When Did Fender Start Using Alnick Pickups on Their Strats Again
The total story on the Strat's initial groundbreaking years.
The Fender Stratocaster is the quintessential electric guitar—a worldwide classic; the basic form that leaps to listen at the very mention of the phrase electric guitar even amid those who don't play. Maybe that's considering information technology was and so well designed to start with that it has existed largely unchanged for lx years at present, allowing information technology to become an ingrained form in the minds of successive generations.
Ubiquitous and essential, the Stratocaster has transcended its original intended purpose every bit a tool (a fashionable 1, at that) to become such an archetype. It has risen above its everyday function to get a cultural symbol for creativity, individuality, artistry and more than a trivial exuberant rebelliousness. Been that style for quite a while now.
Simply it wasn't always like that. The Stratocaster had to earn its place, and it happened neither easily nor overnight. It took quite a while, in fact, because if it's truthful that the guitar was then well designed from the get-go that it has basically remained the same for vi decades, it's as well truthful that it was so well designed that information technology was alee of its time by at least a decade. Indeed, for about its first ten years or then, the Stratocaster patiently bided its time while the world caught up with it.
Let's go back to that original era and have a look at the early on years of what would one day be the earth's greatest electric guitar.
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Fender had made promising inroads into the stodgy erstwhile U.Due south. musical musical instrument industry by 1953. A scrappy little mail-state of war West Declension upstart that was only seven years old and led by a taciturn cocky-taught electronics tinkerer, Fender had already introduced two revolutionary instruments—the Telecaster and Precision Bass guitars—plus a full line of well-regarded steel guitars and a pocket-sized handful of loud, rugged and stylish amps that were the best available.
Fender was minor in the early 1950s, but clearly going places, and it'southward possible that Leo Fender turned his attending in earnest to a new electrical guitar model to succeed the Telecaster and compete with more than upscale competitors as early every bit 1951. Work on elements such as new pickups and a new span was certainly well under manner by late 1952. Long-held conventions of design and method meant little if anything to Leo, which likely goes a long way in explaining the genesis of an instrument as extraordinary as the Stratocaster. Perhaps author Tom Wheeler put information technology best when, in his indispensable history The Stratocaster Chronicles, he asked:
"How was such an ultimately ascendant product created by a newcomer to the business who seemed to take several strikes against him? Leo Fender wasn't a serious musician, had little background (or interest) in the traditional crafts or lore of instrument building, and was even less interested in associating with the old-boy network of acquaintances who ran the major guitar companies and might take helped him get on his feet."
It's not like Leo Fender was trying to be radical and revolutionary. A applied person, he merely wanted to build a better guitar. He and his closest staff spent long hours developing and perfecting the new model, which quickly shaped up to exist its own instrument rather than an improved version of the Telecaster.
Guitarist Rex Gallion, seen hither in Leo Fender's lab in early 1954 with a very early Stratocaster model, is oftentimes credited with suggesting the guitar's comfortable contours.
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The new guitar certainly owed several design elements to its predecessor, though, and equally tardily equally early on 1953 its body shape closely resembled that of the Telecaster. In spring of that yr, nevertheless, new arrival Freddy Tavares sketched out a new body shape that sleekly adapted Leo'due south balanced two-horned shape for the Precision Bass. The new guitar thus combined features of Fender's start two instruments of the 1950s, and in some other important evolution in early 1953, Fender sales chief Don Randall came up with a name for it: the Stratocaster.
To compete with more high-end instruments from other manufacturers—particularly Gibson'due south Les Paul, introduced in 1952 in response to what Randall in one case called the "plain Jane" Telecaster—the Stratocaster was a marked step upwards in design and innovation for Fender. Information technology had not one or ii but 3 pickups, with switching and controls that created great tonal versatility (although, curiously, the switching configuration immune only iii of several possible pickup combinations).
