“The sound of other guitars is leading the player. With the Stratocaster, the player leads the sound”: Tom Morello explains why the Fender Strat is unlike any other electric guitar

2024 marks the 70th Anniversary of the Fender Stratocaster – a guitar that has helped shape, steer and inform the very course of popular and alternative music across its seven-decade lifespan.

Over the years, it’s been wielded by countless guitar heroes, including Tom Morello, whose Soul Power Strat is symbolic of some of the Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave titan’s most iconic feats of boundary-pushing guitar playing. 

Speaking in a new interview with Rock Sound to mark the model’s milestone, Morello dove deep into his love for the Strat, and explained what it is about the Big F’s flagship double-cut that makes it so appealing – and completely different from any other electric guitar on the market.

“One of the things that differentiates the Strat from other great electric guitars is the sound of those other guitars leading the player,” Morello explained. “With the Stratocaster, the player leads the sound.”

To articulate his point, Morello referenced the sounds of some of the Strat’s biggest champions, and noted how each individual has been able to definitively carve out wildly distinct sonic paths despite playing the same instrument.

“Off the top of my head, some of my favourite Strat players would be Jimi Hendrix's feedback frenzy and David Gilmour's emotional melodicism,” he continued. “Then there’s Jeff Beck reconstituting the instrument, Wayne Kramer inventing punk rock on it, and Andy Gill with Gang of Four, who used the guitar aggressively. 

“They are all playing Stratocasters but with hardly any sonic bleeds between their styles. So, when I got my hand on the Soul Power Strat, I knew it would allow me to explore myself as an artist in a new way simply by channelling my inner six-string soul power.”

Morello speaks from experience. As he recalls in the conversation, he got his first Stratocaster when he formed Audioslave, during a time when he was looking for a new instrument to guide his playing in new directions. The Strat turned out to be the perfect partner to pioneer his approach.

“When we formed that band, I wanted a different six-string colleague to help me forge my guitar path in that band,” he said. “I got a Strat, and it felt right in my hands. 

“I brought it home and immediately wrote ‘Soul Power’ on it as a North Star to guide my sonic travels with the band. And it really did provide that. 

“It got me out of a sonic safety zone that I had been in with Rage Against The Machine. It allowed me to adapt and play music with Chris Cornell and Timmy [Commerford] and Brad [Wilk] and expanded the possibilities of what it was that I could play.”

It’s set to be a year to remember for Fender, which is poised to celebrate the Stratocaster in style over the next 12 months. The party started early last year with the release of some suitably styled '54 reissue Strats, which were followed by a high-end collection of Custom Shop offerings.

A more futuristic HSS Ultra take on the template arrived earlier this month to continue the momentum, with Fender further fuelling the hype train by recruiting Morello, Nile Rodgers, Mateus Asato, Ari O’Neal and Rei for an all-star jam of Voodoo Child (Slight Return).

Head over to Fender to peruse its full 70th Anniversary Strat range.