A Quick History of Stratocaster Copies

If you’re a guitarist like me, you recognize this classic guitar style at a glance:

Buddy Holly’s Strat (Photo by John W. Schulze from Tejas, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

It’s a Fender Stratocaster, of course. The axe used by countless rock-and-roll gods, from Jimi Henrix to Eric Clapton. It’s iconic. It defined a brand and even a way of life.

Yet have you ever noticed how many companies make a “Stratocaster” guitar? Any company — heck, any luthier — worth…