A triple-pickup configuration wasn't the Stratocaster's only first. The Telecaster sounded cracking but wasn't especially comfy to play because its squared-off body dug into the role player's body and picking-manus forearm. Guitarist King Gallion is often credited with suggesting that a solid-body guitar didn't need squared-off edges since information technology didn't have an internal audio chamber, and with asking Leo himself, "Why non get away from a body that is always digging into your ribs?" The Stratocaster was consequently given rounded edges and deep body and forearm contours that made information technology remarkably comfortable and added to its sleekness.
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The development of the Stratocaster besides saw a notably elegant touch in Fender's first apply of a sunburst terminate, which was included at Randall'due south insistence to give the guitar a more than loftier-end look. This consisted of two then-common paint colors—a dark-brown-blackness outer hue called dark Salem, which graduated to a gold inner hue chosen canary yellow. Sunburst finishes likewise conveyed the extra advantage of lessening the apparentness of mismatched wood grain in the ash bodies, which typically (only not always) consisted of two or more than pieces glued together.
The Stratocaster's greatest innovation, all the same, was its bridge. In response to player feedback on the Telecaster, Randall wanted the new guitar to have some kind of vibrato system, and Leo was eager to meliorate the designs by his sometime business concern partner, Doc Kauffman, and past his contemporary, Paul Bigsby. The vibrato system had to offer solid tuning stability without compromising tone, sustain, histrion comfort and ease of use, and Leo immersed himself in the task with his customary focus.
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And nonetheless the initial pattern for the Stratocaster's vibrato bridge was a pronounced failure. Author Richard Smith notes in Fender: The Sound Heard 'Round the Earth that Leo uncharacteristically "tooled upwardly his factory to produce the system before fully testing it." The system—curiously referred to past Fender using the misnomer tremolo—used a bridge with rollers for each string and a carve up tailpiece. In this design, the strings really moved over the bridge on the rollers. Leo and guitarist/counselor Bill Carson apparently idea image units sounded fine at the factory, but Leo's right-paw homo in the mill, George Fullerton, said they "sounded terrible."
Even Carson subsequently noted that when he tried the instrument with the original vibrato system out at a gig, equally noted in Smith's book, information technology "sounded like an amplified banjo with no sustain."
The kickoff early on '50s Stratocaster image model with Leo Fender'due south 2nd—and vastly improved—vibrato bridge pattern.
Leo invested a slap-up deal of time and coin into trying to perfect the system well into 1953 earlier scrapping the entire design and starting over. In fact, the Stratocaster probably would've debuted that year had its original vibrato organisation not proved so problematic. Randall and his salesmen were chomping at the bit to get the new guitar out, and there was considerable pressure on Leo himself to devise a new Stratocaster vibrato system.
Inspired by a gram scale, he hurriedly completed an entirely new pattern in tardily 1953 in which the whole bridge associates moved with the strings rather than having the strings motion over rollers with the bridge remaining stationary. The strings loaded through a cavity routed into the back of the guitar; first through holes in a plastic cover plate, so through a solid steel "inertia block" fixed to the underside of the bridge plate that ensured sustain, then upwards through holes in the span plate and over individual string saddles that could each exist adjusted for cord tiptop and length—another marked improvement over the 3-saddle Telecaster and itself a notable pattern development. The rear of the span plate was unanchored and bent slightly upward; the front was fixed to the guitar body with six screws, one in front of each bridge saddle. The screw holes in the bridge plate were countersunk from both sides, creating a pocketknife-like edge and a fulcrum pivot point on which the entire bridge could exist rocked back and forth using an easily detachable "tremolo" arm, thus raising and lowering pitch. In the compartment routed into the back of the guitar, the whole assemble was anchored by springs (three at kickoff but shortly 5) that fastened to the inertia block at i end and an adjustable anchor plate screwed to the forward wall of the cavity at the other stop. The tension of the springs on the back and the guitar strings on the acme held the whole system "floating" in remainder and enabled shimmering vibrato, uncompromised tone and, crucially, stable intonation.
