Rick Turner, designer and luthier at Renaissance Guitars, once said: “The amazing thing about the Stratocaster is that Leo did not have Jimi Hendrix in mind when he designed it, and look where it went. For musicians to pick up an instrument that was designed so completely in one direction, and take it in such a different direction, speaks of the almost unconscious mind of Leo Fender.”
Indeed, the Stratocaster was not designed for rock music. Leo Fender had in mind country and western swing musicians when he built his guitars. The Stratocaster appeared in 1954, when Jimi was only 11 years old. The Stratocaster was already there when he arrived, taking the guitar to places Leo Fender never could have imagined, a sleeping dog waiting for someone to come along and unleash its potential.
Yet, despite the fact that more than half a century has passed since its birth, the Stratocaster is today the most played and most imitated electric guitar. It is undoubtedly the electric instrument that has most influenced the history of music in the 20th century. It still looks cool. And it seems never to grow old.
Indeed, the Stratocaster was not designed for rock music. Leo Fender had in mind country and western swing musicians when he built his guitars. The Stratocaster appeared in 1954, when Jimi was only 11 years old. The Stratocaster was already there when he arrived, taking the guitar to places Leo Fender never could have imagined, a sleeping dog waiting for someone to come along and unleash its potential.
Yet, despite the fact that more than half a century has passed since its birth, the Stratocaster is today the most played and most imitated electric guitar. It is undoubtedly the electric instrument that has most influenced the history of music in the 20th century. It still looks cool. And it seems never to grow old.
THE ORIGINAL CONTOUR BODY: WHO AND WHEN?
Despite disagreements over details, most parties agree the Stratocaster was the result of overlapping influences extending across a period of about two years.
Rex Gallion
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Leo wasn’t a guitarist, but he was a great listener, and he took advantage of the proposals of the guitarists he attended - Rex Robert Gallion and Bill Carson over all.
Rex Gallion was a country-western guitarist, who was specifically involved in the evolution of the “Custom Contour” body. He is often quoted as having asked Fender: “Why not get away from a body that is always digging into your ribs?” |
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Bill Carson was a famous country guitarist who had played in the Eddy Kirk Band, for Hank Thompson and for Billy Gray. He met Leo at the end of 1951 and was hired by Fender at the end of 1957 as salesman. Leo used to let Bill test the prototypes of the new guitar. Indeed, Bill was Leo’s “favorite guinea pig for the Strat.” He brought several of the Telecaster’s perceived shortcomings to Leo’s attention.
Bill needed a more comfortable body, which should “fit like shirt.” He said many times that he had the idea of the contoured body first, even though Leo Fender in his recollection always claimed that Rex Gallion suggested contours for the Stratocaster’s body before Bill Carson did. “Before he [Bill Carson] came out, we’d been soliciting information from every musician we could find,” Leo said. “The body design itself was a sort of a product in conjunction with Rex Gallion. Rex wanted me to make the relief on the backside of the guitar so it would not dig him so much in the rib cage and they wanted a little carving away of the corner on top. […] So, we designed the thing according to the way Rex started. We would feel good to him.” |
Bill Carson
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George Fullerton said Bill Carson and Rex Gallion both made important suggestions in the body shape, the contours. He gave them about equal credit on that.
According to Bill Carson, the Stratocaster was initially meant to be his “own custom-made guitar,” built by Leo to suit his professional requirements. But the Stratocaster was definitely not designed and made for a particular person. Its sole purpose was to expand the range of Fender musical instruments for additional sales. As Don Randall says, “The Stratocasters introduction was market driven,” and “a decision like adding a guitar to the line would have come from Leo and from me. He and I were working very closely at that time.” From Don Randall’s point of view “players were invaluable. They provided feedback, and that mattered a great deal, but that doesn’t make them ‘designers.’”
According to Leo Fender, they started to work on the Stratocaster because they needed a new guitar with a vibrato on it in response to Bigsby’s competition: “All the salesmen were asking for a vibrato, and so the [Stratocaster] was begun.”
While the Telecaster’s origin was well documented, the events that led to the Stratocaster’s development and the exact details or dates do not perfectly coincide in the stories of the main protagonists. Leo Fender designed the Stratocaster while receiving feedback from many guitarists, some of whom later did not agree on who made something or offered which suggestion and when. Indeed, Don Randall said: “A lot of these guys who claim credit for the Stratocaster didn’t have a damn thing to do with it. I don’t mean to put any of them down, but the salesmen and I — we were the ones who knew the business, knew the competition, and we knew what we needed. There were at least half a dozen professional players, and we’d give them prototypes. It wasn’t just one player, or two. They’d all come back with ideas — put the volume knob over here, that sort of thing. We used those players a lot. Leo was the designer, principally, but he depended on those players.”
There are differences of opinion on when the design work started and whose ideas were incorporated into the final production model. Leo claimed he had worked on the guitar as early as 1951, “mostly before Freddie came to work.” At that time, probably Leo may have had some ideas on pickups and a new bridge, as he said “We had the neck and body designed, and the pickups. I remember because it was done before we moved from Pomona Street over to Valencia [in June ’53]. I had most of the materials tooled and the parts in stock.”
Bill Carson remembered that Leo started talking about the Stratocaster in 1952, just before Fender moved from the small factories in Pomona Avenue to the new larger ones at the crossroad between South Raymond Avenue and Valencia Drive, in Fullerton.
