Strats were not cool when Hendrix rocked up at 1967’s Monterey Pop Festival, associated with such achingly white acts as Buddy Holly and the Beach Boys. As he climbed on stage and reinvented the guitar, the Strat’s possibilitiesexpanded in infinite directions. In the wrong hands, a Strat was thin and weedy, but Hendrix wrangled an almighty roar. Amateurs struggled with feedback at high volume; Hendrix turned it into music. Hank Marvin used the tremolo arm for tasteful bends; Hendrix was an alien invasion.