Hammond Music

The almighty Fender Stratocaster- the guitar most people think of when they hear the word ‘guitars‘. The Strat guitar is as inconic a guitar as they come since they were first produced in 1954, as have gone from strength to strength. Lets look at the players who made this axe the legendary guitar that it is today.

• Iron Maiden. All three members of Iron Maiden have at one time or another played with a Fender Stratocaster. Other than Steve Harris, Dave Murray is the only other founding member of Iron Maiden that is still with the band. He used Paul Kosoff of the band ‘Free’s guitar up until 1990 when he switched to his signature series model. Murray has his own signature model with Seymour Duncan pickups and Floyd rose system on it -both a rarity for a Fender guitar, let alone a Strat. The two other guitar players in Iron Maiden, Janick Gers and Adrain Smith also play Strats, yet Smith seems to always be photographed with a different guitar in his hands.
• Eric Clapton. Ol’ ’slow hands’ as hes known, has played as many guitars as most people have had hot dinners, using everything from a Gibson Les Paul from his days in Cream and a Telecaster when he was in the Yardbirds. But he is most famous for using a Strat, namely the infamous ‘blackie’, which he used up until its retirement in 1985. Blackie was sold at auction to help fund the Crossroads centre for drug and alcohol addictions, and sold for $959,500 in 2004. Clapton made the switch to Strats in 1969, and hasnt looked back since.
• Jimi Hendrix. The man who redefined guitar playing and considered to be the greatest guitar player ever. Hendrix started playing the guitars in 1966, and then started to use them exclusively for recordings and live performances. Although like Clapton, he had been seen playing many different instruments, it is the strat which he settled on. He was left handed, so he played right handed guitars upside down and strung them in reverse order. Eric Clapton’s birthday present to Jimi was supposed to be a left handed Strat, which Jimi never received due to his death. he 1969 Monterey international pop festival performance.

After a Fender guitar now? Look no further.

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