Fat Strat

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A Fat Strat is a name for a design of electric guitars that are based on the Fender Stratocaster, but have a humbucking pickup at the bridge position instead of a single-coil pickup. Apart from this difference, a Fat Strat still retains other characteristics of a Stratocaster, such as a 21/22-fret fretboard and a synchronized tremolo bridge. Like "superstrat", the term is commonly used to denote any electric guitar in this style, with or without an association to Fender, though Fender recognize such an arrangement and produce their own Fat Strats.

A Fat Strat is more conventionally referred to as a Strat HSS, which stands for the pickup setup (humbucking, single-coil, single-coil). A fine example is the American Deluxe Strat HSS (also known as American Deluxe Fat Strat), featuring a pair of Fender Hot SCN single-coils (neck/middle), a DH-1 humbucking pickup in the bridge position and the S-1 switching system for series/parallel sounds. This guitar came with a deluxe 2-point vibrato bridge with a pop-in arm, although Fender offered the model with a Fender Deluxe Locking synchronized tremolo bridge from 1998 to 2007.

Because the only change on a Fat Strat compared to a conventional Strat is that it has a humbucker in the bridge position, it is typically different from a superstrat, which only shares a major similarity with a standard "Strat" in the shape of its Strat-like body. A Fat Strat is more similar to a standard Strat, having 2 single-coil pickups at neck and middle position, and the tone is fairly identical to its Strat equivalent, save for the sound of the humbucking pickup in the bridge position. Some higher-end American-made Fender models such as the American Series Strat HSS feature an S-1 switching system allowing the pickups to be wired in series and parallel mode, or vice-versa. The "Fat" name is derived from the fact that the bridge-position humbucking pickup produces extra high gains, which could be necessary for playing lead guitar.

Like the definition of superstrat, it is often questionable whether additional modification, such as having a 2-octave fretboard, a Floyd Rose tremolo or other similar features, would make it into a superstrat, or allow it to remain a Fat Strat. When it has a pair of humbucking pickups and up to 22 frets, it will typically be referred to as an HH or Double Fat Strat, which sounds dramatically different from the sound of a traditional Strat, and far closer to Gibson SG. Due to this, it is quite common to refer to even this configuration as superstrat. Using a humbucker/single-coil/humbucker pickup configuration or a 24-fret Double Fat Strat, will also usually make it a superstrat.

Example of Fat Strat include:

[edit] Fat Tele

The Fat Tele usually refers to a Fender Telecaster guitar with a humbucker (generally with metal pickup covers) in the neck position. Double Fat Tele designates a Telecaster with two humbucking pickups. Both terms were later replaced by the more conventional Tele HS and HH.

Fender produced Fat Telecasters in 1997. These models were removed in 2003. The budget-priced Squier Standard Fat Tele lasted until 2007; the twin-humbucker Double Fat Tele Deluxe has been taken out of production around 2003-early 2004.