Happy birthday, Stratocaster

[spantini]

To Eye-Witness the Birth of the Stratocaster

Six first-hand witnesses to the creation of the guitar tell us what it was like at the dawn of an era.

reverb.com

“I had to drive several hours through snow to get to him. He told me this was one of the first Stratocasters, and there were some things I noticed immediately”: This 1954 Fender Stratocaster is one of the most unusual Fender builds in history

David Davidson of Well Strung Guitars explains what makes this uniquely preserved vintage Strat so unique – starting with control pots from a TV set

www.guitarworld.com

“When that first one came off the line, I grabbed it… and it was terrible”: The first Fender Stratocaster builds had to be junked due to their horrendous tremolos

Guitar historian Tony Bacon has told Reverb the story of the ill-fated first Strats to come off Fender’s production line

www.guitarworld.com

 

[CoolCat]

lol..interesting they dont agree with who did what who invented what ...at least to some degree. reminds me Beatles anthology they couldnt recall which song was on which album, as if it didnt matter to them at all.

at some point its a "handful" of inputs I suppose and the ones who were there were busy doing 1000 other things.
There arent thousands of people involved in the Stratocaster design, only that handful of people.

Makes sens, at work you might mention an idea and then 10 months later it happens to be made a reality. But its not recalled who said what, no one cares...and no one agrees on who said what or when and theres so much other work going on it becomes some memory issue of who thought of it first . Memorys are not exact and maybe two people had the same idea...etc..etc..

Leo, George, Bill, Freddie , Randall...and a few others were there. Fullerton, California.... its mind boggling one place created so much and was to become a foundation of the gear, Tele, Strat, P Bass, J bass...all the Amplifier classics too.

Always thought the guitar jack was the best idea on the Stratocaster, on the front, bullet jack design vs the cable sticking out, Great idea..

 

[spantini]

. . .

Always thought the guitar jack was the best idea on the Stratocaster, on the front, bullet jack design vs the cable sticking out, Great idea..

I like the Strat's jack for the same reason(s). BUT . . . for some reason, I always have a difficult time inserting the cable - 99% of the time, I have to wiggle it until it lines up. I wish Fender would redesign it to something similar to the loading gate of a lever action 30-30. However, since the coupling sleeves on line cables are not uniform in diameter, this wouldn't work so well either - unless all cable manufacturers conformed. Oh well. Just a thought [wish].

 

[TalismanRich]

Yeah, memories aren't always reliable. The guys in CSN can't agree on when and where they all met, and there were only three of them. Was it at Mama Cass' house or Joni Mitchell's house. We'll never know.