History
The Fender Stratocaster guitar was invented in 1954 by Leo Fender and others in California. Leo had already created the successful Telecaster guitar.

Body
The Stratocaster, or Strat as it is sometimes known, is a double cutaway guitar. A cutaway is indentation or scallop in the guitar body, where the neck joins the body. Since the Stratocaster is a double cutaway, it has a cutaway above and below the neck where it meets the body. This cutaway provides room for the guitar player's hand to move in when playing notes "high" on the neck. By having a double cutaway the player's thumb can grip the neck area above while the other fingers play in the lower cutaway. The body of the Stratocaster consists of smooth, rounded, flowing curves. Fender called the body design a "Comfort Contour Body".

Neck
The Stratocaster had a one piece maple neck with twenty-one frets. Later a rosewood fret board was used. Today the Strat is available in maple and rosewood fretboard models.

Bridge
Fender used a spring assembly on the bridge to allow it to float with the pull of the strings. Attaching a tremolo arm to the bridge, you could move it up or down to increase or decrease the pitch of the notes you were playing. Some players do not care for this feature of the Stratocaster and disable it, but nonetheless, it was an innovative design.

Pickups
The Stratocaster has three single coil pickups, as opposed to the double coil "humbucking" pickups found on some other guitars such as those by Gibson. The pickup nearest the bridge is mounted in a slanted position. The Stratocaster had a three position switch to select the pickups. Early players discovered you could position the switch in between positions for an interesting distinctive sound. Later Fender added a five position switch to facilitate this setting. This interesting sound has become a distinctive characteristic of the Stratocaster guitar. Musicians and later Fender also experimented with other pickup combinations on the Strat, including using double coil or "humbucking" pickups.

Finish
The first Strats were finished in a two color sunburst. Since then the Strat has been painted in a variety of colors and finishes. Fender used automotive type paints and colors and the Strat is frequently seen in these colors.

Corporate History
CBS went on a buying binge and bought Fender in 1965. They also bought Steinway, the famous piano maker, Rodgers organs, Rogers drums, the maker of the Leslie speaker (best known for being paired with the Hammond organ), and others. The general consensus is that the quality of Fender instruments suffered greatly during this time due to cost cutting measures. Through the years, Fender exported or licensed the manufacture of Stratocasters in other countries. There was also a line of guitars created called Squier that included the Stratocaster. The Squier line consisted of cheaper models designed for entry-level, or student, guitarists. In 1985, led by Bill Schulz, Fender completed a buyout from CBS. Schulz is generally credited with saving Fender by restoring the quality.

Future
Fender prospered. The future looks bright. And today there are numerous models of American Standard Stratocasters available from Fender in various price ranges.

Many of the new phones being offered by the big carriers are being advertised as being "3G" ready. The average mobile phone consumer often will not know what the third generation is or why it's important to them. To be a better informed consumer lets investigate exactly what it is.

What Is It?

3G stands for Third Generation and refers to the third generation of technology in the mobile industry. This generation follows 1G and 2G technology.

1G

The first real cell phones are considered to be 1G (First Generation). The networks for these early cell phones used analog signals. The phones used on the networks were big and clunky, with no abilities aside from voice.

2G

The technology categorized as 1G was in place up until the early 1990's, when it was then replaced by the 2G technology features. With 2G came a break away from the analog signals and a move towards the digital spectrum. 2G brought with it the introduction to providing multimedia content and increased bandwidth. A lot of the technologies classified as 2G are still being used in cell phones today.

2.5G

Before the complete rollout of 3G technologies, 2.5G was introduced. Primarily used as a marketing term, 2.5G is not an officially recognized technology; but it can be used to refer to the "in between" stage of moving away from 2G and moving completely into the 3G realm. 2.5G uses the existing 2G infrastructure while enabling some of the benefits of the 3G technologies, including increased multimedia abilities and improved data transfer speeds.

3G

The technologies that now qualify as the third generation include increased functionality of mobile phones; with increased speeds and bandwidth being the biggest appealing factors. Multimedia functionality on the networks also improves, by leaps and bounds, with the move to these new technologies.

While 3G capable phones are incredibly appealing to cell phone buyers they may find that not all of the functionality their phones are capable of available to them. Carriers in the US have yet to fully roll out their upgraded networks in all markets. AT&T is leading the market right now, with their networks being available in most major metropolitan markets; however the biggest AT&T seller, the iPhone, is not 3G capable. Apple has stated that a third generation version might be possible in the future when the networks are more widely available in the US.

T-Mobile is trailing behind AT&T when it comes to their network. Until recently, none of the third generation capable phones T-Mobile sold could have their full functionality used; simply because the infrastructure is not yet fully in place across the T-Mobile markets. T-Mobile has recently launched their new network in New York, allowing New York customers the ability to take advantage of the full functionality of their 3G capable phones.

3G will, soon, become the standard technology in the mobile industry; it is just up to the wireless carriers to ensure that they quickly meet the demands of their users who want to take advantage of the third generation technologies as soon as possible.