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In fact, the Stratocaster'southward 2nd vibrato organization was so finer "over designed" that information technology proved capable of far more its designer intended or imagined. Leo and his staff envisioned a steel guitar-like sound with only very slight pitch changes, merely his design actually enabled a pitch span of up to three half steps or more than. Merely put, information technology 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.
Other Stratocaster innovations included single-coil alnico 3 pickups with staggered-height pole pieces that effectively addressed the varying output of the heavy string gauges in employ at the time, and a slanting output jack mounted on the face up of the guitar rather than the side. The guitar's distinctively shaped headstock—more fully curvaceous than that of the Telecaster and Precision Bass—was undoubtedly influenced by instruments congenital by Paul Bigsby and, like the Telecaster and Precision Bass earlier it, had all the tuners within like shooting fish in a barrel reach on i side.
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The Stratocaster'due south electronics were mounted to the single-ply white plastic pickguard (anodized aluminum on some early models) rather than to the trunk, enabling an entire pickguard/pickups/controls assembly to be dropped in identify and screwed on (using 8 screws) and but requiring connection to the output jack. The 3 control knobs placed well-nigh the bridge were within piece of cake reach of the strumming/picking hand—a master volume and two tone controls for the neck and middle pickups. There was no tone control for the bridge pickup, which Fender's description of the guitar noted "does not crave additional tone modification."
All along as pattern refinements preceded throughout late 1953 and early 1954, Leo and his staff were ably abetted by several western swing guitarists in addition to Gallion and Carson who were happy to field-test Stratocaster prototypes in local nightclubs. Their input was invaluable, and while the Stratocaster was in ane sense Leo's baby through and through, it was in another sense the collaborative piece of work of a remarkable grouping of designers and musicians.
Finally, the Stratocaster was introduced in spring 1954 as Fender's new pinnacle-line guitar, in tremolo and non-tremolo versions. The first known ad for it appeared in that April's issue of International Musician magazine, and a small pre-production run began that calendar month. It was a sleekly cute instrument bursting with keen features and producing full, articulate and sparkling tones. The starting time full-scale production run began in October 1954, with the vibrato model priced at $249.50 and the not-vibrato model at $229.l.
With its introduction serendipitously preceding the rising popularity of a new musical and cultural phenomenon called rock 'n' roll by most a year, you lot'd think the Stratocaster would've quickly rocketed to stratospheric heights of acclamation and popularity. It didn't.
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The Stratocaster got off to a rather tedious offset. Three years after its 1954 introduction, as Tom Wheeler notes in his introduction to The Stratocaster Chronicles, it was nevertheless "not particularly well known," and appeared to exist "as far removed from conventional guitars as, say, a baritone ukulele or even a banjo." In the context of the times, Wheeler continues, "Plenty of professional person musicians saw the new Fender as unworthy of serious consideration—simply a tool, a gimmicky contraption, fifty-fifty a joke."
Such was the uphill climb the Stratocaster faced on its introduction; indeed, its ascent was long and gradual rather than immediate and meteoric. Rock 'n' roll had been building steam since the late 1940s by the fourth dimension it broke out into a national phenomenon in the mid 1950s, and during that initial menses, with few exceptions, its master lead instruments were saxophone and piano rather than guitar. Those early rock 'northward' roll musicians who did sling guitars nigh oftentimes played flat-height acoustics or big, hollow electrics past Gibson and Gretsch.
And so the Stratocaster bided its fourth dimension during its first few years—a menstruation during which the saxophone and the pianoforte slowly ceded their pb roles to electric guitar, which could with rapidly increasing prevalence be heard louder and clearer than ever before. In the meantime, Fender put its new Stratocaster into the hands of the western swing and pop guitarists Leo intended it for—players such as Buddy Merrill (of Lawrence Welk'due south ring), Alvino Rey, Eddie Cletro, Charlie Aldrich, Al Myers, "Stash" Clements, Kenneth "Thumbs" Carllile, Charley Raye, and others.