George Fullerton was of the opinion that Leo had already put down some ideas, such as the “comfort contoured” shape of the body and the double cutaway, similar to that of the Precision Bass, besides studying pickups and a new bridge with and individual saddles. Deep cutaways made the upper frets more accessible and reduced an instruments weight. He also said that Leo started working on the pickups around the end of 1951 and the early part of 1952.
According to Leo Fender, they started to work on the Stratocaster because they needed a new guitar with a vibrato on it in response to Bigsby’s competition: “All the salesmen were asking for a vibrato, and so the [Stratocaster] was begun.”
While the Telecaster’s origin was well documented, the events that led to the Stratocaster’s development and the exact details or dates do not perfectly coincide in the stories of the main protagonists. Leo Fender designed the Stratocaster while receiving feedback from many guitarists, some of whom later did not agree on who made something or offered which suggestion and when. Indeed, Don Randall said: “A lot of these guys who claim credit for the Stratocaster didn’t have a damn thing to do with it. I don’t mean to put any of them down, but the salesmen and I — we were the ones who knew the business, knew the competition, and we knew what we needed. There were at least half a dozen professional players, and we’d give them prototypes. It wasn’t just one player, or two. They’d all come back with ideas — put the volume knob over here, that sort of thing. We used those players a lot. Leo was the designer, principally, but he depended on those players.”
There are differences of opinion on when the design work started and whose ideas were incorporated into the final production model. Leo claimed he had worked on the guitar as early as 1951, “mostly before Freddie came to work.” At that time, probably Leo may have had some ideas on pickups and a new bridge, as he said “We had the neck and body designed, and the pickups. I remember because it was done before we moved from Pomona Street over to Valencia [in June ’53]. I had most of the materials tooled and the parts in stock.”
Bill Carson remembered that Leo started talking about the Stratocaster in 1952, just before Fender moved from the small factories in Pomona Avenue to the new larger ones at the crossroad between South Raymond Avenue and Valencia Drive, in Fullerton.
George Fullerton was of the opinion that Leo had already put down some ideas, such as the “comfort contoured” shape of the body and the double cutaway, similar to that of the Precision Bass, besides studying pickups and a new bridge with and individual saddles. Deep cutaways made the upper frets more accessible and reduced an instruments weight. He also said that Leo started working on the pickups around the end of 1951 and the early part of 1952.
Freddie Tavares
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But, to be accurate, when Freddie Tavares went to work part-time with Leo in March 1953, no drawings had been made on the guitar.
Freddie was a steel guitarist born in Hawaii in 1913 who often played in Los Angeles — the opening slide in the Looney Tunes cartoon theme is his. He met Leo in 1953 through Noel Boggs, another steel guitarist promoter of Fender products, and he began working as his assistant, giving up the career as musician. Freddie drew the shape of the body and neck according to Leo's exacting directions. He drew different renditions of the Stratocaster on a drafting table in the Santa Fe/Pomona Avenue factory, using the Precision Bass as a model, making many false starts and erasure corrections. Much work had likely been done on the components before Freddie arrived, but Freddie helped Leo take several works-in-progress and blend them into a refined, cohesive whole. |
“When I came to work for Leo in 1953, besides doing odd jobs, I helped him lay out the Stratocaster on the drawing board,” Freddie said. “I remember that we had a piece of paper with lines drawn on it: six lines for the strings, and two cross lines for the nut and the bridge. Then we drew a body on it, erasing here and there until we got the shape we liked.”
Left to right: George Fullerton, unidentified man, Freddie Tavares, unidentified man. The Strat's design started on this drafting table. Photo from “Fender, The sound heard 'round the world” by Richard R. Smith
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So... When the Stratocaster was Invented?
These accounts seem contradictory in several respects. Who has the better memory? First of all, we have to understand what “working on the Stratocaster” means. Leo rarely sequenced the development of Fender guitars as others did. He saw his work as a continuous flow of ideas, tests, and experiments. In his recollections, he often talked as if the Esquire, the Telecaster, and the Stratocaster were simply different evolutionary levels of the same ever-evolving “Fender guitar.” Hence, for a period of time, “perfecting the Telecaster” and “working on the Stratocaster” were one and the same to Leo. This could explain why differing interpretations of the phrase “working on the Strat” may lead to several discrepancies: you can't fix a date when a project has been started by somebody who has never stopped working.
We also might assume the very first step in designing the Stratocaster would be just what Freddie Tavares helped Leo to do in early 1953 — draw its body shape on paper. But the question is: what are the implications of those drawings? Did his work at the drawing board make Freddie the Strat’s co-designer? George Fullerton didn’t think so. When a publication carried an article that credited Freddie as the Stratocaster’s co-designer, Leo Fender told that Freddie Tavares came over and apologized because he never felt he was the Strat’s co-designer. Furthermore, Leo Fender’s first twin-horned instrument was the Precision Bass, not the Stratocaster, which suggests the Stratocaster’s silhouette was Leo Fender’s design, although it may well have been refined in important ways by Freddie Tavares.
In addition to Precision Bass style cutaways, the Stratocaster had what Leo called contours, a scooped-out cut on the back and a smooth bevel on the front under the player's arm. These sculptured areas allowed a snug fit to the player's body. George Fullerton said his wife came up with “Original Contour” name for the Stratocaster body shape. This was the first body designed with both the player’s comfort and playing ease in mind.
