A SOLID-BODY ELECTRIC GUITAR, STRATOCASTER

Due to a theft and replacement of the original gold neckplate during service, Rodgers refers to this 1956 Fender Stratocaster as his "Franken-Strat". But this vintage Stratocaster was an influential presence in the studio during the production of David Bowie's Let's Dance album (released in 1983). According to Rodgers: "This is the guitar that Stevie Ray Vaughn played on the Let’s Dance album. David had only booked 21 days. And I swear to you David did not think we were doing that [whole] album. He thought that maybe we were just doing, maybe, rhythm tracks, and something like that. But he couldn’t believe that we were getting through it so fast. So Stevie and I had already made friends, and I guess like me, he wanted to see what another Strat would sound like. He had already seen this Strat, I had showed it to him, and he was like ‘wow! I never saw one of those!’ And he played it, and he broke the string, because his strings were much heavier than mine and he threw his down a half step. So he broke the string, and when I got the studio, he had a really sweet, like, note on it that said: ‘Dear Nile, didn’t mean to break no strangs’ and he spelled strings with an a. S-t-r-a-n-g-s. And I was like, oh it’s cool Stevie. What’s funny is then we go and do the Family Style album [The Vaughan Brothers, released in 1990], like, years later.... So we’re doing the album, and you can see pictures of him, playing it on Family Style, and the same thing happens, he breaks a string, and I see him he’s got like, the string in his mouth and he’s, you know, replacing the string himself. So it was like, both times he played it, he broke my strings. My strings are so light. But he was digging it! You know, he liked that sound, whatever that sound was, of my light strings, he liked it. And he still would get that rich sound with those double amps that he played so loud."