Stratocaster: Difference between revisions

In any case there is manufacture — one set of design imperatives — and then maintenance and adjustment — an different set. They are simpatico. The stuff the player needs to be able to adjust “on the fly” — the tuning machines, pick-up selector, volume and tone controls and, of course, the tremolo bar — are intuitive, well-placed, and don’t get in the way — they are well “signified”, in design argot — and the utility of the instrument — its “affordances” — are uniformly excellent, and in many cases radical. For example, the offset cut-aways allowing access to the upper frets; the six-in-a-row tuning machines on the upper side of the headstock,<ref>Bigsby pioneered both the cutaway and the six-in-a-line tuners in 1948 on a guitar for Billy Bird, but it looks ''stupid''. the Stratocaster is just ''perfect''.

</ref> and the contoured body making the experience way more comfortable for your forearm resting on the guitar body, and at the same time taking out quite a lot of weight from the solid wooden body. The Stratocaster is appreciably — and a gigging musician will tell you, that is ''literally'' appreciated — lighter than its un-contoured forebear, the [[Telecaster]].