in my opinion:

gibson les paul
fender stratocaster
ibanez iceman
fender strat and tele look alike..sorry

and there are several v shaped guitars that look the same

Besides the Gibson Les Paul Guitar, there is probably no more renowned Electric Guitar than the Fender. The Fender Stratocaster and Fender Telecaster electrics are the company’s two most famous models and played by “rock gods” the world over (the Telecaster is especially favored by modern Country and Blues musicians, too), although Fender also makes steel string and classical guitars as well as bass guitars.

The Fender company also produces top of the line amplifiers.

Guitar players and makers began experimenting with amplification in the 1920s because the acoustic guitar’s sound in a jazz band was being totally swamped by the rest of the band. Eventually, in the 1940s, Leo Fender, an electronics expert and inventor from California, created the first instrument amplifiers to have built-in tone controls. However, Fender also understood that in order to fit in with modern music the guitar itself was going to need to be given a vastly greater range of tonal colors and sheer power. In 1951, Fender may have saved the guitar from oblivion in widely listened to music when he introduced his Fender Broadcaster, which was the forerunner to the Telecaster. In that same year Fender produced the electric Precision bass guitar.

In 1954, Fender emerged with what would become the most renowned rock ‘n’ roll guitar in history: the Stratocaster.

Unfortunately, in 1965 Leo Fender was in failing health and sold his company to the CBS corporation. Although CBS was able to put its giant marketing and advertising budget behind the Fender line of amps and guitars to make them the premier modern guitar music equipment, CBS also failed to actually comprehend music and musicians, and by 1973 the quality of the newly produced legendary Stratocasters was definitely sinking. Today’s Fender “Strat” collectors and players covet pre-1973 Strats, and even more they prize “pre-CBS” models.

With the Strat known for its exquisite tone, range of colors, and great action, in 1977 CBS added the five-way pickup selector switch to the Strat, giving the possible combination of pickup-use and the resulting tonal coloration even more variety, in hopes of keeping the Strat commercially competitive.

By the early 1980s, CBS/Fender began producing the “Squire” Strat, which is a deliberately second-rate and much less expensive version of the Stratocaster. The Squire was made in response to pricing competition from Japanese guitar makers.

In 1981, CBS took steps to try to re-invent Fender. William Schultz was selected as the new President of Fender and he and his assistants had a five-year business designed to focus heavily on R&D and advertising to take Fender back to the heights of the guitar world. However, by 1985 CBS was getting out of all non-broadcast media industries and with the help of some investors Schultz bought Fender from the giant corporation.

Having nothing but the patent and old Fender guitars in stock, eventually Bill Schultz built two new Fender manufacturing plants in Corona, California and Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico. The idea was to keep all manufacturing close to home to control quality and keep shipping costs down to make Fender more affordable. No more would Fenders be made by cheap labor in Japan.

Fender went on to acquire legendary Sunn amplification and its Lake Oswego, Oregon manufacturing plants in 1987, and in 1991 the company moved its headquarters from Corona to Scottsdale, Arizona. In 1995 Fender bought out the renowned Guild Guitar company and acquired its massive manufacturing plant in Westerly, Rhode Island.

Today Fender is back on top in the world of electric and acoustic guitars, bass guitars, and amplifiers. The company has facilities in California, Arizona, Tennessee, New York, Rhode Island, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico; London, England; Dusseldorf, Germany; Suresnes, France; Brussels, Japan, Korea, and China.

I’ve got a Mexican Fender Strat, and I want to install a Floyd Rose tremolo system on it. Is this possible? If so, would it involve cutting up my guitar?

Guitars are generally made keeping in mind both the right handed and left handed players. Conventionally it is the dominant hand which is assigned the task of plucking or strumming the strings of the guitar. For the majority of people the dominant hand is the right hand.

Anatomy of Guitars is a required study for both the novice as well as experienced players to truly utilize this powerful musical instrument. Musical expression, tonal expression and dynamics etc are mainly determined by the plucking hand. The fretting hand is given the less significant mechanical task of gripping the strings.

Anatomy of Guitars include

Headstock, Nut, Neck joint or Heel, Strings, Body (acoustic guitar), Body (electric guitar), Pickups Lining, Binding, Purfling, Bridge, Pickguard, Neck, Electronics, Vibrato Arm, Fretboard, Frets, Truss rod, Inlays, Tuning

Identifying the Parts

Head Stock

It is the top part of this anatomy study, which bears the tuners.

Tuners

Tuners are positioned on the headstock of the instrument(top of the guitar). Tuners are the tools to tune the guitar. Fine tuners are also to be found on guitars with Floyd Rose systems

Nut

The nut is positioned just below the headstock of the guitar. The strings go through this right before the tuning keys.

Frets

Frets can be found on the guitar’s neck. 22 to 24 frets are found normally.

Neck

The neck of a guitar is the place to rest the hand to fret chords, play scales etc. There are some necks on the anatomy of guitars, which are set before and others like a Fender Strat have the bolt on.

Position Markers

There are some dots on the guitar fretboard. They are called the Position markers used for easy reference, located typically on the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 17th, 19th and 21st frets. Sometimes they can be on the side of the neck.

Sound Hole

The sound hole can be found on the top center of the body of an acoustic or acoustic electric guitar. The sound comes out from this hole.

Body

The body of the guitar is the base anatomy of guitars; it is the structure to hold.

Pickups

The electrical sound on an electric guitar and acoustic electric are produced by the pickups. Magnet constitutes the pickup of the guitar strings vibration and helps in generating the sound out of the amplifier.

PickGuard

PickGuard protects the guitar from scratches and other harms. Other use of pickguard for instance is to hold the pickups, knobs etc. But this is true on some guitars like the fender stratocaster etc.

Saddle

The saddle is situated on an acoustic guitars bridge. It is made of plastic, bone etc. On an electric guitar the bridge saddles is used to attune the height of the strings, set intonation and more.

Bridge

A guitars bridge is positioned at the bottom of a guitar where the strings are attached. Pegs hold on to the acoustic guitar strings and keep it attached.

Output Jack

The place to plug in the guitar cable is coming from an amplifier. Most of the time, it is an inch long.

Acoustic and electric guitars share many parts in common. They all have a body, neck, fretboard, and headstock as a total anatomy of guitars.