Why The Stratocaster Survives

The Fender Stratocaster turned 60 last year. When it came out of the factory in 1954, it didn't sound — or look — like any other guitar. Leo Fender's small company was looking to improve the Telecaster, its groundbreaking solid-body electric, first introduced three years earlier. But far more than a tweak here or there, Fender created an entirely new instrument that's become almost synonymous with the phrase "electric guitar."
The Stratocaster had a distinctive voice thanks in part to its three pickups, the wire-coiled magnets that transmit string vibrations to the amplifier. Most electric guitars at that time had one or two. Fender also designed a new vibrato — the metal arm at the end of the strings that allows player to vary their pitch. With those features and that supersonic, solid body shape, you'd think the guitar would have flown out of music stores. But Richard Smith, an author and the curator of the Fender Collection at the Fullerton Museum Center in California, says it wasn't an easy sell.