Freddie Tavares remembered Rex saying to Leo that a solid-body did not require a squared-off body. Leo probably made bodies with different contours to test. Indeed, Bill Carson remembered Leo making several different versions of cutaways for the Stratocaster body, although Freddie always claimed that the Stratocaster’s contoured body came from the first drawings he and Leo made, not from experiments on wood.
We also might assume the very first step in designing the Stratocaster would be just what Freddie Tavares helped Leo to do in early 1953 — draw its body shape on paper. But the question is: what are the implications of those drawings? Did his work at the drawing board make Freddie the Strat’s co-designer? George Fullerton didn’t think so. When a publication carried an article that credited Freddie as the Stratocaster’s co-designer, Leo Fender told that Freddie Tavares came over and apologized because he never felt he was the Strat’s co-designer. Furthermore, Leo Fender’s first twin-horned instrument was the Precision Bass, not the Stratocaster, which suggests the Stratocaster’s silhouette was Leo Fender’s design, although it may well have been refined in important ways by Freddie Tavares.
In addition to Precision Bass style cutaways, the Stratocaster had what Leo called contours, a scooped-out cut on the back and a smooth bevel on the front under the player's arm. These sculptured areas allowed a snug fit to the player's body. George Fullerton said his wife came up with “Original Contour” name for the Stratocaster body shape. This was the first body designed with both the player’s comfort and playing ease in mind.
Freddie Tavares remembered Rex saying to Leo that a solid-body did not require a squared-off body. Leo probably made bodies with different contours to test. Indeed, Bill Carson remembered Leo making several different versions of cutaways for the Stratocaster body, although Freddie always claimed that the Stratocaster’s contoured body came from the first drawings he and Leo made, not from experiments on wood.
HEADSTOCK AND NECK
Like the Esquire and the Telecaster, the Stratocaster also featured a detachable fretted maple neck secured to the body with four screws. It was not a completely novel idea, since detachable necks were already used in Banjos and by other brands, such as the Rickenbacker. Detachable necks were simple to build, play and repair and would have allowed costs to be cut and production time to be shortened. As in the Telecaster, the truss rod was inserted from behind, so that you could notice in the back a line due to the insertion of a “strip” of walnut, usually called skunk stripe.
Despite its unmistakable resemblance to the headstock of the guitar Paul Bigsby made for Merle Travis, Leo never credited Bigsby for influencing the Stratocaster’s headstock design. Even though Bigsby’s guitar also had all six machine heads fitted side by side, Leo claimed he got the idea from a photograph of a Croatian musician playing an instrument with a similar headstock. Thanks to this design the strings ran straight from the fretboard nut to the machine heads, allowing the instrument to hold the tuning better, but this forced Leo to cut the Kluson tuning machines, since they were not intended to be fitted in a line that way. In fact, they were actually 12 string sets of tuner stripes (six-per-bass side), which were trimmed off at the ends of the metal cover so they would fit on the six-in-a-row headstock. The tuner stripe ends of each set were left uncut so that they could be used for the first and sixth keys. The ends of the covers were trimmed with the use of Race & Olmsted dies that were mounted on a small punch press.
Despite its unmistakable resemblance to the headstock of the guitar Paul Bigsby made for Merle Travis, Leo never credited Bigsby for influencing the Stratocaster’s headstock design. Even though Bigsby’s guitar also had all six machine heads fitted side by side, Leo claimed he got the idea from a photograph of a Croatian musician playing an instrument with a similar headstock. Thanks to this design the strings ran straight from the fretboard nut to the machine heads, allowing the instrument to hold the tuning better, but this forced Leo to cut the Kluson tuning machines, since they were not intended to be fitted in a line that way. In fact, they were actually 12 string sets of tuner stripes (six-per-bass side), which were trimmed off at the ends of the metal cover so they would fit on the six-in-a-row headstock. The tuner stripe ends of each set were left uncut so that they could be used for the first and sixth keys. The ends of the covers were trimmed with the use of Race & Olmsted dies that were mounted on a small punch press.
The headstock of the guitar Paul Bisgby made for Merle Travis
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1954 Stratocaster Headstock (Courtesy of Cesco's Corner)
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According to George Fullerton the Stratocaster headstock was an improvement of the Telecaster peghead. The headstock of the first Fender guitar was very small and people used to make fun of it, but there was a reason for them doing that. Supplies were scarce in those days. Fender used to buy maple wood and a lot of pieces were fairly narrow, so they designed a way they could get two pieces out of it by having one end one way and the other going the other way, side by side, head to tail. That wouldn’t work with the wider Strat peghead, so they had to spend more money on it. Indeed, Stratocaster headstock was characterized by a prominent lower extension, if compared to the Telecaster peghead, to avoid the logo being hidden by the strings.
PICKUPS
George Fullerton testing a Stratocaster in the Fender factory, sometime in the mid-to-late 1950s. Photo courtesy of Richard Smith.
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Leo worked hard on new single-coil pickups, because he thought the Telecaster’s worst problems was due to the pickups’ uneven response between strings and the microphonic feedback which afflicted some of them.
