Electric guitar design name. In 1954, Fender introduced the Fender Stratocaster, or "Strat". It was positioned as a deluxe model and offered various product improvements and innovations over the Telecaster. These innovations included an ash or alder double-cutaway body design for badge assembly with an integrated vibrato mechanism (called a "synchronized tremolo" by Fender, thus beginning a confusion of the terms that still continues), three single-coil pickups, and body comfort contours. Leo Fender is also credited with developing the first commercially successful electric bass called the Fender Precision Bass, introduced in 1951. Gibson, like many guitar manufacturers, had long offered semi-acoustic guitars with
Fender Telecaster Deluxe with two "Wide Range" humbuckers, and in most other respects these guitars are very similar. Electronically, the Tele Deluxe also resembles the Gibson Les Paul – as both models have dual humbucking pickups, an upper-bout mounted 3-way pickup selector switch, and independent volume/tone controls for each pickup. A very small number of Telecaster Deluxes' (supposedly fewer than 50) left the factory fitted with Stratocaster tremolos. These tremolo equipped Telecaster Deluxes' became highly sought after by collectors and Fender briefly reissued them as part of their Classic Player series in 2009. Also in 2009, Fender released the Telecaster Thinline Deluxe, combining