In popular culture

The Fender Stratocaster or Strat has been featured in many movies, roller coasters, tv shows and much more. It has been featured in Rock N Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith in Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

The VG Stratocaster (designed by Fender and Japanese synthesizer giant Roland) is an American Series virtual modeling guitar with a Roland VG pickup and two extra knobs for Tuning Function Control (5 Rotary Positions) and Mode Control (5 Rotary Modes), offering 37 different Stratocaster, Telecaster, humbucking, 12-string and acoustic sounds, plus five alternate tunings, all at the simple flip of a switch or twist of a knob. The VG Stratocaster was introduced in 2007 and promoted by Fender guitar clinicians Jeff Kollman and Greg Koch.

Custom Classic Strats are Custom Shop versions of the American Series models, sporting C or V-shape maple necks with rosewood or maple fingerboard and three Modern Classic single-coils with a Hot Classic bridge pick-up featuring a custom steel inductance plate. Custom Classic guitars made before 2003 were equipped with a set of Fender Texas Special single-coils.

Highway One guitars (introduced in 2000 and upgraded in 2006) include a large headstock, '70s styling, super-sized frets, three distortion-friendly Alnico III single-coils and a Greasebucket tone circuit (which rolls off the high frequencies without adding bass). The Highway One Stratocaster HSS features a black bobbin Atomic II humbucker in the bridge position. Limited edition models with '50s and early '60s specs are also offered with a run of 150 instruments; 2-tone sunburst finish, ash body, maple fingerboard and 1-ply parchment pickguard or surf green finish, alder body, rosewood fingerboard and 3-ply mint pickguard, both featuring a small headstock with "spaghetti"-style decal. Additionally, the alder-bodied guitar with the rosewood fretboard and the 3-ply mint pickguard sports a set of Custom Shop '69 Stratocaster single-coil pick-ups.

The Artist Signature Series line includes several Stratocaster models come with features and specifications favored by popular artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, John Mayer, David Gilmour, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Mark Knopfler, Eric Johnson, Yngwie Malmsteen, Billy Corgan,Pete Townshend and others. The Custom Artist guitars are the Custom Shop versions; they slightly differ from the regular Artist Signature range in terms of quality and construction, making these instruments much more expensive than the regular production versions. Like the other Custom Shop models, the Custom Artist guitars are available as Team Built and Master Built items.

Standard, Deluxe and Classic Series Stratocasters are generally made in Mexico, although some models are manufactured in Japan and Korea.

Fender Stratocasters are built in the United States, Mexico, Japan and Korea.

• American Standard, American Vintage, American Deluxe, American Special, Artist, Custom Classic, Custom Artist, Hot-Rodded American Vintage and Highway One series Stratocasters are made in a Fender factory in Corona, California, United States of America and are commonly called Made In America (MIA) Stratocasters. There is also a Fender Museum there open to the public.

• Most other Stratocaster series models are made in a Fender factory in Ensenada, Mexico and are often labelled as Made In Mexico (MIM). Guitar necks are still manufactured in the Corona factory and sent to the Ensenada factory to be mounted onto guitars.

• Fender Japan Stratocasters and Squiers were exported in the 1980s and 1990s but are now mostly limited for sale to the Japanese domestic market.

Fender also produces Stratocasters under the Squier brand in China, Indonesia and India at lower cost than Fender-branded models. While Squier Stratocasters are predominantly inexpensive versions of Fender Stratocasters, some models are also unique to the Squier brand, such as the OBEY Graphic series or Hello Kitty series. They also offer a starter kit through Costco, Target and other retailers, which comes with a budget Strat under the name Starcaster by Fender, which comes in standard and deluxe pickup configurations. It also comes with extra strings, three guitar picks, a gig bag and an SP10 Amp. It is common for guitarists who enjoy customizing their instruments to buy a cheap Stratocaster variant and upgrade the components to their own tastes. Many modern Stratocasters are routed with a large single 'swimming pool' pickup rout, allowing a completely different pickguard with any configuration of humbucker or single-coil pickups to be fixed to the guitar virtually instantly; three wires from the bridge ground and jackplate are all that need to be soldered into place. Other modern Strats, such as the American Deluxe, American and American Standard Series, came with the 'universal' HSH rout.

Fender also offers a 12-string version of the Stratocaster, known as the Fender Stratocaster XII.

Fender has licensed the appearance of the Stratocaster to Electronic Arts for a replica guitar controller for EA and Harmonix's Rock Band rhythm video game. A real Stratocaster, retrofitted with controller electronics, is available as a controller for Rock Band 2.