Norway Celebrates the Stratocaster's 50th Anniversary

by KJETIL STORVIK

In late 2002, I contacted the Ringve Museum in Trondheim, Norway, with a view toward arranging an electric-guitar exhibition in 2004 to celebrate the Stratocaster’s 50th anniversary. Ringve, being Norway's National Museum of Music and Musical Instruments, responded positively and some preliminary planning was carried out during the first half of 2003.

Soon we started identifying interesting guitars among Norwegian collectors, mainly looking for Strats but also for other instruments to complement the electric guitar's history. I used my rather extensive network established during my period as chairman of the Norwegian Fender Club, 1995--2000.

When the exhibition opened on March 7, 2004, approximately 30 guitars were on display, together with a sixties Ludwig drum set, tape echo machines, and typical band costumes from the Shadow-band era in Norway, 1961--1963. The most attractive Strat, in my mind, was the first Strat to be sold from a store in Norway -- a 1961 sunburst sold in April, 1962.

Another very interesting guitar was the “Nilsen Guitar”, a solid-body guitar manufactured in Norway from 1947 to 1952. Interesting, as the Telecaster has a reputation as the first solid-body manufactured on an industrial scale. The Nilsen Guitar was electrically based on a pickup system designed and patented by Mr Nils Robert Nilsen. The main principle of this system is that voltage is created in the individual strings and picked up by a combined transformer/bridge.

On March 8 -- also known as the International Women’s Day -- Ringve and the Norwegian public-service radio channel, NRK, announced that they would give away a brand new Stratocaster to a girl/woman who could argue most convincingly that she was best qualified to receive such a benevolent gift!

A hundred and forty-one ladies, aged 12 to 45, entered the Stratocaster give-away contest. The winner was Maria Madelene Rønnerby (16) from a remote place called Nordli in the county of Nord-Trøndelag. The jury said that Maria didn't win the guitar because she seemed to be more talented than the other girls: they paid attention primarily to her background and the fact that she lives in such a small rural place; Nordli. Nordli is apparently known as a “bachelor’s community”, where the main challenge is to keep the girls!

Maria has formed a rock band, together with four other girls. Simply, she did not want to be the girl singer in front of the boys who play guitar. She said: “If I win the guitar, I and the other girls will give an extra kick to the rural community of ours.”

The exhibition closed on April 12, and it proved to be a huge success. Not only did the public seen a lot of nice guitars, they had also had lectures and concerts given by some of the best Strat players in Norway, including Terje Rypdal, the most internationally prominent Norwegian Strat player. Furthermore, the Ringve Museum were thrilled that they had succeeded in attracting an audience that normally does not visit the museum.

[Images from top to bottom: 1962 Fiesta Red Stratocaster in museum exhibition; vintage and collectible Stratocasters exhibited; Maria Madelene Rønnerby, winner of Stratocaster give-away contest; guitarist Terje Rypdal. All images by Kjetil Storvik, www.amorada.com, except for photo of Maria Madelene Rønnerby by Arne Kristian Gansmo, nrk.no/musikk.]