As Old as Rock 'n' Roll, Fender Stratocaster Still Screams

In the first week of February 2019, R&B singer-songwriter H.E.R. was rushing to get ready for her set at the 61st annual Grammy Awards. Her purple rhinestone jumpsuit was all picked out, but Gabriella Wilson (H.E.R.’s given name) wanted to kick things up a notch. “Me and my stylist decided that the guitar had to complement the outfit,” she said in a subsequent interview with Guitar Center. “What better way to see it than to have a transparent guitar?” Specifically, a transparent Fender Stratocaster. Perhaps that qualifier needn’t even be mentioned. After all, in the pantheon of electric guitars, there is none more famous than the Strat. The list of musicians who have played one is a who’s who of guitar gods. Strat icons include Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Nile Rodgers (who called it “the hitmaker”) and Stevie Ray Vaughan (who called it his “first wife”). “The Strat is like picking up a Stradivarius,” The Rolling Stones' Keith Richards once said. “This is the big boy’s tool.” The 25-year-old H.E.R.—now with five Grammys under her belt—has always played a Stratocaster, too. But the transparent body is not an off-the-shelf feature. Beach Boys guitarist Carl Wilson played a clear acrylic Strat as early as 1972, but Fender has made only a relative handful because the material is prone to cracking. Fortunately for H.E.R., Fender has a custom shop for such requests and put master builder Scott Buehl on the job. Keeping prominent guitarists—and millions of ordinary ones—happy is Fender's biggest priority these days, not least because Amazon will happily sell you a knockoff “Stratocaster” for $109. (A real one runs around $850.) As CMO Evan Jones told Adweek, “The more artists are using the Fender Stratocaster onstage, the more authenticity comes from that.” Founder Leo Fender was a radio repairman who, in 1946, foresaw the coming of electrified music and decided to get in on it early. Operating out of a storefront in Fullerton, Calif., Fender developed the Telecaster in 1951 and the Stratocaster three years later. As a plaque on the landmark storefront attests: “There has never been any question that it was Fender, with his designs for affordable, easily mass-produced guitars, who facilitated the transition in popular music from big bands to small, guitar-driven groups.” Quality suffered under 19 years of CBS ownership, but since 1985, the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has been in private hands. Its Corona, Calif., factory makes guitars for the American market and also houses its custom shop, which finished H.E.R.’s see-through guitar inside of a week. “The team pulled off nothing short of a miracle that put that guitar in her hands,” Jones said. And she—er, H.E.R.—loved it. “You can get both a warm tone and a brighter, classic rock sound,” the artist said. There was just one problem. “The body is acrylic, so it weighs a ton. I usually don’t play the entire set with it.” The late edition With their reputation, Stratocasters can pretty much sell themselves. But Fender has been savvy enough to tap into its long history with famous guitarists, both living and deceased, to produce an ear-popping array of special-edition models that allow aspiring musicians to own precise reproductions of the guitars their heroes played. A Jimi Hendrix Stratocaster ($1,100) is accurate down to the reverse headstock. Aging 1980s teens might dig the Yngwie Malmsteen ($2,050), which comes with aged-plastic control knobs. For Pearl Jam fans, Fender sells a Mike McCready 1960 model, accurate down to its scrapes (photo, l). “Being connected to the artists who move the guitar forward in music and culture,” Jones said, “is really important to us.” Strings attached Leo Fender (1) started making electric guitars in his Fullerton, Calif., workshop in 1946 (2). Fender's builders began making Stratocasters in 1954 (3), then the marketing department advertised them (4). The Stratocaster's superstar players have included George Harrison (5), Jimi Hendrix (6), Stevie Ray Vaughan (7) and Eric Clapton (8), along with more recent artists such as H.E.R., shown here at the Grammys with her clear acrylic Strat (9).

Perspective

If the Song Is Rock 'n' Roll, the Guitar Has to be a Fender Stratocaster

The genre's instrument of record is nearly 70 years old—and still screaming like a teenager

Robert Klara

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Robert Klara