Life was pretty simple in 1954. Your TV, if you were lucky enough to have one, would be made of wood or Bakelite and have a nine-inch screen with black and white pictures. And the BBC is the only channel that will delight you with Andy Pandy and Muffin The Mule.

Your phone may have a trendy new dial, but you’ll most likely pick up the handset and an operator at the local switchboard asks who you want to call. It was only mobile as far as the cord could reach.

The cars were Morris Minors, Austin A30s, Standard 8s and the occasional exotic Jaguar XK120; Bing Crosby’s White Christmas was playing in the cinema.

And 70 years ago this month, the first batch of a revolutionary new guitar rolled off the production line of a factory in Fullerton, California, and entered rock ‘n’ roll folklore.

At the time, few would have thought that the Fender Stratocaster would be the last word in electric guitar design. Earlier, guitars were bulky and cumbersome instruments, but the Stratocaster or Strat was jaw-dropping with its sleek curves extending towards two voluptuous horns clamping down on its long neck.

American rock artist Jimi Hendrix was famous for playing his Fender strat left-handed.

Studio still life of Bruce Welch’s 1959 Fender Stratocaster guitar played by Hank Marvin in The Shadows

Released when rock ‘n’ roll was a new American genre that had yet to sweep the world, the Strat stands out for its durability and looks the same today as it did seventy years ago. A true design classic.

In fact, if you were asked to think of an electric guitar, you’d probably picture a Strat. Even the guitar emoji is a red Fender Stratocaster.

The first of these new guitars was sold to a young man named Buddy Holly in Lubbock, Texas. Sales increased tremendously when he and The Crickets played That’s Be The Day and Peggy Sue on the Ed Sullivan TV show That’s Been The Day in 1957.

Unfortunately, guitars were not available to budding rock stars in the UK due to post-war import restrictions. The first Strat to come to Britain when it was removed was bought by Cliff Richard for Hank Marvin in 1959. Finished in Firenza Red, it was priced at 110 guineas (£115 or around £3,700 today).

As Shadows guitarist Bruce Welch later said: ‘I think Cliff, Tin Britain was the only one with 110 guineas in 1959.’

As Shadows guitarist Bruce Welch later said: ‘I think Cliff was the only person in Britain to have 110 guineas in 1959.’

The first Strat in Ireland, 1961, was purchased by guitar virtuoso Rory Gallagher. Although battered and bruised, it sold for £889,000 at Bonhams this month but sadly it will go to the museum. I’m sure Rory, who died in 1995 and was hailed as an inspiration by the likes of Queen’s Brian May and Eric Clapton, would have preferred the next Rory to have had this.

In 2004, Clapton auctioned off his favorite Strat ‘Blackie’, heard on Layla and Wonderful Tonight, for charity. It raised £736,000.

Many of the world’s best guitarists loved Strats.

In 2004, Clapton auctioned off his favorite Strat, ‘Blackie’, which he had listened to on Layla and Wonderful Tonight, for charity.

Pink Floyd’s Dave Gilmour plays the black Strat, Hank Marvin (pictured) plays the red one and the great Jeff Beck plays the white one

On February 17, 1967, I went to Windsor’s Ricky Tick club to see a new American guitar ‘sensation’. I was only 14 and too young to go to the bar next door, so I walked in early and positioned myself in front of the 10ft stage. Finally came the left-handed star, who held the right-handed Strat upside down and from back to front.

But can Jimi Hendrix play? And what a showman he is, he plays with his teeth, then puts his guitar in front of me, pours lighter fluid on it and sets it on fire. A night to remember.

And from what I saw from the Ricky Tick poster, I paid 7/6 (37p) to get in. To put this into context, in 1967 my Saturday morning job earned me £2.

The Who’s Pete Townshend was known for destroying guitars in his early days; until I bought a Strat. He said: ‘I’d like to thank Mr Fender for making a guitar I can’t break.’

George Harrison and John Lennon purchased matching Sonic Blue Stratocasters while recording Rubber Soul. George painted his own image in psychedelic swirls.

Color has always been important when players choose their favorite Stratocaster.

Pink Floyd’s Dave Gilmour plays the black Strat, Hank Marvin plays the red one, and the great Jeff Beck plays the white one. Always. Amy Winehouse rocked a light blue Strat, while American Blues singer Bonnie Raitt prefers a sunshine-coloured finish. Deep Purple’s Ritchie Blackmore used his 1961 black Strat to write Smoke On The Water, a classic riff that is the favorite party song of millions of amateur guitarists.

Amy Winehouse (pictured) played a light blue Strat and American Blues singer Bonnie Raitt favors the sunshine-tinged finish

The first of these new guitars was sold to a young man named Buddy Holly in Lubbock, Texas.

Dire Straits lead guitarist Mark Knopfler sold most of his guitar collection earlier this year

Other big Strat fans include the late Stevie Ray Vaughan, whose playing was a major influence on David Bowie’s Let’s Dance album, and the Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood, who owns two sunshine Strats, one 1954 and one 1955.

Strat’s archetypal solo was Dire Straits’ Sultans Of Swing. Lead guitarist Mark Knopfler sold most of his guitar collection earlier this year but couldn’t part with the 1961 beauty he played on that track.

It is known that Nile Rodgers created music worth $2 billion by writing songs on the 1959 model nicknamed Hitmaker.

A little history goes a long way. For example, a shop on London’s Denmark Street is selling a 1960 Fender Stratocaster guitar belonging to Ralph Ellis of Swinging Blue Jeans for £29,999. According to Scouser Ralph, John Lennon helped choose the instrument at the Liverpool store where The Beatles bought most of their guitars. Most of the paint has been removed, but this makes it more collectible. Many new Fender guitars in the £5,000 price range are now produced this way, it’s called the ‘relic’ look.

Not bad for a guitar designed and built not by an accomplished musician but by a self-taught radio repairman turned amplifier maker.

Strat hero Leo Fender, who died in 1991 at the age of 81, was fascinated by his discovery that solid-body guitars could be played louder than hollow-body guitars without causing feedback.

Strat hero Leo Fender, who died in 1991 at the age of 81, was fascinated by the discovery that solid-body guitars could be played louder than hollow-body guitars without causing feedback. microphones. It was, as one biographer put it, ‘the birth of the loud voice’. The first guitar he designed was the Esquire, which Jeff Beck played in the early days of the Yardbirds, and was later transformed into the Telecaster used by Bruce Springsteen and Status Quo.

Later in 1954, ingenious: three pickups (devices that convert vibrations under the strings into electrical signals), double cutouts on each side of the neck so players could reach the highest frets at the base of the neck, and a built-in tremolo arm or whammy bar (the stick protruding from the base) to bend the notes. ).

The classic shape was promoted as ‘relaxed’; The back was curved to accommodate the player’s chest and abdomen, and the upper rear corner was sloped so as not to protrude into the player’s arm.

Fender’s sales chief, Don Randall, was in tune with America’s passion for space exploration at the time and came up with the name Stratocaster. And the futuristic design remains timeless. Yes, there have been technical advances, but unlike today’s cars, televisions and phones, its form remains unchanged or up to date.

If you know a promising young guitarist, give him a Fender Stratocaster; You will be rewarded with big smiles and endless gratitude.

And if you’ve got another million or two lying around, you can get Hank Marvin to sell you Firenza Red.