George Harrison playing a CBS Stratocaster

[BasK]

It's not the size of the the headstock....

 

[Arfage]

Post CBS. It's a 2nd or 3rd gen Squire.

 

[schmee]

Wound up looking for some photos, and whattaya know! George posing with a sunburst Strat with the infamous enlarged headstock.

View attachment 990259 View attachment 990260
Anybody got info regarding this Strat? Given it is a CBS Strat, this had to have been made during the “F” series of Fender. My guess is that this Strat was made between 1968 and 1973.
As we all know, George owned about 50 to 100 Strats, including his Rocky Strat, a Squier Stratocaster that he used when he toured Japan in the nineties, and I’m pretty sure he also owned a 57 Strat.

Im sure this is in Dhani’s possession, but who knows.

The large CBS headstock ruled from '66-'81... SO that must be outside of those years.... small headstock right? But YEAH! it's a Squier!
CBS wanted the big headstock because.............. wait for it............... they wanted a bigger decal so it could be seen on stage!

 

[Volcanicash01]

Wound up looking for some photos, and whattaya know! George posing with a sunburst Strat with the infamous enlarged headstock.

View attachment 990259 View attachment 990260
Anybody got info regarding this Strat? Given it is a CBS Strat, this had to have been made during the “F” series of Fender. My guess is that this Strat was made between 1968 and 1973.
As we all know, George owned about 50 to 100 Strats, including his Rocky Strat, a Squier Stratocaster that he used when he toured Japan in the nineties, and I’m pretty sure he also owned a 57 Strat.

Im sure this is in Dhani’s possession, but who knows.

Dunno about that, but I had a lot of CBS Strats in the 70’s. All were horrible heavy lumps of overpriced overrated rubbish. Stay away from them. Blackmore was the only one who could get a great sound out of these guitars.

 

[tiktok]

Looks like he had the big headstock cut down - I can’t blame him if he did

No, there was a transitional headstock in the early 80's that looked (bad) like that. Usually you saw them on the two-knob Strats with the pick guard mounted output jack.

 

[chris m.]

Dunno about that, but I had a lot of CBS Strats in the 70’s. All were horrible heavy lumps of overpriced overrated rubbish. Stay away from them. Blackmore was the only one who could get a great sound out of these guitars.

C'mon, lots of very iconic songs were played live and recorded with CBS Strats. Lots and lots and lots. They may have been heavy and overpriced, but they still sounded like Strats. But I also think that there is no need to buy vintage Strats from ANY era given the wonderful factory and custom shop Strats being produced at multiple price points today with just about whatever features you might prefer. Buy vintage if you're a collector or have a thing for vintage "mojo", but note that many of the most famous Strat players of all time who have no shortage of money are perfectly happy using the brand new Strats being produced today.

This guy sounds pretty good on a CBS Strat:



So does this guy--

 

[FortyEight]

the other point is people modded their guitars back then. so just cuz it said fender doesnt mean artists werent interested in making it sound better.

 

[Chester P Squier]

Harrison playing a Squier Strat? He could afford anything. Very cool.

My Squier Strat is so cheap, it doesn't even have "ocaster" on the headstock. Just "Strat." At least George's Squier had "Stratocaster" on the headstock.

 

[jfgesquire]

No, there was a transitional headstock in the early 80's that looked (bad) like that. Usually you saw them on the two-knob Strats with the pick guard mounted output jack.

No, not true, and do not perpetuate the error

The two knob 83-84 Standard Strat has a normal shaped headstock. It was the two models before that with slightly off headstocks: the true "Dan Smith" Strat, and the model before that referred to as "The STRAT", the first model transitioning back to the smaller headstock. On those the headstock was goofy, but that was NOT the headstock on the 2 knob Standard Stratocaster.

From the horses mouth:

How the Strat Came to Have Two Heads

Have you ever noticed that the Stratocaster has had two different sized headstocks over the years? Here's why.

www.fender.com

 

[John C]

No, not true, and do not perpetuate the error

The two knob 83-84 Standard Strat has a normal shaped headstock. It was the two models before that with slightly off headstocks: the true "Dan Smith" Strat, and the model before that referred to as "The STRAT", the first model transitioning back to the smaller headstock. On those the headstock was goofy, but that was NOT the headstock on the 2 knob Standard Stratocaster.

From the horses mouth:

How the Strat Came to Have Two Heads

Have you ever noticed that the Stratocaster has had two different sized headstocks over the years? Here's why.

www.fender.com

That's correct. The 1980-81 "The STRAT" models actually had the same headstocks as the Lead series models which had a completely straight bottom edge (no slight curve to it like a vintage Strat). Then when they revamped the basic Stratocaster in 1982 to the "Smith Strat" Fender changed the headstock on "The STRAT" to match.

But the 1983-84 Elite and 2-knob Standard headstocks were pretty similar to the vintage design.