In the waning years of CBS rule, Fender tried to return to the small headstock for the 1980 odd-duck model dubbed “The Strat,” but reverting back to an authentically small Stratocaster headstock proved more difficult than might be expected. Two interesting footnotes here are that, one, all Telecaster Deluxe guitars have the large Stratocaster headstock, from the model’s introduction in 1973 right up to the present, and two, that the 25th Anniversary Strat model of summer 1979 did return to a four-bolt neck plate but did not return to a small headstock as might be expected. And plenty of other players have liked the large Stratocaster headstock all along. Plenty of players have liked the small Stratocaster headstock all along. Both headstock sizes came to coexist, both had their adherents, and all was fine. Many players formed preferences for one or the other still others didn’t really care that much. Indeed, just as many players came of age with the large headstock in the latter ’60s and '70s as had come of age with the small headstock from 1954 to late 1965. The large Strat headstock was the only one they knew. There was no vintage market in the 1970s and no internet to foster global discussion and debate about the minutia of Stratocaster design. More than one purist cried foul at a design change that had nothing to do with the guitar’s tone or performance, but the 16-year tenure of the larger headstock, from 1965 to 1981, meant that an entire generation of players grew up with it and idolized their Strats just as the previous generation did. Except for the Stratocaster, however, none of those guitars were ever known for or are available in the modern era with two distinctly different headstock designs. It’s worth noting here that CBS standardized the headstocks of all Fender guitars except the Telecaster using the larger Strat-style design in 1966, so that the Stratocaster, Jazzmaster, Jaguar, Mustang and Duo-Sonic guitars all had the same headstock, whereas they all had slightly different ones before 1966. Many actually refer to the larger Strat headstock as the "'70s” or "'70s-era” headstock even though it was in production for the latter half of the 1960s, too. Someone decided to enlarge the headstock on the Stratocaster and unintentionally ruined its visual balance.”Īnd that’s how it stayed for the next 15 years.
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As Smith subsequently observed, initially “CBS’s problems and mistakes at Fender were small but nonetheless consequential. With hindsight, it’s seen by many as the first really notable example of troublesome CBS meddling in Fender instrument design. “The new design allowed a bigger decal.”Ī bigger headstock had more room for a bigger Fender-logo decal. “The rationale was simple,” noted author Richard Smith in Fender: The Sound Heard ’Round the World. The Stratocaster’s headstock was enlarged and slightly re-shaped.
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Only a slight change at first-the guitar got a new neck plate stamped with a large stylized Fender “F.” In the words of one observer quoted in author Tom Wheeler’s The Stratocaster Chronicles, this small move by itself served as “an adequate symbol of the CBS invasion.”īut in December 1965, an even more significant-and visible-change was implemented. To the chagrin of many longtime Fender employees, the Tiffany Network started messing with the Stratocaster almost immediately. That design was in production through late 1965.ĬBS bought Fender in a deal that took effect on January 5, 1965. In its original incarnation, introduced in 1954 and largely solidified by 1957, the Stratocaster had what is referred to in the modern era as a small headstock.
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That’s right, the Columbia Broadcasting System (as it was once called), former owner of Fender. Both coexist today, each with its own devotees, but why are there two to begin with?īecause of CBS, that’s why. Same shape, basically, but two sizes-the original smaller design and a larger one, which came a decade later. Alone among Fender electric instruments, the Stratocaster has two different headstocks.