The Stratocaster was first produced in early 1954 by Los Angeles engineer Leo Fender, who had tinkered with improving amplified hollow-body instruments since the 1940s. The Bass is widely used in many musical genres, including rock and roll, heavy metal, jazz, funk, Gothic rock, Hard rock, country, and disco. The acoustic bass guitar is similar to an acoustic guitar with a large, hollow body that is clearly audible without amplification. You don’t mess with an icon. The other key detail: It would be made in the U.S.A. To make sure no one missed the point, the new guitar would be called “American Standard.” Conspicuous designation of the U.S. origin of certain models or whole series would be a regular fixture of Fender strategies from now on. (American Standards built in 1994 bear a red, white, and blue medallion on the headstock, commemorating the instrument’s 40th anniversary. As to new or more recent "non vintage" Strats, I have noticed that people have starting to enquire about Limited Edition Custom Shop models. Recently, we have been asked about the 40th Anniversary Hank Marvin Model, the Jaguar Racing Green Stratocaster model (that’s Jaguar the car, not the guitar), and the Hendrix Monterey model. A new Strat was developed in 1986, unveiled to key dealers, and introduced to critical raves at the January 1987 NAMM trade show. Details included typical features (three-layer pickguard, one-piece maple neck, etc.), plus a small headstock, 4-bolt neck, a 9 1/2” radius fingerboard with jumbo frets, a TBX tone circuit, a redesigned tremolo with two bearing points instead of six screws, flat-polepiece pickups, a hum-reducing, reverse-polarity pickup in the middle position, a silver transition logo, and a urethane finish. Classical Guitar Teacher.