, and Ron Wood, although Eric Clapton is probably the best-known of this group.

The American-Made Fender Stratocaster -- Neck and Fingerboard 

Fender American Standard Stratocaster Electric Guitar, Maple Fingerboard - Olympic White

 The Stratocaster possesses a relatively thin neck that tapers, or gets thinner, the farther it gets from the body. This makes Fenders an excellent choice for young players and those of you with smaller hands, but it's also one of those intangibles that can make playing this instrument less than ideal. For me, there's something about a lot of Strat necks that makes playing them actually hazardous -- the fret edges tend to snag my hand when I play, which feels weird at best and actually painful at worst. You may not have this problem. Or you may have others...

The American-Made Fender Stratocaster -- Intangibles

There are other random issues with Stratocasters that may or may not be worth mentioning, including the volume knob's proximity to the bridge, which for me means I tend to hit it with my right hand, slowly turning the volume down over the course of a song. This is especially irritating on stage, since I don't always realize it's happening.

Other issues don't surface until it's too late, and you wish someone had told you sooner. I had a gorgeous SG, Gibson's single-coil answer to Stratocasters and Telecasters, that I owned some years ago. It was butterscotch-orange, in perfect condition, and sounded like a tiger. I was excited to buy it. My excitement turned to frustration, however, as I discovered that this instrument had a heavy headstock and a relatively lightweight body, so every time I took my hands off it the guitar would slide, headstock-down, toward the floor. If I didn't grab it fast, the neck would be out of reach of my left hand, which was awkward on stage to say the least. So this beautiful guitar had to go. Not saying we can prevent this kind of thing from happening to you, but a little research goes a long way. So I hope you keep gathering information about all of your options, so you can decide whether to buy a new strat, or to spend those hard-earned dollars elsewhere.