This is so true. Clapton and literally just a couple of others revived an entire part of guitar history - the Les Paul - and put it back on the map. Is there a Clapton Sig LP, by the way? He surely deserves one - and a 335...

Regarding Vai and Satriani: if we were addressing the implication of the OP's original question - i.e. that all great guitarists choose to play Strats - well then those two precisely contradict it, because they have gone to Ibanez to get pickup configurations and other features that Strats don't offer.

And Straycat, I particularly agree with you for naming the excellent Brian Setzer!

Cheers - C

thank you sir.

ok I know who he is. Just never knew his name

@Ceri - Clapton and the British players did put things on the map , but let's not forget how tremendously innovative his playing was with Cream, for instance. They all were overshadowed in their time by Hendrix, yet this doesn't diminish anything of their merits. Or how he helped bring reggae to mainstream audiences and so on.
I don't quite know about Satriani, but I remember seing Vai playing a Strat with Zappa. And as for features, their Ibanez guitars had DiMarzio pickups and were built after their specs, so...
How I understood the original question was "known guitar players, not associated with Strats/Fender".
Most guitarists played a Strat or a Tele at some point or another (Page played a Tele way into Zeppelin, even the solo of Stairway To Heaven is played on a Tele, Clapton played a Tele with the Yardbirds, Beck started on a Tele and an Esquire......).
It's very true there are quite a few players never associated with anything Fender - Santana (Gibson, Yamaha, PRS), Johnny Winter (Gibson Firebird), many bluesmen, most of jazz and fusion players (Larry Carlton, Frank Gambale....) and the list goes on and on.

Oh, and I want to add Alvin Lee to the list, I think he's way understated.

Oh...I have only seen him play Gibsons. I did not follow Rush too much in the Eighties. Correction to my previous post...pre-80's/post-80's Alex Lifeson.

RK

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

Check this out, http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/I ... feson.aspx.

What!!! Stevie not in your top 100?? Hmmmm.......

You talking about this:

"And then you went through a Fender period?

Yeah, I sort of went through a Fender period. In fact, we did a gig with Blue Oyster Cult at the Nassau Coliseum in the late seventies, and one of the horns had fallen off of the stack and then fell on my 335, as well as a double neck that I had. It sheared a headstock off the double neck, and it took a real big gouge out of the neck of the 335. So I decided, “Okay, the 335’s going home, that’s not going to be on the road anymore.” I got a Strat as a backup, and I just wasn’t quite comfortable with it, you know, coming from the Gibson world. So I got a Schaller neck for it, and I put a humbucker in the bridge position—just fooling with it a little bit, trying to get something that was sort of a hybrid between a Gibson and a Fender."

Ah...even then he wasn't playing a Fender, but a Gibson/Fender hybrid. Sorry that does not count.

RK

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

+1

...I'm sure most of us have seen SRV:Live at El Mocombo, but if any of you haven't, you MUST get it and watch!!!!! Talk about inspiring guitar.....

By the way, another name to add: Danny Gatton (Tele)

@rkreisher
Well, for a backup guitar he didn't really like he seems to have used it/them quite a few.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Lifes ... _equipment
http://www.80srockphotos.com/fcWebApp/i ... ta&typid=2

On the other hand, very true, the immense part of his work was done using Gibsons, especially the 355.
And some PRS.

Ok he uses Fenders, but admits that he does like them. Strike Alex Lifeson off my list of guitar players who do not use Fender guitars. I will correct my orginal post. Most of the other names on other people's lists will also need to be slightly augmented. I do not know a single guitar player who has never picked up and played a Fender at some point, albeit they probably never recorded with one. We are all guitar players and all probably played a few guitar to see which one was right for them.

RK

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

As I recall, Duane Allman played Strats as a session player in the 60's, I've seen pictures to document it. Also, I believe Billy Gibbons played Strats as well........therefore, we have Apologies to Pearly, and Blue Jean Blues.

Robert Johnson.

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The blues ain't nothin but a good man feelin bad.

a couple greats who dont play strats larry carlton mark knopfler

Hendrix was a package. He wasn't the fastest by any means, but he was fast enough. He used unique chord voicings that were surprising and fresh. His songwriting was strange and unexpected. His live performances were exciting. And his feel for studio recording, aided by Eddie Kramer's technical expertise, was spot on. Put it all together and you have one incredible talent.

He played Stratocasters, of course. But not exclusively.

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