“I went for the lowest-priced one. My heart broke as I handed my jazz box over. However, as soon as I pulled that Strat down, sadness was replaced with joy”: Nile Rodgers on how he found The Hitmaker – and how the Fender Strat changed the world

2024 marks the 70th anniversary of the iconic Fender Stratocaster, and to mark the momentous milestone, its maker has been celebrating with a string of celebratory releases.

These include vintage-inspired Player Stratocaster models, a forward-thinking American Professional II build and an ultra-futuristic Ultra Strat HSS, all of which pay tribute to an electric guitar that ushered in an evolution in guitar design.

Fender has also celebrated the occasion with Fender Stratocaster: 70 Years – an officially licensed book that traces the history of the model, including the birth of the design, early improvements, the CBS acquisition, the rise of the Custom Shop and more.

Written by Guitar Player contributor Dave Hunter, the book also contextualizes the evolving Stratocaster within the contemporary guitar industry and explores some of the Strat’s biggest champions, including Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Dick Dale, Jimi Hendrix, Yngwie Malmsteen, Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Buddy Guy, and H.E.R.

In the book’s foreword, published exclusively on Guitar World, Nile Rodgers recalls how he found his iconic Hitmaker Strat, can be found below.

Fender Stratocaster: 70 Years – foreword by Nile Rodgers

It’s 1973 and I was asleep at a rundown ’50s-era motel in South Florida. Suddenly I was awakened by loud music emanating from a passing car.

My head hit the open drawer above me that housed my chocolate cookies. The stinky bed sagged and my butt hit the floor. This trio of mishaps ended my restless slumber. I left the motel to get an early breakfast and plan the rest of my day. The only diner within walking distance was equally abysmal. Everything was in tragic alignment. It felt like the beginning of the worst day of my life.

The night before, my Big Apple Band, which backed an R&B vocal group called New York City, had just played a Miami hotspot called The Castaways. New York City had a hit single called I’m Doin' Fine Now, so we were headlining.

Our opening act had a guitar player whose technical facilities were basic, but his guitar sound smoked mine. To make matters worse, he was playing through my amp. His guitar was a Fender Stratocaster and my guitar was a Barney Kessel, as back in those days I was more of a jazz and classical session player.

My partner was one of the greatest musicians of all time: a bassist named Bernard Edwards. He played a Fender Jazz Bass and would scream these words at me daily, “Get a Strat, motherf***er!” What finally convinced me to get a Strat was not his constant berating, but the great sound of an average guitar player in an opening band.

I was playing smash hit songs on my jazz box, but I knew our opening act’s guitar sound was better for my gig. No longer would I have to put up with Bernard’s screaming, because now I was going to buy a Stratocaster.

As I started my quest it hit me that I knew nothing about the Stratocaster on a player’s level, but I had a stable pop gig and wanted to do my best to keep it. A Stratocaster seemed to be the right tool for the right job.

I walked along Dixie Highway, the main drag for Miami pawnshops back then. The shops were flooded with all manner of guitars. So many were hung on the walls that it almost looked like a guitar crucifixion site. I was about to become one Stratocaster’s savior.

Since I knew nothing about the performance of the Stratocaster, I just went for the lowest-priced one. My heart broke as I handed my Barney Kessel over the counter to complete the trade. However, as soon as I pulled that Strat down from the dusty wall, sadness was instantly replaced with joy – and to my utter surprise, they gave me an additional three hundred bucks. I guess that was the difference in the pawnshop book value.

I ecstatically returned to my motel room and started to practice “chucking,” a technique where you continuously play 16th notes with the right hand while judiciously striking or muting notes with the left.

I practiced every minute I could. I shared a room with our band’s drummer. When he was around, I’d go into the bathroom’s shower so as not to disturb him. After a few weeks I emerged from the bathroom a funky new player. I could cleanly chuck anywhere on the neck and my Fender Stratocaster responded perfectly. Its tone was so consistent that I barely touched the “speed knobs” that I had put on to play crying sounds.

I don’t know what it is that makes my Strat so special. It’s thinner and lighter than any I’ve ever seen. I heard folklore from Fender aficionados saying that Leo Fender was the cheapest man that ever lived and that in 1959 he made a bad deal on a bulk buy of ash that turned out to be overpriced. 

To compensate, he squeezed a few extra bodies out of it, making them more slender than usual. Some people even mistake it for a Mary Kaye. I just know it fits me like a glove and back in that pawnshop in Miami fifty years ago the universe delivered me a Strat that changed my life!

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I fell in love and I fell in love hard. It didn’t take long to realize why those who came before and after me, like Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Ritchie Blackmore, Eric Clapton, Kurt Cobain, The Edge, John Frusciante, Rory Gallagher, David Gilmour, Buddy Guy, George Harrison, Eddie Hazel, Buddy Holly, Ernie Isley, Mark Knopfler, John Mayer, Richie Sambora, Ike Turner, Eddie Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Cory Wong, Ronnie Wood, and thousands of others – many of whom I went on to produce – felt the same way.

This was an instrument that changed and is still changing the world! Put a Strat in the hands of the right person and the possibilities are endless!

Fifty years have passed since I pulled that cheap guitar off that wall and it has never let me down. People know it today as “The Hitmaker” because it’s played on everything from thousands of live gigs to films, video games, and theatrical productions, and is responsible for over 500 million albums sold on the biggest recordings from CHIC, Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, David Bowie, Madonna, Duran Duran, Daft Punk, Beyoncé, and countless others.

From Le Freak to Let’s Dance, Get Lucky, and Cuff It, people the world over know the sound of my Strat! After five decades, I still carry it slung over my shoulder in a gig bag. People freak out because they know it’s priceless, but to me it makes sense. I originally bought it to keep a gig, and in return it keeps me gigging.

With deepest gratitude, 

Nile Rodgers

• Fender Stratocaster: 70 Years is available now via Fender for $60.