If you know anything about rock and roll guitar, you’ve heard of the Fender Stratocaster, and you probably have a pretty good idea of ​​the identities of the great stratocaster players. Eric Clapton, David Gilmour and, of course, Jimi Hendrix usually top the list.

But as great as these guys are, they’ve been talked about a lot over the last few decades and sometimes it can be more fun to look a little off the beaten path and see some great players that you might not immediately associate with. the Strat.

1) Mark Knopfler

What is Mark Knopfler doing on this list? Wasn’t he practically known for the iconic Stratocaster tone of his in the late ’70s? Okay, yes. Listening to “Sultans of Swing” or “Southbound Again” will tell you exactly what Leo Fender had in mind when he built his first Strat in 1954. However, he would argue that Mark Knopfler and Dire Straits had such monstrous success. in 1984 with “Money for Nothing,” which he played on a Gibson Les Paul, the anti-Stratocaster, which erased his original tonal identity. Ask most guitarists today and they’ll tell you that Knopfler is a Gibson type.

2) Bonnie Ratt

Unlike Knopfler, Bonnie Raitt has been true to her Fender Strat (be it her signature new blue model or her stripped-down Old Faithful) for her entire career. However, she is such an amazing singer and performer that she would bet 75% of her audience doesn’t even know she can play the guitar. Too bad for them. Bonnie is one of the two most wicked slide guitarists on the planet, with a sultry, buzzy tone and enough taste to always play just the perfect lick in the perfect place.

3) Ry Cooler

If Bonnie Raitt is one of the two most evil slide guitarists on the planet, Ry Cooder is definitely the other. Ry matches Bonnie’s tone and taste levels, but probably surpasses her in terms of sheer technique and killer flair: She watches her intro to “All Shook Up” on Get Rhythm for a clinic on greasy neck aggression. of bottle. Ry’s mainstay is a Frankenstein guitar with a custom neck and pickup from a World War II-era Oahu lap steel guitar, which he cut from its original location and stuffed into a sunburst Strat body. Rolling through a fully equipped kit reputed to include a reverb spring floating in used motor oil, Ry’s Oahu Strat sounds like no other.