Fender Stratocaster Guitars

American Musical Supply is excited to be your stop for Fender Stratocaster Electric Guitars. We’re stocked with the full range of these iconic Fender guitars. AMS 0% interest payment plans are just the thing to use when placing your Fender order, split your total into easy payments! Use your own debit or credit card, enjoy fast and free shipping, and add a Fender Stratocaster to your creative setup.

We make buying a Fender Stratocaster quick and easy - in-stock items that are ordered before 5PM will ship out the same day! (see our Shipping Information Page for more details) Do you have questions about Fender Stratocasters and want to know which instrument would be best for you? Give us a call at 800-319-9043 - our experts are standing by. If you would like to view our selection of Fender Stratocasters by category, we have them organized by model right here.

Ask any professional guitar player about their axes of choice and you’ll almost always hear “Fender Strat” mentioned early and often. In fact, you won’t find too many designs out there, music instrument or otherwise, that have remained as consistent, as recognizable, and as well-loved as the Stratocaster –it’s been going strong for over 65 years!

The calling cards of the Fender Strat are its distinct double-horn solid body, bolt-on neck, and three single-coil pickups. Its famous design has always incorporated the sleek, curved lines that heavily emphasize increased comfort and a relaxed feel when positioned against the player’s body. Many are quick to point out that the while the Strat design had simultaneously drawn inspiration from a general 1950s aesthetic and a west coast/California vibe, it brought with it a sort of quasi-futuristic element that has continued to stand as an unshakable monument to the world of guitar.

For a bit more on the Strat, let’s take a trip back to 1954, the year of its release. It was a pivotal time in history as electric guitars, basses, and amplifiers were in the midst of taking over the popular musical landscape. Full hollowbody electric guitars had been in use for a couple of decades, but the increased demand for more volume highlighted a major problem: Uncontrolled feedback at higher levels of gain. Therefore, engineers and guitar builders had been working to create a more stable guitar platform to house the pickups and give the player the ability to play louder with more confidence.

Guided by Leo Fender, the Fender Electric Instrument Company (as it was known at that time) was already well established in the production of solidbody electric guitars and basses, having just released the Precision Bass and the Telecaster earlier in the decade. After Gibson released its own solidbody headliner - the Les Paul ‘Goldtop’ - in 1952, Fender was eager to counter with an offering that distinguished itself from the pack in an entirely new way.

Enter the Fender Stratocaster.

As we mentioned above, the Strat’s curved body shape is a wonderful blend of style and comfort. After all, Fender wasn’t building a guitar with a chambered interior, so why did the body need to be squared off in the first place? The three single-coil pickups were also a first at the time, giving guitarists a number of different tones to play with. 1950s-style rock’n’roll, blues, country, and other regional styles like boogie-woogie and surf were dominated by crisp, clean tones that emphasized chordal clarity and focused technique. The Fender Strat and its single coils were just what guitarists were looking for. As rock began to tap into raw, heavy, and more distorted tone in the decades that followed, it became even more clear that those same single coils could easily power up with the right amount of grit and intensity to handle the demands. This wouldn’t be the first time that the Fender Strat was able to evolve on the fly to match the newest musical styles!

The next big talking point of the Strat is its trademark vibrato bridge. What a lot of people don’t know is that this was Leo Fender’s second design. When the first edition didn’t meet Fender and his colleague George Fullerton’s standards on the production line, a second concept was reimagined completely from scratch. The front of the bridge would now be secured into place on the body with screws, while the slightly upward facing rear portion could pivot. This allowed the pitch to be raised and lowered by pressing down and letting off the detachable tremolo arm – if one wanted to incorporate those effects into their playing. This bridge was a huge success and massive selling point - legendary players soon began taking the Stratocaster’s sound in entirely new directions with a variety of pitch-altering and sound-shaping techniques, much to the amazement of the Fender team. The Fender bridge is still a gold-standard and has served as a crucial point of reference for every new type of guitar bridge that has been released.

American Musical Supply is stocked with a huge variety of Fender Stratocasters. That means different fingerboard woods (maple, rosewood, Pau Ferro), body woods (Alder, Ash, Mahogany, along with the option of vibrant tops made of Maple and Koa – that’s just the start), and pickup arrangements. While the three single-coil pickups (SSS) remain the base configuration of a Strat, there are also HSS (humbucker-single-single) and HH (humbucker-humbucker) varieties that offer different tonal flavors that are also uniquely Fender through and through.

Their made-in-Corona, California models include a number of spectacular lineups that are tailored to meet the demands of today’s players. Fender American Ultra Strats and their fresh body contours also boast Ultra noiseless pickups and DoubleTap™ humbuckers on applicable models. Fender American Pro Strats are true gigging workhorses that are most worthy of the ‘professional’ name. Fender American Performer Strats stand tall with quality and an attention to detail that go well above their price point.

Fender Vintera Strats are 100% attitude, where vintage aesthetics meets strength. Beginners and first-time players looking for a price-friendly Strat would also do well to take a look at our selection of Squier Stratocasters by Fender. When you visit music classrooms, private lesson studios, and creative venues, you see plenty of these Strats in use. These instruments are highly recommended by teachers and technicians alike for their steadiness and reliability.