15 Fender Stratocaster Players Through The Years
Published on 14 March 2024
The Fender Stratocaster is as iconic as it gets. Easily the most recognisable electric guitar of all time, the Strat has made musical history more often than any other model.
But a guitar is only ever as good as the person playing that guitar, and the Strat has found itself in the hands of a dizzying amount of world-class players, stars and gamechangers. Today’s blog is a salute to these spectacular artists, and the wonderful music they’ve created on Fender’s finest.
In no particular order (well, actually it’s a roughly chronological order), let us collectively show some love to these top Strat legends today by turning each video up loud!
Contents (The Complete List, At a Glance)
Dave Murray, Janick Gers & Adrian Smith
Buddy Holly
The first bona fide Strat guitar hero is undoubtedly Buddy Holly. Fitting a huge amount of work into his very brief career, Holly created an indelible image - smart suit, big glasses, Fender Strat - that influenced Hank Marvin, Roy Orbison and an endless host of others right up to Weezer. Buddy Holly’s songs are timeless, and his Strat tones are the original real deal.
Hank Marvin
Taking notes from Buddy Holly’s style and taking it in his own direction, Hank Marvin is undoubtedly the UK’s first guitar hero. As a member of Cliff Richard’s backing band, he earned himself the first real Fender Strat to arrive in the UK (Fiesta Red or Flamingo Pink, you decide!). The band, The Shadows, scored their own meteoric hits with Cliff-less instrumentals like Apache, Wonderful Land and Secret Agent. To this day, there’s a strong fanbase who obsess over the minutiae of Marvin’s timeless twang.
Dick Dale
If musicians could ever score points for attitude, then Dick Dale would win all contests without trying. The surf guitar legend (he maintained that he was not a musician but a ‘manipulator of instruments’, okay?) not only gave the world one of it’s greatest ‘badass’ tunes in the form of Misirlou, he also obliged Leo Fender to build him amps that were bigger and louder than anything on the market (the Dual Showman), so that his upside-down, sparkly gold Strat could sound more like the ocean. What a total one-off this guy was!
Jimi Hendrix
If there’s one artist who springs to mind instantly when you mention Strats, it has to be the one and only James Marshall Hendrix. Everybody (including me) has already written legions about the seismic changes Jimi brought to the universe with his tragically short career. Whether you prefer Woodstock Jimi, Band of Gypsys Jimi or any other version of the legend, he’s undoubtedly the most significant Strat player of them all. Of course he is!
Eric Clapton
Blues rock megastar Eric Clapton is synonymous with the Strat. Although he made waves in his early career with a Les Paul and a 335, everybody’s image of ol’ Slowhand is form his 80s planet-straddling phase: sleeves rolled back on his Armani suit and wielding ‘Blackie’, a ‘bitsa’ guitar cobbled together from his favourite parts of three different Strats. This guitar became the inspiration for Fender’s first ever artist signature guitar, and it has literally never been out of production since its debut in 1988.
Jeff Beck
The recently departed Jeff Beck is very often referred - by public and peers alike - as the greatest guitarist ever. If there even is such a thing, Beck’s not a bad shout for the title, for sure. An artist with touch, taste and tone aplenty, there isn’t a guitar fan in existence who can listen to Jeff’s work without smiling in admiration. From the British Invasion days onward, he kept pushing ahead and reinventing himself, restlessly chasing his muse and letting all others catch up in his wake.
Rory Gallagher
Ireland’s finest export outside of Guinness, Enya and The Corrs (haha, I meant Thin Lizzy and U2, obviously) was definitely the fiery music brought to the world by Rory Gallagher. Toting a heroically battered 1961 Strat - apparently the first one in Ireland - Gallagher’s passionate music and jaw-dropping playing made a huge mark on the world, making him an international, if underrated, star.
Interesting facts: Gallaghers own hero was apparently Buddy Holly (hence the Sunburst Strat), and also this: his brother has said that Rory’s rare blood type made his sweat unusually acidic, hence the level of wear on his guitar.
Ritchie Blackmore
Deep Purple’s lead axe-man covered a huge amount of ground in the early 70s, playing the part of the classic guitar hero to the hilt. A white Strat was his preferred musical weapon, and his library of techniques were taken and developed by many other big-name players in the years that followed.
Blackmore has since all but abandoned the electric guitar in favour of more mediaeval-inspired instruments (which in itself is a pretty ‘metal’ thing to do, really) but he occasionally dusts off his Strat when the feeling takes him.
