Been that way for quite a while now. A practical person, he just wanted to build a better guitar. The new guitar certainly owed several design elements to its predecessor, though, and as late as early its body shape closely resembled that of the Telecaster. The instrument was a marked step up in design and innovation for Fender. It had not one or two but three pickups, with switching and controls that created great tonal versatility although, curiously, the switching configuration at the time allowed only three of several possible pickup combinations.
The development of the Stratocaster also saw the inclusion of single-coil alnico 3 pickups with staggered-height pole pieces that effectively addressed the varying output of the heavy string gauges in use at the time, and a slanting output jack mounted on the face of the guitar rather than the side.
In response to player feedback on the Telecaster, Randall wanted the new guitar to have some kind of vibrato system. Leo immersed himself in the task with his customary focus. Leo and his staff envisioned a steel guitar-like sound with only very slight pitch changes, but his design actually enabled a pitch span of up to three half steps or more. Simply put, it was better than it needed to be, and within a decade or so players would be using it to create swooping, dive-bombing sounds never envisioned at Fender headquarters.
An audience of folk purists was shocked when Dylan took the stage in an orange shirt and dark leather jacket, playing a Stratocaster and backed by an electric band. By the mid s, the Stratocaster was everywhere. But by the Stratocaster no longer had to prove itself. It had reached a lofty level of indispensability that other Fender instruments had long before ascended to more quickly, but its place was nonetheless assured. Rock music had torn itself down and reinvented itself a few times by the end of the decade, and with each fascinating reinvention, the Stratocaster remained a preferred instrument with an innate and uncanny relevance that somehow made it continually right for anything musicians could think of.
No other instrument had ever done that; no other instrument was like that. The s would prove to be a transformative decade for Fender and by the dawn of the s, if any one instrument embodied Fender itself, it was the Stratocaster. The instrument was everywhere. Everybody played one, or had played one at some point.
It had become an archetypal form by then; a silhouette that leapt to mind immediately on the mention of the term electric guitar. In the time-honored Fender instrument lineup, the Stratocaster had become the Fender instrument as ticked over to On the eve of the year , the future of the Stratocaster looked brighter than ever. The instrument spanned decades and genres as an uncannily versatile and relevant electric guitar; chosen time and again by successive generations of new players.
It remained the choice of seasoned professionals and eager newcomers alike, its sleek form and pure sound continually attractive to players everywhere at all levels. All the while, as always, the Stratocaster continued to find its way into new hands. Bands that had either formed in the s or came to prominence post continued to embrace the instrument. Strokes , among many others. A decade later, when Jimi Hendrix so memorably played one at the Monterey Pop Festival in , it still looked like the future—even more so, perhaps.
A decade after that, when rock was busy tearing itself down and reinventing itself in particularly aggressive fashion in , the Strat was right there in the midst of it. Ten years later, in , when Fender itself was coming through a bold self-reinvention, the newly revitalized Stratocaster stood at the top of the line, still very much the future.
People everywhere certainly do love their Stratocasters. The instrument wears its plus years well. It still sounds fantastic. It still feels phenomenal. And it still looks like the future. Modern Stratocaster bodies are still made of the same woods the originals were made from over 60 years ago: alder and ash.
A bunch more… The US model has a wider string spacing, and the neck is wider at the nut. It also has real magnetized pole pieces vs. The real alnico pickups are much more piercing, and clear than the mexi and squier.
The trem block on the USA is much larger and more dense. The USA model uses what appear to be higher quality tremolo springs mine came with 5, vs. Also, the USA has a 2 point tremolo vs. The tremolo arm on the USA is much thinner and screws in to the block at an angle I actually think the USA trem-arm feels cheaper than the mexi ; the USA trem arm flexes and feels like it might snap off. The fretboard is a lot thinner on the USA model for rosewood. The Mexi and Squiers have different fretwire which is not leveled out.
The USA Strat tends to have very agressively leveled fretwire flat on top. The USA necks have much thicker finish on the neck, and the finish is gloss I actually prefer the Mexi Strats dull, thinner coat. The USA Maple fretboards are heavily coated after the frets are set, and the coating globs around the fretwire. The USA has far superior wiring and electronics is comparison to the Squier.
The Mexican Strats are pretty decent for wiring, but the pickups are not real magnetized Alnico. I've done a little research on the types of guitars out there and I think that my first guitar has to be a Fender Stratocaster.
That said, what is the difference between Fender and Squier? Looks like the latter one lacks reputation and is generally not preferred, is this true? Would a Squier be suited to what I said above? The main difference is in the price and the quality. The fender guitars are more expensive and tend to be of higher quality, whereas Squier guitars are made more cheaply and have lower quality. By this I don't mean that the Squier guitars are low quality and bad, but usually they are not so good as a Fender guitar.
By good and low quality, I refer mostly to the sound, the playability and the durability of the guitar.
A high quality guitar will be able to produce a high quality sound, whereas a low quality guitar's sound will not. Similarly, a low quality guitar might not be that easy to play. Using low quality woods might cause pain on your arm, whereas a high quality guitar will have woods that are comfortable for your hands, so you can play for hours without getting any pain. Lastly, a low quality guitar isn't made to last a lifetime. The Squier guitars are being made in China and Indonesia, but in the 80's they manufactured them in Japan and they were of pretty good quality.
If you look for used squier guitars from the 80's on Ebay or something you'll see that they are more expensive than some new ones, and that they where made in Japan. The Fender guitars are made in the USA and receive more attention in the production. Some of the guitar parts might be of higher quality not necessarily all of them , but what makes the quality better is the whole production.
You should also look into the Mexican Fender Guitars. They are somewhat above the Squier models and somewhat below the American ones, both pricewise and qualitywise. Again, not every model will be like this. It shows many different squier and fender models and it explains what's up with everyone. That's why many people start off with these kind of guitars like me. Before addressing the question directly, a short, simplistic and far from complete list of things that make a good guitar:.
So Fenders meet those criteria and Squiers don't? Of course that's not always true. It's impossible to boil down to a single difference between Fenders and Squiers, because both badges cover such a range of price and quality, and there can even be some overlap between them.
The best answer I can think of is consistency. The higher up the range you go, the better the quality control, and the less likely you are to find a lemon. Buy an American made Fender Strat, and you're pretty much guaranteed a good guitar, and with a little care it will stay a good guitar for as long as you need it to. At the opposite end of the market, buy a Squier Bullet Strat and if you're lucky you might get a good one, but more likely you will have a playable beginner's guitar as long as it's been set up properly in the shop.
The neck won't feel as good as the Fender, the sound won't be as good, and it won't stay in tune as well. After a few months you'll wonder why the sound keeps cutting out and you'll figure out you need to keep tightening the nut on the input jack.
If you don't know what "scratchy pots" are, chances are you soon will. Those are the extremes. The water gets muddier when you compare the top end Squiers and the low end Fenders. Things also get more subjective, so I'll not say much more. FWIW, here's my recent experience. After 20 years it was still going strong. The Fenders were mostly pretty good, and generally better than the Squiers I tried, but after going round a few shops the guitar I liked best happened to be the cheapest I'd looked at, a 50s Squier Classic Vibe.
Whether or not it will still be going strong in a decade or two remains to be seen, but for now I like my Squier, dare I say, better than I ever liked my Fender. Sometimes it's simply all in the name: Real guitarists have Strats, beginners or wannabees have squiers. Not always. In fact, not even as often as not. I've owned a Squier for twenty years a very messed up economy and numerous spells of bad luck have left me unable to "upgrade" to a Strat.
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