Likewise during the Stratocaster's first few years, Leo Fender and his staff continued working on information technology; revising and improving every bit they went. By 1957, the Stratocaster was basically perfected into the class that has remained largely unchanged ever since.
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Fender switched to less-expensive and more easily workable alder instead of ash for Stratocaster bodies in mid 1956. Besides, the original Stratocaster necks had a rounded "C"-shaped profile (also described as "D"- and "U"-shaped) that was changed to sharper "V" and "medium V" profiles from 1955 to 1957 before returning to rounded profiles as the decade closed. The ii-color sunburst finish became a three-color sunburst cease in the offset half of 1958 with the addition of an "in between" red hue. The brittle plastic originally used for Stratocaster pickguards, control knobs and pickup covers was replaced with a more than durable plastic in 1955. Serial numbers, originally located on the dorsum tremolo plate, were moved to the cervix plate in early on summer 1954. The circular string holes in the back tremolo plate became oval-shaped in 1955. Pickup magnets were changed from alnico three to alnico 5 in tardily 1956, which is also when the headstock'southward round string retainer was switched to the "butterfly" string tree with a "half-tunnel" guide for the B and high E strings.
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The Stratocaster had found its fashion into several acclaimed and influential hands by the time many of these design changes were implemented. Three years later its introduction, many all the same hadn't seen i, simply that changed when a Texas rock 'n' coil trio called the Crickets appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday, Dec. ane, 1957. They charged through 2 songs, "That'll Be the Day" and "Peggy Sue," penned by the group'south Stratocaster-wielding leader, a bespectacled 21-twelvemonth-erstwhile singer/guitarist named Charles Hardin "Buddy" Holly.
Others embraced the Stratocaster later in the decade, likewise. Ike Turner championed the Stratocaster early on with dramatically swooping tremolo use that prefigured Jimi Hendrix by a decade. Pee Wee Crayton, Ritchie Valens and Carl Perkins played Strats in the 1950s, as did Cliff Gallup'south successors in Cistron Vincent and his Blueish Caps, Johnny Meeks and Howard Reed.
Across the Atlantic, however, a post-World War Two import trade ban on U.S. goods fabricated getting a Fender instrument adjacent to impossible for youthful British guitarists in the late 1950s. This was peculiarly disappointing to immature London guitarist Brian Rankin, who went by the stage proper noun Hank Marvin and had just joined singer Cliff Richard'south ring armed with a cheap Japanese electric guitar. Marvin had seen Buddy Holly property a Stratocaster on the embrace of 1957 album The "Chirping" Crickets, and he mistakenly thought it was the same model that James Burton played on Ricky Nelson records. Merchandise ban or not, Richard offered to get Marvin a Stratocaster, an opportunity the guitarist jumped at, and in early 1959 a brand-new Fiesta Cherry-red Stratocaster with golden hardware somehow arrived in London. It was purportedly the U.K.'s first-ever Stratocaster, and with it and the Shadows, Marvin went on to become Great britain's commencement full-fledged guitar hero.
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Marvin's Fiesta Blood-red instrument illustrates another formative step in the history of the Stratocaster in the 1950s: the availability of custom colors. A sunburst finish was the norm right from the commencement in 1954, with a minor scattering of guitars fabricated for specific artists in specific colors around that fourth dimension—a gold one for Texas Playboys guitarist Eldon Shamblin; solid carmine models (later referred to as "Dakota red") for Bill Carson and Pee Wee Crayton. George Fullerton created what is at present referred to every bit the first "official" Fender custom colour—the aforementioned Fiesta Red—circa 1957. Thereafter, a selection of custom colors became widely available for an extra accuse. Depending on torso wood and other variables, diverse preparations, color coats, articulate coats, etc., were used. Fender'south 1958-1959 catalog was the get-go to evidence a full-color photo of a custom-colour Stratocaster (ruby-red with gold hardware).
