If you have been with me for the last few columns, you know that I’ve been demoing a variety of my favorite vintage guitars and discussing each instrument’s unique attributes. We began with a 1954 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop with P-90s, followed by a 1961 Gibson dot-neck ES-335 and a 1952 Fender Esquire. This time, our focus will be the 1954 Fender Stratocaster.
While detailing all the great things about the ’52 Esquire, I said (as I often do), “Leo got it right the first time!”, of course refering to Leo Fender, founder of Fender guitars. The same can be said about the ’54 Strat, which was the first year of the model.
