In recent months I have seen some excellent films. But, not features. No… the lowly documentary film has roared back with a vengeance. The House That Ahmet Built (about Ahmet Ertegun & Atlantic Records,) Life Through A Lens (the story of photographer Annie Leibovitz,) and Chasing Sound (the biography of Les Paul) were all shown on PBS’s American Masters series and each one provided a more enjoyable viewing experience than any of the DVDs I rented during the same time period. Now a new documentary has appeared, released straight to DVD, which purports to be “The Definitive History Of The World’s Most Famous Guitar” — and it’s a corker!
Strat Masters is exactly what it claims to be, and more. In this 167 minute programme you will learn how Leo Fender came up with the idea and the design of the Fender Stratocaster. You’ll hear Don Randall talk about early marketing techniques. You’ll see the Fender factories in the USA and in Japan, where the guitars are made, and where the pickups are made in Seymour Duncan’s facilities in Santa Barbara. Guitarists Ry Cooder, Chris Rea, Sonny Curtis, and Buddy Merrill discuss their use of (and love for) the Strat in intimate clips. Clive Brown (guitar restorer and builder) tells of the time he stripped the finish off a Strat and found Leo Fender’s signature, scribbled on the raw wood, countermanding the finish that had been chosen for that body. (The guitar had been designated “sunburst” but Leo felt the wood wasn’t suitable so he changed it to a solid colour!)
There are all sorts of these fascinating and intimate details that come out in the interviews. People recall the first time they ever saw a Strat, perhaps in the window of a shop, or being played by another musician, and how they were drawn by its beauty, of form and sound. Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch (of The Shadows) describe the arrival of the guitar in England. Jeff Beck shows the variety of sounds that can be pulled from the instrument. Malina Moye kisses her guitar and talks to it. Rory Gallagher (in a wonderful archival clip) plays a bottleneck blues on his Strat!
This intimacy is achieved throughout the film as players describe their love affair with this guitar. Curiously, a big part of the attraction the Strat has for players is its flexibility. Not the inherent flexibility of the off the rack model but the fact that you can take the off the rack model and then do anything you want to with it. The three-way switch was jammed between the first and second positions to create an “out-of-phase” sound combining two different pickups. This lucky accident led to the creation of today’s 5-way switch. Want a slightly different sound? Rewire the pickups. Use the tremolo bar for vibrato. Mark Knopfler (surrounded by a handful of different Stratocasters) plugs them into a couple of different amps to demonstrate sounds, and shows how he uses the “twang-bar.” Jeff Beck rhapsodizes about his discovery of this useful addition, and the difference it made to his sound.
Al Jardine talks about the importance Fender had in the growth of the Beach Boys’ sound. And it goes on like this. Fascinating. Oh, did I mention how people take the neck from one year’s model, attach it to the body of another year’s model, combine pickups and so forth? And still… it’s a Strat!
Strat Masters is almost three hours of unbelievable stories and detail. Trainspotting? Maybe! But it’s my favourite kind. It’s about guitars. Do I have a complaint? Well… I would prefer the programme in NTSC so I could watch it on my big screen TV, and maybe chapters! The film is presented as one long programme broken only by the need to switch discs. No bonus footage or extras. It doesn’t need extras! It’s all in the programme! I asked producer Bob Hewitt about these things and he told me “all new DVD players cover every region… so our manufacturers didn’t produce different regions this time around.” and he recommended a Web site to search for hack codes.
Where are some of the other famous Strat players? Well, Jimi is featured in a long segment on Disc 2, remembered by Jeff Beck and Malina Moye. David Gilmour appeared on The Strat Pack (a live concert celebration of the Strat’s 50th birthday, and plays his black Strat all over his new Royal Albert Hall DVD set. And Eric? I’ll let Bob Hewitt respond to that one. “And David,” he said, “…before you ask, we approached Eric Clapton many times — even offered to follow him to Japan — but he said no. He even said no to the follow up ‘Strat Masters Vol 2’.” Ah well… It’s still the most definitive look at any one guitar that we’ll likely ever see. Guitar worshippers take note… order your copy here!
(Headstock Productions, 2007)