By the close of the 1950s, players were well aware of an unintentional peculiarity of the Stratocaster's electronics: the two "in-between" switch positions. Indeed, many players discovered this delicately balanced tonal flim-flam equally soon every bit the Stratocaster was introduced. Equally intended, the three-style pickup selector switch delivered i pickup at a fourth dimension rather than combinations of the pickups; that is, you could get the neck pickup by itself, the centre pickup by itself and the bridge pickup by itself. Players quickly found, still, that they could get two combinations of pickups—the cervix and centre pickups together and the span and heart pickups together—by advisedly balancing the switch in the two points between the three notched positions. Many acclaimed guitarists would come to prefer the Stratocaster's unintentional "in between" tones.
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Fender airtight out the Stratocaster's debut decade with a handful of notable developments for the guitar. Its brief reign at the top of Fender'south 2-instrument professional person guitar lineup ended in 1958 when a third pro model, the Jazzmaster, was introduced. Pattern changes implemented in 1959 were pregnant enough for models introduced later that year to be considered the "2nd incarnation" of the Stratocaster. Most notably, the one-piece neck-fingerboard was replaced by a two-piece construction consisting of a rosewood "slab" fingerboard (and then nicknamed later on for its thickness and flat bottom) glued atop the maple neck. Since the now forepart-installed truss rod could at present by prepare into a aqueduct routed into the top of the cervix and so covered by the glued-on fingerboard, this design rendered the "skunk stripe" on the back of the neck and the "teardrop" plug on the headstock unnecessary. These new rosewood-fingerboard models too replaced the black marker dots on the side of the neck with new fair "clay" dots. In mid 1959, Stratocasters were given multi-ply celluloid pickguards with more screw holes (11) and a notable light-green tint (although some were given faux-tortoiseshell nitrocellulose pickguards). Other more minor changes took place (thinner aluminum shielding, thinner neck shape, a metal spacer added beneath the string tree, etc.); suffice to say that the Stratocaster was poised for a new decade with a new await.
At the dawn of the 1960s, elder brother the Telecaster was enjoying a new and difficult-won sense of indispensability. Leo Fender had causeless that Telecaster players would supplant their instruments with Stratocasters, but that turned out not to be and so. And utterly unbeknownst to Fender, players had other plans entirely for the Jazzmaster. But who knew where the Stratocaster was destined to fit in? Who knew if it had whatever kind of future ahead of information technology, let alone a bright one? The answers to those questions were far from clear. As sleek and innovative as information technology was, the Stratocaster's future was by no ways guaranteed in tardily 1959.
Meanwhile, kids on both sides of the Atlantic were taking their showtime formative steps as a new generation of guitarists yet to come of age. Near the end of 1959 in the U.K., these included 3 14-year-olds—Peter Townshend, Eric Clapton and Ritchie Blackmore; a fifteen-twelvemonth-old named Jeff Beck and a 13-twelvemonth old named David Gilmour.
In the United States in late 1959, a flamboyantly talented 23-year-old Louisiana guitarist named George "Buddy" Guy had just got his offset record contract the yr earlier, and 22-year-old Californian Richard Monsour, who went by the stage name Dick Dale, had just released his first ii singles on the tiny Deltone label. Two small children in Dallas, 8-year-old Jimmie Vaughan and his 5-year-one-time brother Stephen Vaughan, or "Stevie," were barely big enough to go their hands effectually a guitar neck.
And in Seattle, a kid named James Marshall Hendrix—"Jimmy" to family and friends—turned 17 that November. He'd just gotten his offset guitar the year before, an acoustic that cost all of $5, and although he skillful constantly, he longed for an electric guitar. His father relented in mid 1959 and bought him a white Supro Ozark 1560S electric.
The Supro was no Stratocaster. But then again James would be no ordinary guitar player, and a new decade was nigh to start.
Source: https://www.fender.com/articles/gear/the-history-of-the-fender-stratocaster-the-1950s
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