LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Fender: Fender Strat
built 657 days ago
The biggest threat that Fender has ever faced came from, well, Fender. Leo and original partner Don Randall sold the company to CBS in the mid-60s, and the conglomerate eventually did what no one else could: make the Strat less powerful. As time went buy, new players bought Fender while experienced players turned to vintage Strats for the eternal brilliance of its design, combined with the understated remarkable versatility. After all, if the guitar is easy and fun to play, and produces a wonderful clean tone, why not use it for everything and just work out effects later?
Source:
The metal niche guitars fill a void that your regular old Fender Strat or Gibson Les Paul won't. Those standard guitars look out of place in the hands of a growling 20-year-old lead metal guitarist wearing black nail polish and white face paint screaming into a microphone about Norse mythology, a favorite theme of many metal practitioners.
Source:
Initially, when the Fender Stratocaster was introduced in 1954, it had a single layer white pickguard attached with 8 screws. In mid 1959, Fender switches to a multiple layer pickguard with 11 mounting screws. One of the additional screws required a change to the interior body route on the Stratocaster. Now a added "shoulder" was left in the electronic route to accomodate one of the extra pickguard screws. Starting in the late 1960's, Fender ... changed the shape of the pickup routes on the Strat. Now the corners were more square, instead of being round.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Fender Strat