Nile Rodgers Reveals Why He Switched From Gibson to Strat, Explains How It Affected His Playing

"I wasn't particularly attracted to it for any reason other than the fact that it was the cheapest guitar in the store", the guitarist said of his Hitmaker.

Nile Rodgers recalled why he decided to switch to his iconic Hitmaker Stratocaster, noting how his live performances got "better right away."

There are many reasons a guitarist would pick a Strat as their weapon of choice — it has been wielded by so many of rock's greats that its body shape became widely associated with the genre, while its playability is something that won over even the likes of Buddy Guy, who thought it looked like a "joke" when he first saw one. For the legendary Chic founder & overall industry superstar Nile Rodgers, the decision to switch from Gibson's Barney Kessel to a Fender Stratocaster was inspired by hearing someone else sounding better than him while playing through his amp, as he explains to Guitar World in a recent interview.

Recalling that one night in 1973 when he caugth the Start bug, the guitarist said:

"That particular night when that incident happened, I was playing a [Gibson] Barney Kessel. It's a wonderful jazz guitar, but it was feeding back at relative medium live volumes. You gotta remember this was 1973, and we were playing in a club, and we didn't have a proper PA."

"All the music that would spill from the stage was the volume the audience would hear. And my jazz guitar would feed back, and when this kid plugged into my amp and played this Strat, his guitar did not feedback – and he was playing louder, better, and cooler than me. I was like, 'Whoa.'"

Read the full article HERE:
https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/gear/nile_rodgers_reveals_why_he_switched_from_gibson_to_strat_explains_how_it_affected_his_playing.html