Fender tested a wide variety of pickup designs. Fender’s 1953 inventory sheets listed 117 Stratocaster elevator plates, which were discarded because Leo discovered that elevator plates and metal covers contributed to the Telecaster’s feedback. Leo decided to use staggered pole pieces to obtain a more balanced response from each string, thus differentiating them from the early Telecaster flat-pole pickups. With the old-style heavy-gauge sets, the plain B string had a strong signal, so Leo made its pole the shortest, whilst the D pole was the tallest. George Fullerton said they gave Bill Carson a lot of the pickups, to take on gigs and try. Oddly enough, Leo Fender explained he decided to use three pickups because he had plenty of 3-position switches in stock for steel guitars and Telecasters! Freddie Tavares remembered that Leo said: “Let’s put three pickups. Two is good, but three will kill ‘em!” |
The pickups and controls were mounted onto the pickguard and attached as one unit to the guitar's face. The bridge pickup was slanted to give stronger bass tones, thus avoiding the medium frequencies that gave the instrument the grave sound which Leo Fender called “fluff”.
The 3-way switch allowed to select only one pickup at a time, but the guitarists soon understood that it could be blocked halfway generating the classic in-between sound. This eventually led to CBS/Fender’s introduction of the 5-way switch in 1977.
The 3-way switch allowed to select only one pickup at a time, but the guitarists soon understood that it could be blocked halfway generating the classic in-between sound. This eventually led to CBS/Fender’s introduction of the 5-way switch in 1977.
THE FIRST PROTOTYPES AND THE SYNCHRONIZED TREMOLO
"Apparatus for producing tremolo effects" patent by Doc Kauffman, filed in 1928 and officially granted to on January 5, 1932.
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According to Tavares, the Stratocaster would have been unveiled long before if it wasn't for its tremolo, which was developed in more than six months — one year according to Carson and Fullerton. Actually, the term ‘tremolo’ was not correct because this unit was a vibrato. In fact, tremolo is a modulation effect that creates a change in volume, while vibrato is a mechanical device used to temporarily change the pitch of the strings. The source of this error can probably be found because Leo was inspired by the “Apparatus for producing tremolo effects” designed by his friend Doc Kauffman, whose patent was applied for in 1928 and officially granted to on January 5, 1932.
Leo resolutely wanted this type of bridge to compete with all the tremolo units, as the Bigsby’s system, that were gaining ever greater success among the guitarists of the '50s and that most of the time consisted of fixed bridges on which the strings were stretched or loosened. But they all had a big fault: they did not always bring the instrument back to proper tuning. |
Leo’s new bridge was also a response to individual length-adjustable six-saddle bridges, as the Melita bridge used on the Gretsch Synchro-Sonic, the Sebastian Valco design licensed for use on Gibson guitars, or Gibson's own Tune-O-Matic bridge. Indeed, Fender Sales’ force knew that the original three-piece Telecaster bridge was inadequate for precise intonation. The guitarist Aaron Spere modified his Broadcaster with a six-piece bridge in December 1950. Dave Driver, Fender’s salesman, examined Spere’s guitar and suggested to Don Randall that Leo use a six-piece bridge. Two or three years later Bill Carson would make the same suggestion.
The Jazzmaster-Style Bridge
The first tremolo unit developed by Leo was, by all accounts, similar to the unit later installed on the Jazzmaster released in 1958, but it used individual roller bridges which helped the strings return to pitch. It allowed some string length between the bridge and the tailpiece, where the strings were anchored. The unit had intonation screws that adjusted from the pickup side, opposite that of later production models.
This unit was a disaster: little roller allowed lateral vibration, thus dampening the sustain of the strings by absorbing their energy. Furthermore, also the steel rod used as a tailpiece did not anchor the strings firmly enough and thus their energy was dissipating to the detriment of tone and sustain.
Freddie Tavares believed the problem was in the tremolo’s light weight and its lack of the inertia bar. So, the strings could not do their best job if they were not firmly mounted.
Leo lost a lot of money on useless equipment because he tooled up his factory to produce the system before fully testing it. The most eloquent proof of its failure surfaced in Leo's stockroom inventory dated December 1953, which listed 400 Stratocaster bridges, 5,240 Stratocaster bridge rollers, and 1,080 tremolo lever sockets.
This unit was a disaster: little roller allowed lateral vibration, thus dampening the sustain of the strings by absorbing their energy. Furthermore, also the steel rod used as a tailpiece did not anchor the strings firmly enough and thus their energy was dissipating to the detriment of tone and sustain.
Freddie Tavares believed the problem was in the tremolo’s light weight and its lack of the inertia bar. So, the strings could not do their best job if they were not firmly mounted.
Leo lost a lot of money on useless equipment because he tooled up his factory to produce the system before fully testing it. The most eloquent proof of its failure surfaced in Leo's stockroom inventory dated December 1953, which listed 400 Stratocaster bridges, 5,240 Stratocaster bridge rollers, and 1,080 tremolo lever sockets.
The Synchronized Tremolo: from 3 to 5 springs
A second vibrato system, which was called Synchronized Tremolo, was designed from the ground up. It was not perfect, but its revised version would work better than anything else on the market for decades.
It provided that the vibrato and bridge units moved simultaneously back and forth as if they were a single body -- hence the term “synchronized” — minimizing friction and maintaining the tuning of the instrument, and at the same time securing much more than a slight variation in the pitch of the guitar sound.
