The Stratocaster Guitar Book: A Complete History of Fender Stratocaster Guitars (Guitar Reference) Paperback – October 1, 2010

I was first introduced to the Fender Stratocaster in 1967 when i listened to the vinyl of a new recording artist by the name of Jimi Hendrix. The first song on the LP;Purple Haze........I had been playing electric guitar for just over a year and not only was I being introduced to one of the most superior artists and legends of Rock, but was captivated by the unique body style of his instrument of choice, the Fender Stratocaster. Five years later I'm playing in the band with my brand new Olympic White Fender Strat with a shining Maple neck and I never looked back. This book by Tony Bacon recaptures the complete history of that "Ultimate Axe," and it's creator, the reverend Leo Fender; along with the effect that particular guitar has had on the music industry. Anyone that is familiar with Tony Bacon already knows he is at the top of his game telling the stories of many famous guitars such as Fender's Telecaster and Gibson's Les Paul. He shares with us all the vital improvements, the ongoing expansion of an art form, and the business and musical decisions that were involved in the evolution of this classic instrument. I have read many books on the creation of my favorite musical weapon of choice but none as complete, as well illustrated and documented as this book. If you want to know the history of this great guitar....THIS IS THE ONLY BOOK YOU NEED!

Really good Strat reference with some nice stories. Lots of great pictures. I wish I had bought the actual book rather than the Kindle version. The images are out of order to the descriptions. I think buying the Kindle version skewed my rating to 4 stars. Perhaps it's a 5 for the hard book.

Fender guitar owner and historian. This guide astounds me with respect to the numerous Stratocaster models made and marketed over the years. Fender is not the company I grew up with (pre CBS), and now has surpassed CBS in degrading the Stratocaster to another "model for everyone" brand.Leo wouldn't be proud.

This book is a must have for all Stratocaster aficionados.

If you want to know who Leo Fender was and what effort he made to give you one of the finest electric guitars available on this planet, buy this book. Yes, a lot is also available on the internet of course, but they lack all the fine details you want to know if you have a Fender in the house or more..great stuff...i had a 50 catalogue, wished I had it now, their value is astronomical...

Not detailed, not very informative anybody can write a book of this type, i learned more abought strats from an inerview with mick mars from motley crue in the issue of guitars of the rich and famous. Every discription of the many guitars is the same no color references, through differant periods comes in colors thats all it says. the thing that pissed me off the most thiers no mention of the differant body woods used. you no more abougt that on wikipedia only neck wood mentioned who cares thats just obvious many pictures of famous guitars and no mention of what wood was used. the reference part is a joke every discription the same no pictures of the differant features just general discriptions. one picture of color chart that you can even make out. you get the point most of this book is just text and some pictures dont buy it save your money im still trying to find a good strat book with pictures of each model woods used, different neck sizes, hardware, electronics,etc

At first, I'm from Brazil so my english may not be that good Ok!The book is very complete and tells the history of Leo Fender and his associates growing up the factory till the acomplish of the Stratocaster and goes on throug the whole history, pointing some of the great players.The pictures are amazing as well as the quality of the printing.I have imported from Amazon to Brazil and I'm satisfied.Good luck everybody!!!!Pelias

I have owned several strats. Always good to read about Leo Fender's success from a radio repair man to a Mega Manufacturer of America's choice in electric guitars

I have this in addition to an old copy of the AR Duchossoir book on the Strat, so there is a lot of crossover on the contents, but with more of a focus on the more recent years of Fender production due to this being a newer book. The production is quite nice, but some of the images used are blown up large from fairly low-resolution originals, so what should be nice shiny pristine images of lovely guitars turn out to be a bit grainy and amateurish in appearance, even the front cover image. For example, on page 46 there are three Strats photographed of which two are reproduced just fine, while the red Strat there is grainy in comparison to the others. It's a small quibble but it's there. It doesn't markedly detract from the book as a whole, though.The text is nice and informative, readable in a slightly terse formal style, and covers models and a musical history of the times they came along in, and the majority of the page have at least one Strat shown on them in a style somewhat reminiscent of the old Dorling Kindersley "picture books for grown-ups" that were popular back before the internet came along!For anyone that has a passion for the Fender Stratocaster this is a great book, with enough background to fill out the history of the guitar, the company, and its people - with enough factual stuff in tables at the back to help people date guitars or find their provenance, features and where and how they were made. A lot of this stuff is also well covered by Duchossoir's much older book, but extends that coverage through the 1990s to today, so it's a useful addition even if you already have the older book (as I have).

This is quite a nice book for Strat lovers. Loads of pictures and a good deal of information. My only real problem with this book is with regard to the author. I have several guitar books by Tony Bacon and one annoying feature of all of them is his tendancy to copy and paste whole chunks of one book to another book. For example, lots of the information in this book can also be found in his books, Six Decades of the Fender Telecaster, 60 Years Of Fender and The Fender Electric Guitar Book. I appreciate that when writing about a particular marque it must be difficult to avoid repeating the same information but it really would be nice if he took the time to rephrase what he previously wrote instead of repeating it verbatim.That aside, this is a nice book to own if you have more than a passing interest in Fender Stratocasters.

This book is brilliant. I play and wanted to know more about these guitars. The book contains a vast array of information from historical to technical and often the designers thinking behind parts or why they were made in a certain way. Tony Bacon the writer certainly knows his stuff and describes things in a way that often makes you feel as if you were there and the trials and tribulations that Leo & Co went through to make such an Icon. It makes you realise that with a lessor person and team behind it it never would have succeeded and that its because of them that Fender is what it is today.The book starts with the very early beginnings when the Stratocaster wasn't even around and works through the lap guitars, the amps etc. So you really do get the big picture. Talking of pictures there are some wonderful pictures to.( the only trouble is that you want all of them). It doesn't matter if you play guitar or not or if your after technical info or just why the Stratocaster became a legend this book is great.I have played for 40 years on and off and I was talking to a group of guitarists the other day and even they were impressed by what I was telling them. So for me I thought this book was great.

I really enjoyed the book. Lots of information about the birth of Strats and also a lot of curiosities as Fender started their business. Interesting historic stuff!The only think I desliked is the way the book is organized in terms of text vs images. You are reading the text pages and suddenly an all image page appeared "cutting the reading" and then the text proceeds in the next pages. It would be nicer (at least for me) to put the image pages after a chapter (or at least a sentence!) is completed or side-by-side with the text.Other than this I found the book to be perfect and a really "must have" for all Strat fans and musicians.

A must for any guitar player/collector. Thanks for the prompt delivery.