Eric Claptonpage 74

BuddyHollypage 18

Genius of the Stratocaster

page 30

Stratocaster upgrades

page 84

Fender & Marshallpage 48

Swamp Monsterpage 38

Stevie Ray Vaughan

page 100

The History Of The Stratocaster 60 years of tonal perfection 6

Buddy Holly The man who put the Strat on the map 18

That’ll Be The Tone Buddy Holly’s gear examined 24

Private Collection John Caldicott’s beloved Stratocasters 26

Genius Of The Stratocaster Just why the Strat is so special 30

Swamp Ash Refit Recreating a ’50s-style sunburst body 38

Fender & Marshall A heavenly alliance explored 48

Strat-Nav 12 current models put through their paces 56

Eric Clapton How Slowhand fell for the Stratocaster 74

Vintage Showcase A 1960 Strat in rarest blue sparkle 82

Stratocaster Upgrades 25 ways to improve your guitar 84

HH & HHS Strats We probe the benefits of the S-1 switch 94

Stevie Ray Vaughan The legacy of the Texas hurricane 100

Stratacoustic The Strat morphed into an acoustic 108

Unsung Stratocasters Six more-affordable classics 110

Strat Talk: Jeff Beck Teenage Strat obsession and fat necks 114

Strat Talk: Yngwie Malmsteen On scallops and high action 116

Strat Talk: Walter Trout Why his old ’73 is the bee’s knees 118

Strat Talk: Robert Cray Smooth blues and strictly no trem 119

1960 Stratocaster Review A holy grail or just so much hype?124

A Reader’s Story A tale of two Strats and two brothers 128

Coda David Gilmour and his #001 1954 Stratocaster 130

60 years ofthe Stratocasterpage 6

FENDER STRATOCASTER BIBLE Guitar & Bass Classics 54 Guitar & Bass Classics FENDER STRATOCASTER BIBLE

CONTENTS

Strat-Navpage 56