David Gilmour
Gilmour is kind of like the Rocky of guitarists, not in the sense that people beat him up until he makes a dramatic comeback, but more in the sense that he’s the People’s Champion. Across the world, from the most casual music fan to the diehards in all genres, everyone seems to agree that Dave Gilmour is awesome, and who are we to disagree?
Gilmour’s melodic and inventive playing soars like an eagle over some of the strangest music ever to become massive.
Yngwie Malmsteen
For lots of shred fans, the ultimate practitioner of the mighty Stratocaster is Yngwie Malmsteen, the Swedish maestro of speed and excess. A delightfully larger-than-life artist, Malmsteen’s maxim of ‘more is more’ pretty much sums him up, from his compositions to his renaissance-referencing wardrobe and his fleet of red Ferraris. Not a subtle man, but who wants that when you can ‘unleash the fury’?
Edward Van Halen
I hummed and hawed about including Eddie on here, if only because he was pretty well known for playing a range of guitars, not least his own Wolfgang design. Still, the indelible image of Ed is of him rocking hard on his Frankenstrat - an artfully butchered Strat (not entirely ‘genuine Fender’ but it’s a strat body and a strat-shaped headstock) that changed the game forever. Anyone who plays a Strat with a humbucker in the bridge position owes this guy a tip of the hat.
Nile Rodgers
The sound of Nile Rodgers’ playing has appeared on more hit songs than probably any other artist: from Madonna to David Bowie, Duran Duran to Daft Punk, Rodgers’ influence is vast. Favouring one particular white Strat dubbed - appropriately enough - The Hitmaker, Nile has made history again and again, always with one eye on the song and the other on the dancefloor.
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Say the words ‘Texas blues’ to any guitarist and it’s SRV who will spring instantly to mind. In the mid-80s, there was just nobody doing the blues like Stevie, and his sound has inspired every generation of blues players since. Certainly, he’s one of the most-cited and talked about guitarists of his generation, and his tragic death at the age of only 35 robbed the world of a singular, great talent.
Eric Johnson
The tone connoisseur’s tone connoisseur himself, Eric Johnson is another Texan with a highly developed sense of tone. Famed for being able to ‘hear’ different batteries in his pedals and other frankly flabbergasting details, Johnson is also known for his highly dexterous, melodic guitar style. This is aided and abetted by a fleet of Strats - both vintage and new Signature models - and a tone that is the epitome of good taste.
An original G3 member alongside Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, Johnson is, like those other two players, a master of his craft and much more than just ‘another shredder’.
Dave Murray, Janick Gers & Adrian Smith
Iron Maiden are one of the few bands with three guitarists who actually justify the numbers. Each of Maiden’s axe-slingers is an incredible player in their own right, but the hat trick of them all is what makes Iron Maiden such a distinctly powerful force.
I’ve included Adrian Smith from today’s list, because even though his Superstrat is a Jackson, they are owned by Fender nowadays, and I let Ed Van Halen in the list without a branded Fender too so fair’s fair!
John Frusciante
John Frusicante is one of the most visible Strat players of recent years. Favouring a vintage ‘61 Sunburst example bought for him by Chilis frontman Anthony Keidis, Frusciante’s style has become increasingly melodic and showy - and perhaps less overtly funky - as his career has progressed. He’s an enormously influential player who always keeps things accessible and plays for the song.
Ed O’Brien
Radiohead are the second band on here who more than justify having three guitarists. If Thom Yorke is a straightforward rhythm man, and Jonny Greenwood an inspiringly eccentric lead guitarist, then Ed O’Brien in fact determines a large part of how the band actually sounds. Bathed in effects and an expert in inventive soundscapes, O’Brien is a subtly creative force, and his gadget-filled signature Fender EOB Strat provides a good mirror of his musical approach.
So, that definitive top 15 actually ended up being a little bit more than 15, but I did my best to whittle down the list! What do you think? Should I have included Eddie Van Halen or not? Ed was never an overt Fender player but he was the inventor of the Superstrat, so to my thinking, he’s a Strat guy to many people!
There will always be those who deserve to make that list but don’t, so here is an honourable mentions list:
- Uli Jon Roth
- Mike McCready
- Billy Corgan
- Simon Neil
- Mark Knopfler
- Robin Trower
- Walter Trout
- Adrian Belew
- Bonnie Raitt
What’s obvious to me is that the Strat was ahead of its time when it was released in 1954, and has remained impervious to changes in music, fashion and trends ever since. Now that’s what I call a classic!
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