A tribute to the Fender Stratocaster guitar in its 70th electric year from a fan who, aged 14, watched in awe as Jimi Hendrix played

Life was pretty basic back in 1954. Your TV, if you were lucky enough to have one, would have been made from wood or Bakelite and have a nine-inch screen with black and white pictures. And only one channel, BBC, to delight you with Andy Pandy and Muffin The Mule.

Your telephone might have had a new-fangled dial, but more likely you’d pick the handset up and an operator at the local exchange would ask who you wanted to call. It was mobile only as far as the cord would stretch.

The cars were Morris Minors, Austin A30s, Standard 8s and the occasional exotic Jaguar XK120, while Bing Crosby’s White Christmas was playing at the cinema.

And 70 years ago this month the first batch of a revolutionary new guitar came off the production line of a factory in Fullerton, California - and into rock ’n’ roll folklore.

Few at the time would have thought that the Fender Stratocaster would be the final word in electric guitar design. Previously, guitars had been dumpy, cumbersome instruments, but the Stratocaster, or Strat, dropped jaws with its sleek curves sweeping into two voluptuous horns pinching the long neck.

The American rock artist Jimi Hendrix was famed for playing his Fender strat left handed 

Studio still life of a 1959 Fender Stratocaster guitar, played by Hank Marvin in The Shadows and owned by Bruce Welch

Launched when rock ’n’ roll was a new American genre that had yet to take the world by storm, the Strat is remarkable for its endurance, looking the same today as it did seven decades ago. A true design classic.

In fact, if you were asked to think of an electric guitar, you would most likely picture a Strat. Even the guitar emoji is a red Fender Stratocaster.

One of the first of these new guitars was sold in Lubbock, Texas, to a young man called Buddy Holly. When he and The Crickets played That’ll Be The Day and Peggy Sue on the Ed Sullivan TV show in 1957, sales went, well, stratospheric.

Sadly the guitars were not available for budding rock stars in the UK due to post-war import restrictions. When they were lifted, the first Strat to arrive in Britain was bought in 1959 by Cliff Richard for Hank Marvin. Finished in Firenza Red, it cost 110 guineas (£115 or about £3,700 today).

As fellow Shadows guitarist Bruce Welch said later: ‘I think Cliff was the only person Tin Britain who had 110 guineas in 1959.’

As fellow Shadows guitarist Bruce Welch said later: ‘I think Cliff was the only person in Britain who had 110 guineas in 1959.’

The first Strat in Ireland, a 1961, was bought by the guitar virtuoso Rory Gallagher. Battered and bruised, it nevertheless was sold at Bonhams this month for £889,000 but sadly is bound for a museum. I’m sure Rory, who died in 1995 and was hailed as an influence by the likes of Brian May of Queen and Eric Clapton, would rather it was in the hands of the next Rory.

Clapton auctioned his favourite Strat, ‘Blackie’ - heard on Layla and Wonderful Tonight  for charity in 2004. It raised £736,000.

Most of the world’s top guitarists have loved Strats.

Clapton auctioned his favourite Strat, ‘Blackie’ - heard on Layla and Wonderful Tonight for charity in 2004

Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd plays a black Strat, Hank Marvin (pictured) plays a red one and the great Jeff Beck played a white one

On February 17, 1967, I went to Windsor’s Ricky Tick club to see a new American guitar ‘sensation’. Aged just 14, I was too young to go to the bar next door so got in early and positioned myself at the front against the 3ft stage. Eventually, on came the left-handed star holding his right-handed Strat upside down and back to front.

But could that Jimi Hendrix play! And what a showman, playing with his teeth and then laying his guitar down in front of me, dousing it with lighter fuel and setting it alight. What a night to remember.

And I see from the Ricky Tick poster, I paid 7/6 (37p) to get in. To put that in context, my Saturday morning job in 1967 earnt me £2.

Pete Townshend of The Who was known in his early days for destroying guitars – until he bought a Strat. He said: ‘I’d like to thank Mr Fender for making a guitar I can’t break.’

While recording Rubber Soul, George Harrison and John Lennon bought matching Sonic Blue Stratocasters. George painted his in psychedelic swirls.

Colour has always been important when players settle on their favourite Stratocaster.

Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd plays a black Strat, Hank Marvin plays a red one and the great Jeff Beck played a white one. Always. Amy Winehouse played a light blue Strat, American Blues singer Bonnie Raitt favours the sunburst finish. Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple used his 1961 black Strat to write Smoke On The Water, a classic riff that is a favourite party piece of millions of amateur guitarists.

Amy Winehouse (pictured) played a light blue Strat, and American Blues singer Bonnie Raitt favours the sunburst finis

One of the first of these new guitars was sold in Lubbock, Texas, to a young man called Buddy Holly

Lead guitarist of the Dire Straits Mark Knopfler sold much of his guitar collection earlier this year

Other great Strat fans include the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, whose playing makes such an impact on the David Bowie album Let’s Dance, while Ronnie Wood of the Rolling Stones has two sunburst Strats, a 1954 and a 1955.

An archetypal Strat solo was Sultans Of Swing by Dire Straits. Lead guitarist Mark Knopfler sold much of his guitar collection earlier this year, but could not part with the 1961 beauty he played on that track.

Nile Rodgers is reputed to have created $2 billion-worth of music, writing songs on his 1959 model, nicknamed Hitmaker.

A bit of history goes a long way. A shop in London’s Denmark Street, for instance, is offering a 1960 Fender Stratocaster guitar owned by Ralph Ellis of the Swinging Blue Jeans for £29,999. According to Scouser Ralph, John Lennon helped pick the instrument out at a Liverpool store where The Beatles bought many of their guitars. Much of its paint has rubbed off but that just makes it more collectible. Many new Fender guitars in the £5,000 bracket are now manufactured like that, it’s called the ‘relic’ look.

Not bad for a guitar designed and built, not by an accomplished musician, but by a self-taught radio repair man turned amplifier maker.

The hero of the Strat, Leo Fender, who died in 1991 aged 81, was fascinated by his discovery that solid-bodied guitars could be played louder than hollow-bodied ones without causing feedback

The hero of the Strat, Leo Fender, who died in 1991 aged 81, was fascinated by his discovery that solid-bodied guitars could be played louder than hollow-bodied ones without causing feedback – that high whistling sound you often hear when people turn on microphones. It was, as one biographer has said, ‘the birth of loud’. The first guitar he designed was the Esquire, as played by Jeff Beck in his early Yardbirds days, which was then refined to the Telecaster, as used by Bruce Springsteen and Status Quo.

Then in 1954 his masterstroke: three pick-ups (the devices under the strings that convert the vibrations into electrical signals), a double cutaway either side of the neck so players could reach the highest frets at the base of the neck, and a built-in tremolo arm or whammy bar (the stick protruding from the base) to bend the notes.

The classic shape was advertised as ‘comfort contoured’, the back curved to accommodate the player’s chest and stomach and the top back corner was bevelled so it did not jut into the player’s arm.

Fender’s sales chief Don Randall was in tune with the American passion for space exploration at the time and came up with the name Stratocaster. And the futuristic design has remained timeless. Yes, there have been technical improvements, but the shape remains unaltered or updated – unlike the cars, televisions and telephones of the day.

If you know any aspiring young guitarist, give them a Fender Stratocaster and you will be rewarded with big smiles and everlasting gratitude.

And if you have a spare million or two knocking around, you might get Hank Marvin to sell you his Firenza Red.