It consisted of a massive inertia bar of aluminum — milled steel, on revised models — attached to a separate base plate. Six nickel-plated steel saddles, adjustable for both the length and height of each string, were mounted on the base plate. The entire unit pivoted against the six hardened screws that held it to the body’s top surface. With the new setup, the strings no longer moved across the bridge, but they were drawn through channels in the inertia bar and over the saddles. The right tension and the return to the correct tuning were ensured by anchoring the final part of the inertia bar to the body of the guitar thanks to three springs — five, on revised models. The right balance of tensions between strings and springs provided both a functioning vibrato and stable tailpiece.
Don Randall wanted to unveil the Stratocaster at the 1953 summer NAMM Show in Chicago. Unluckily, Leo's Synchronized Tremolo was a disaster and the guitar was not ready for the exposition.
George Fullerton remembered Bill Carson passing the first vibrato system in the prototype's field tests, and it apparently sounded fine to Leo at the factory. But when Bill used it in a gig, he called Leo to tell him it sounded like “a damn cheap banjo.” At first Bill thought it was the pickups. Return to pitch was ok, but the tone and sustain were terrible. The notes plunked. George Fullerton tested one of the finished guitars and alerted Leo: “It sounds like a tin can!”
Despite considerable investments of time and money, Leo was forced to discard also the second unit and began a new one despite pressure from Fender Sales to deliver a vibrato guitar.
The main problem was still in the tremolo block’s light weight. So, Leo and Freddie designed a new block made of milled steel anchored to the body of the guitar thanks to five (not three) springs.
It provided that the vibrato and bridge units moved simultaneously back and forth as if they were a single body -- hence the term “synchronized” — minimizing friction and maintaining the tuning of the instrument, and at the same time securing much more than a slight variation in the pitch of the guitar sound.
It consisted of a massive inertia bar of aluminum — milled steel, on revised models — attached to a separate base plate. Six nickel-plated steel saddles, adjustable for both the length and height of each string, were mounted on the base plate. The entire unit pivoted against the six hardened screws that held it to the body’s top surface. With the new setup, the strings no longer moved across the bridge, but they were drawn through channels in the inertia bar and over the saddles. The right tension and the return to the correct tuning were ensured by anchoring the final part of the inertia bar to the body of the guitar thanks to three springs — five, on revised models. The right balance of tensions between strings and springs provided both a functioning vibrato and stable tailpiece.
Don Randall wanted to unveil the Stratocaster at the 1953 summer NAMM Show in Chicago. Unluckily, Leo's Synchronized Tremolo was a disaster and the guitar was not ready for the exposition.
George Fullerton remembered Bill Carson passing the first vibrato system in the prototype's field tests, and it apparently sounded fine to Leo at the factory. But when Bill used it in a gig, he called Leo to tell him it sounded like “a damn cheap banjo.” At first Bill thought it was the pickups. Return to pitch was ok, but the tone and sustain were terrible. The notes plunked. George Fullerton tested one of the finished guitars and alerted Leo: “It sounds like a tin can!”
Despite considerable investments of time and money, Leo was forced to discard also the second unit and began a new one despite pressure from Fender Sales to deliver a vibrato guitar.
The main problem was still in the tremolo block’s light weight. So, Leo and Freddie designed a new block made of milled steel anchored to the body of the guitar thanks to five (not three) springs.
Synchronized Tremolo Patent, filed on 30th August 1954, approved on 10th April 1956
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Leo Fender with a 60-Ton Multi-Max Press. Photo from “Fender, The sound heard 'round the world” by Richard R. Smith
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TIMELINE
It would be great if we could know the exact sequence of experiments and see the discarded prototypes or the original Freddie Tavares’ drawings.
We know that Leo made at least three vibrato systems: a Jazzmaster-style unit, a 3-spring Synchronized tremolo, and a 5-spring Synchronized Tremolo.
According many reliable book authors as Richard Smith and Tom Wheeler the Jazzmaster-style unit was made in mid-1953 and the first Stratocaster prototype with the 3-spring vibrato unit was assembled in December 1953.
Nevertheless, when Leo told the revised vibrato was developed by the middle of ’53 he referred to the 3-spring unit. Indeed, according to some important collectors the Jazzmaster-style bridge was only a first attempt to design a vibrato system for a new guitar and the Stratocaster with only three tremolo springs was made earlier in 1953.
Actually, the 3-spring strat — not that with the Jazzmaster-style bridge — was the guitar that sounded like a “tin can” because of its light aluminum block and for this reason and because its black phenolite plastics parts were prone to broke soon it was not sent to Chicago at the 1953 NAMM.
As a proof of this theory, there are a few early 1954 Stratocasters with rerouted body born with a small tremolo block cavity that was later enlarged to accommodate a bigger five-spring tremolo block, even though George Fullerton said the necks were the only thing they saved. According to George, they couldn’t save the bodies because they’d need different routings for a new vibrato. He also said they trashed all the metal parts and the dies for making everything. My best guess is that George’s memory failed him when he recalled those distant days because a few rerouted 3-spring bodies and an another one unmodified are known to exist.
