But while the Stratocaster has long been the world's best-selling guitar, Ringwald says it isn't always easy marketing them as each musician has a very personal idea of how they should sound and look.
"The great thing about it is that it is so versatile that it lets people create their own styles and own genres," he said. "You can do anything on that guitar, its just waiting for a player.
"But that's also the problem, because if you started out playing a 1986 Stratocaster, you want all of them to be exactly the same. Sometimes we can't win," he joked.
For Richard Smith, the Stratocaster is more than just a musical legend -- it is a product that should make American proud as it comes under fire abroad over the war in Iraq.
"It's a much better export than our computers and our cars and our Colt 45s," he said. "It's part of a great message of goodness that we have for the rest of the world."
RSS