THE FENDER STRATOCASTER GUITAR
The Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, was started by inventor Leo Fender in the 1940s and he started to look at the process of making electric guitars, thinking things could be done in a more steamlined way.
And this he did when he created the first mass made solid bodied electric guitar the Fender Esquire in 1950, it would be changed to the Broadcaster for a very short time then due to legal reasosn it became the Telecaster in 1951.
With feeback he got from various professional musicians who used the Telecaster, along with production staff at Fender and ideas he had come up with Leo Fender knew the basic Telecaster could be improved leading to the first Fender Stratocaster in 1954.
The new Fender Stratocaster was modified by having comfort carves on the front of the body for the forearm and on the back for the body. The upper bout had a cutaway added the lower had it's extended to allow greater access to the higher frets.
An extra pickup was added between the neck and bridge units, with an extra tone control for greater flexibilty in sound. And then canme probably the crowning point the new Fender Synchronized Tremolo, which polularized the term Tremolo and Trem when technically it should be a Vibrato unit.
Selling in 1954 for $249.50 the Fender Stratocaster would help revolutionize the world of rock & roll becoming the most recognisable and copied guitar in history throughout it's 50 year plus years in production.
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