According to George, only one Stratocaster with the first Synchronized Tremolo (with three springs) was made, although they had body, necks and hardware for 100 units: “We started a hundred guitars through the line, a hundred sets of parts ready to go. Some of the bodies were already finished, and the metal parts were already chrome plated. But we didn’t assemble many at all, just one as I recall. I couldn't wait that morning to get the first one off the line. I grabbed that one and tested it out, and it was terribly bad sounding.” Fortunately, the first neck is known to exist and bears the writing “STRAT NECK ONE OF FIRST 100 PIECE RUN MARCH 1953 George Fullerton”.
So, the first 3-spring Stratocasters were made in mid-1953 (not late 1953), and the first Stratocasters with five springs known — both samples and pre-production guitars — dates back to January 1954.
Leo Fender applied for a patent for the tremolo unit, which included the six-section adjustable bridge and the 45-degree angle jack plate only on August 30, 1954. Patent 2,741,146 was finally granted on April 10, 1956. Surprisingly enough, there was no mention of the contour body! In Fact, body contour was first mentioned, along with off-set waist, in the Jazzmaster body patent, which was not filed until January 13, 1958, and was granted on November 22, 1960, with the number 2,960,900.
The very first saddles were hand-engraved with the words “FENDER PAT. PEND.”, then they were punched with a sheet metal punching machine.
We know that Leo made at least three vibrato systems: a Jazzmaster-style unit, a 3-spring Synchronized tremolo, and a 5-spring Synchronized Tremolo.
According many reliable book authors as Richard Smith and Tom Wheeler the Jazzmaster-style unit was made in mid-1953 and the first Stratocaster prototype with the 3-spring vibrato unit was assembled in December 1953.
Nevertheless, when Leo told the revised vibrato was developed by the middle of ’53 he referred to the 3-spring unit. Indeed, according to some important collectors the Jazzmaster-style bridge was only a first attempt to design a vibrato system for a new guitar and the Stratocaster with only three tremolo springs was made earlier in 1953.
Actually, the 3-spring strat — not that with the Jazzmaster-style bridge — was the guitar that sounded like a “tin can” because of its light aluminum block and for this reason and because its black phenolite plastics parts were prone to broke soon it was not sent to Chicago at the 1953 NAMM.
As a proof of this theory, there are a few early 1954 Stratocasters with rerouted body born with a small tremolo block cavity that was later enlarged to accommodate a bigger five-spring tremolo block, even though George Fullerton said the necks were the only thing they saved. According to George, they couldn’t save the bodies because they’d need different routings for a new vibrato. He also said they trashed all the metal parts and the dies for making everything. My best guess is that George’s memory failed him when he recalled those distant days because a few rerouted 3-spring bodies and an another one unmodified are known to exist.
According to George, only one Stratocaster with the first Synchronized Tremolo (with three springs) was made, although they had body, necks and hardware for 100 units: “We started a hundred guitars through the line, a hundred sets of parts ready to go. Some of the bodies were already finished, and the metal parts were already chrome plated. But we didn’t assemble many at all, just one as I recall. I couldn't wait that morning to get the first one off the line. I grabbed that one and tested it out, and it was terribly bad sounding.” Fortunately, the first neck is known to exist and bears the writing “STRAT NECK ONE OF FIRST 100 PIECE RUN MARCH 1953 George Fullerton”.
So, the first 3-spring Stratocasters were made in mid-1953 (not late 1953), and the first Stratocasters with five springs known — both samples and pre-production guitars — dates back to January 1954.
Leo Fender applied for a patent for the tremolo unit, which included the six-section adjustable bridge and the 45-degree angle jack plate only on August 30, 1954. Patent 2,741,146 was finally granted on April 10, 1956. Surprisingly enough, there was no mention of the contour body! In Fact, body contour was first mentioned, along with off-set waist, in the Jazzmaster body patent, which was not filed until January 13, 1958, and was granted on November 22, 1960, with the number 2,960,900.
The very first saddles were hand-engraved with the words “FENDER PAT. PEND.”, then they were punched with a sheet metal punching machine.
THE 3-SPRING TREMOLO STRATOCASTER
Fortunately, Leo saved some pictures of a Stratocaster with the 3-spring tremolo unit and gave them to Richard Smith, who published them on his book. There are no other pictures or information about any other three-spring tremolo guitars in any of Leo’s files or records.
The 3-spring prototype, front. The the bridge was not yet the definitive one. Photo from “Fender, The sound heard 'Round the world” by Richard R. Smith
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The prototype, back. The the bridge had 3 springs. The tremolo block route is smaller than that of the 5-spring strats. Photo from “Fender, The sound heard 'Round the world” by Richard R. Smith
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Photo courtesy of Richard Smith
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The guitar was equipped with a black phenolite pickguard, Telecaster-style chrome dome knobs and a top-hat switch tip, and the pickups lacked the covers. The vibrato unit was almost exactly as we know it today, but it had a thicker tremolo arm and the inertia bar was drilled on the back for three springs, not five, hence the vibrato sported only three springs, which were held on with screws anchored into the wood, not with the spring claw. Also, the body back route was only wide enough for three springs. The neck had a dark lacquer finish, the headstock lacked any decal on front and on the back a masking tape stood out. The highly figured ash body was unfinished, typical of Leo’s test guitars. In the neck pocket, Leo Fender's initials were faintly written in pencil.
