The Lore Of The Stratocaster Guitar

By Peter Helton

Throughout the history of guitars, since it's birth as an instrument, there have been several models and types that have made an impact. Not only just because of the way that the guitar has been built or that they feature the recent and most innovative designs and materials, but that they have been strummed by the best guitarists of all time.

Most likely, the most widely known guitar would be the Fender Stratocaster. First made by its creator, Leo Fender, founder of the famous Fender Guitar company back in the fifties, the Stratocaster or Fender Strat as it is also called, has taken it's place amongst the legends of rock. Now having a enthusiastic following from new players and guitar collectors alike, the Strat still empowers the best of the current slew of musical groups.

The 1957 model of the Fender Stratocaster is probably considered to be the best and most collectable of the near 60 year run classic design. The 57 model features the famous 2 tone sun burst design, usually red and orange or yellow fading to black and can be seen being used by guitar greats such as Jimi Hendrix, Metallica and Led Zeppelin during the recent years. After it's inception all those years ago, the Strat was primarily used for playing blues style music until the likes of Jimi Hendrix blasted it into another world and started pushing the guitar and music to it's limits and crashing into a new era. Jimi was one of many who was able to combine their talents with the Fender technicians and the team behind the Fender Custom Factory to make his own white signature model of Fender Strat. Leo Fender was famous for encouraging the worlds best guitarists to work along side them to not only design their own personally designed named models, but also re-evolve their existing designs through experimentation and customization.

The Fender Stratocaster has been used on a wide variety of different music styles over the years from blues, rock, jazz and swing. It's clean and clear sound allows the guitar player have the freedom to make any sound and type of music accessible and the perfect build quality of each Fender Strat is perfect. The body of the strat is constructed from alder wood and the neck is made from maple wood with a rose wood fretboard. The guitar contains a set of 3 single coil pickups which aids the the clean and pure sound. There is a five way selector switch that allows you to alter various combinations of the guitar pickups to produce different tones and a set of volume and tone controls.

The Strat is definitely a guitar that will go down in musical instrument history as being a perfect and versatile musical instrument that had a hand in helping change the face of rock music and music made by guitars as we know it today. I am sure that Leo Fender could not have known that when he first created the Strat back in 1950, he would also be creating a legacy that will probably last forever.

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Acoustic Guitar For Beginners

By Francois Arcoix

A lot of guitar beginners gave up in their first year or even less. They either faced difficulty in producing good sound with their instrument or they couldn't bear the finger pains.

These problems may be related to the guitars they used. Some parents for example bought cheap guitars thinking that if the children quit they would not lose much. This idea is not completely true because picking wrong guitars can also lead to a big frustration.

If you are thinking of buying a budget guitar make sure it meets the criteria below:

Warped neck is not acceptable. Press the thickest string on the 1st and 12th frets and look at the gap between the string and frets. A good neck will leave a small gap only between them.

The second thing to check is playability. If a guitar has a good playability you can play any chords on its fretboard at different position without problems or finger pains. You should feel comfortable playing all over the fretboard.

To find out an acoustic guitar with good playability you should measure the action. Take a measurement from the bottom of the thickest string to the top of the 12th fret. Ideally 3mm to 4mm distance is needed. For beginners this action setting will help a lot because it decreases the strings tension.

Never neglect the guitar intonation. Good intonation will give you in tuned notes at any fret on the fretboard. It is very common to find a cheap guitar with perfect strings tuning but when playing bar chords on the high numbered frets all you get is out of tune chords. This is related to bad intonation and you can't fix it. If you are in doubt take some measurement on certain frets with the help of a guitar tuner.

It is quite difficult to find cheap guitars that can meet those criteria, especially for beginners. Get an experienced friend to guide you in the guitar store and let him/her recommend some guitars for you to try. Choose one that feels right in your hand and don't pay attention too much on the guitar appearance. You don't need a fancy good looking guitar. It may fool you easily.

A budget guitar that meets the basic criteria above is worth buying. With very limited budget you can't expect much but you won't get a crap guitar either if you follow this guideline correctly.

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