More so than its only real competition for the “definitive guitar” crown, the Gibson Les Paul, the Fender Stratocaster can do, well, pretty much anything.
Listing out the genres and styles the six-string Swiss Army knife has been used for is a pointless exercise – I'd say it'd be easier to list the ones it hasn't been used for, but I don't know if there are any.
With that in mind, trying to suss out a guitarist who – in all of the model's 70+ years of existence – is the most synonymous with the Stratocaster, is probably a fool's errand, but we want to know your thoughts anyway. Who do you think is the single most iconic Fender Stratocaster player?
Now, the answer to this question doesn't have to be someone who's used the model their entire career.
Say, for instance, there was a longtime Strat player, who decided they wanted to modernize the model, turned to Fender and asked if they could do so together, then turned to another company to make their vision a reality when Fender turned them down, and then it became a whole thing... You can still say that this totally-not-based-on-a-real-person guitarist is a “Strat player”.
So, who's the one that did the most to transform the guitar-playing game with the most ubiquitous guitar model? Pushed its sonic boundaries the farthest? Showed the greatest virtuosity on it?
Let us know your pick in the comments below.