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Leo told Richard that the prototype was used in late 1953 by an unknown guitarist at the live performance shown in the picture. You can see the knobs had been replaced with the white plastic knobs used later on the early 1954 Stratocasters.
The inertia bar of the prototype was drilled on the back for three springs, not five
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The guitar of Madderra. You can see from the grain pattern and the routing that it’s the same body in Leo’s photographs. What was left was the body, the bridge (but not the saddles), and the vibrato tailpiece block. The body looks like it’s been sanded a couple of times.
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The prototype was featured in an article by Willie G. Moseley originally appeared in the April 2008 issue of Vintage Guitar magazine. According to Willie, the guitar was later obtained by Jerry Madderra. He inherited it from his father, Thomas, who brought home a box of guitar parts he acquired from employees of Fender’s plant in 1954. Thomas passed away in 1957 and never detailed the acquisition of the parts of the guitar.
Leo Fender would have no interest in preserving the originality of a test mule, so the guitar may have had components switched around even before that box of parts left the factory. The bridge was primitive, except for the saddles. “I don’t think they’re the ones Leo made,” Madderra said. “They appear to be 1954-production saddles that were put on the earlier bridge; they’re stamped with ‘Patent Pending’ and look like production parts rather than handmade, while the bridge looks handmade or perhaps like a prototype. The bridge plate never had chrome on it. And the inertia bar on the back is drilled for three springs, just like the one in the [Stratocaster prototype] photos taken by Leo Fender.” The switch was a three-way CRL 1452 with four patent numbers. Pickups, pickguard and knobs were replaced. As a child and young man, Madderra didn’t have any interest in playing guitar, but when he did start in the late ’50s, it was on the made-from-parts Strat. |
Jerry refinished the instrument at least a couple times. Since he liked Steve Cropper, he bought a Telecaster. But he preferred the Stratocaster neck to the that mounted on the Telecaster, so he switched them. He played the hybrid instrument until he got his draft notice in ’66, when he decided to sell it.
On the left, Jerry Madderra with his hybrid Telecaster/Stratocaster. The Strat neck came from the second prototype.
In 2005, Jerry took the decision to return the old guitar back to the way it was when his father got it. He stripped off the finish, bought a reproduction ’54 neck and tried to find some of the old parts that had been replaced.
Jerry restored the prototype with a replacement neck and other parts
THE FIRST STRATS: PROTOTYPES, PRE-PRODUCTION AND PRODUCTION GUITARS
The first Stratocasters with a 5-spring tremolo were made in January 1954, as samples for promotion and testing. Some of them were assembled with 1953 rerouted bodies.
At that time Leo was experimenting with new plastics because the old phenolite plastics parts were too fragile and required multiple steps in production.
At least one 1954 Stratocaster came with clear Lucite pickguard backed with gold paint. A few featured aluminum pickguards, which have been described as both “anodized” and “not anodized but similar — electroplated.” Leo Fender liked them because they shielded the pickups, but, according to Bill Carson, he soon realized that “the anodizing was so thin it wore out right away, and the player’s fingers turned black.” Furthermore, aluminum pickguards were too expensive, so Leo switched to single-ply white plastic pickguard.
Most Stratocaster bodies consisted of two or more pieces of ash — although one-piece bodies are known to exist — often meticulously matched to emphasize its grain patterns. With the blonde finish used on Telecaster and Esquire guitars, the glue joints showed unless the grain lined up especially well. As the factory increased production and used more wood, matching grain became a problem. Hence, on the Stratocaster, Leo decided to use dark-bordered sunburst finish, which allowed to cover mismatched grains on the body edges, while leaving the grain on the face of the guitar exposed. But there was another reason that led Leo to use the sunburst finish. According to Don Randall, all of their competitors had one. Fender was the only guitar maker who didn’t. Don thought the sunburst would make the Stratocaster a little more business-like and fancier.
Since the Telecaster’s jack plate was placed out of the player's view, on the bottom side of the body, George Fullerton suggested slanting the jack and mounting it on the top of the body.
Thanks to the 25.5” scale and its pickups in alnico, the Stratocaster had bright, clean and articulate tone.
At that time Leo was experimenting with new plastics because the old phenolite plastics parts were too fragile and required multiple steps in production.
At least one 1954 Stratocaster came with clear Lucite pickguard backed with gold paint. A few featured aluminum pickguards, which have been described as both “anodized” and “not anodized but similar — electroplated.” Leo Fender liked them because they shielded the pickups, but, according to Bill Carson, he soon realized that “the anodizing was so thin it wore out right away, and the player’s fingers turned black.” Furthermore, aluminum pickguards were too expensive, so Leo switched to single-ply white plastic pickguard.
Most Stratocaster bodies consisted of two or more pieces of ash — although one-piece bodies are known to exist — often meticulously matched to emphasize its grain patterns. With the blonde finish used on Telecaster and Esquire guitars, the glue joints showed unless the grain lined up especially well. As the factory increased production and used more wood, matching grain became a problem. Hence, on the Stratocaster, Leo decided to use dark-bordered sunburst finish, which allowed to cover mismatched grains on the body edges, while leaving the grain on the face of the guitar exposed. But there was another reason that led Leo to use the sunburst finish. According to Don Randall, all of their competitors had one. Fender was the only guitar maker who didn’t. Don thought the sunburst would make the Stratocaster a little more business-like and fancier.
Since the Telecaster’s jack plate was placed out of the player's view, on the bottom side of the body, George Fullerton suggested slanting the jack and mounting it on the top of the body.
Thanks to the 25.5” scale and its pickups in alnico, the Stratocaster had bright, clean and articulate tone.
The letter to the dealers (click to enlarge)
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The Stratocaster was officially announced in 1954, in the April issue of the International Musician magazine. At the suggestion of Don Randall, the new guitar was called Stratocaster, continuing the Broadcaster and Telecaster series, with the reference to the space, since the new instrument would have brought the design of the guitars into a new stratosphere. In a letter to dealers, Fender Sales specified that “shipments are expected to begin May 15,” although an early pre-production run started before. The Stratocaster 0100, which was dated 4/54 on the body and 01-54 on the neck, was probably the first in this series. Guitars made until April probably served as salesmen's samples, most were eventually sold, leading to confusion about what constituted the Stratocaster’s first commercial production run. Certain aspects of these early 1954 Stratocasters looked primitive, almost handmade compared with later versions .
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Stratocaster was showed for the first time in the May edition of the International Musician (click to enlarge)
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The Stratocaster #0100
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Leo’s and Freddie’s view, apparently, was that all guitars prior to the official announcement in 1954 were prototypes. But some “pre-production” Stratocasters were made prior to the April announcement. In fact, the guitarist and historian Robb Lawrence reported he has seen close-up photos of a January 1954 model and has personally examined a few Stratocasters from February and March. Richard Smith published in his book a picture of Rex Gallion (shown at the begging of this article) holding an early Stratocaster, which looks like a production model, with details such as the circular string retainer, decals, plastic knobs and plastic pickguard. Richard did some detective work on the calendar visible in his uncropped version of the photo, and he dated the picture to January or February 1954. Unless the calendar was left open after February, the photo indicates that the Stratocaster appeared prior to the April announcement.
Forrest White, instead, claimed that the first production run of the Stratocaster (with tremolo) was in the month of October 1954, to fill Purchase Order #242 (for 100 units) from Fender Sales, dated October 13, 1954,” and all previous models were only “prototypes and guinea pig models to test the performance and acceptance of the guitars.” Forrest also specified in his book that having unfinished bodies and necks in stock do not demonstrate actual production runs, but only “work in process inventory.”
But other Stratocasters were out there before then. Some might have been salesman samples, which were sold to the dealers. And they were not prototype at all, in terms of being experimental or anything like that. They were real “pre-production” guitars, although Forrest might have called them prototypes, but only in the sense that it was made before the first full order from Fender Sales.
Forrest White, instead, claimed that the first production run of the Stratocaster (with tremolo) was in the month of October 1954, to fill Purchase Order #242 (for 100 units) from Fender Sales, dated October 13, 1954,” and all previous models were only “prototypes and guinea pig models to test the performance and acceptance of the guitars.” Forrest also specified in his book that having unfinished bodies and necks in stock do not demonstrate actual production runs, but only “work in process inventory.”
But other Stratocasters were out there before then. Some might have been salesman samples, which were sold to the dealers. And they were not prototype at all, in terms of being experimental or anything like that. They were real “pre-production” guitars, although Forrest might have called them prototypes, but only in the sense that it was made before the first full order from Fender Sales.
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The starting price of the Stratocaster was $249.50 without case, about 10% more than the Gibson Les Paul Gold Top and about 30% less than the Custom. The few models made without tremolo cost $229.50 without case. With $39.95 in addition you could buy the Stratocasters inside the shaped cases built by Baldwin. These cases were called poodle cases due to the fact that whoever carried them seemed to be walking a poodle. At the end of 1954 they were replaced by the more resistant Victoria Luggage tweed cases, which, with different variations in style, were used throughout the golden age of Fender.
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SPECIAL MODELS
In 1954 few special Stratocasters were also made. In mid-1954, Leo presented Eldon Shamblin with a gold Stratocaster (the first custom color one), serial number 0569, along with a late 1953 Bandmaster amp. The body was dated June 4, 1954, and was signed inside the neck pocket by Gloria Fuentes, whilst the neck was dated May 1954 and initialed by Tadeo Gomez. Eldon blocked the tremolo assembly and installed “chicken-head” knobs.
George Fullerton built for himself a Stratocaster which featured a thin chrome plated sub-plate over the standard pickguard allowing him to rearrange placement for knobs and the switch: “I’ve got big hands, and that volume knob was too close to the bridge for me, so I moved it a bit.” The body was figured flame ash and the neck was flame maple with a matching sunburst headstock.
Gallion and Carson were also given a Stratocaster with a gold anodized pickguard for their collaboration.
George Fullerton built for himself a Stratocaster which featured a thin chrome plated sub-plate over the standard pickguard allowing him to rearrange placement for knobs and the switch: “I’ve got big hands, and that volume knob was too close to the bridge for me, so I moved it a bit.” The body was figured flame ash and the neck was flame maple with a matching sunburst headstock.
Gallion and Carson were also given a Stratocaster with a gold anodized pickguard for their collaboration.
Antonio Calvosa
Eldon Shamblin with his gold Strat, Courtesy of Steve Hathaway
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George Fullerton with his Stratocaster, Courtesy of Yasuhiko Iwanade
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