Superstrat is a name for an electric guitar design that resembles a Fender Stratocaster but with differences that clearly distinguish it from a standard Stratocaster, usually to cater to a different playing-style. Differences typically include more-pointed, aggressive-looking body and neck-shapes with increased cutaways to facilitate access to the higher frets, an increased number of frets on the fingerboard, a contoured heel at the neck joint facilitating easier higher fret access, the usage of humbucking pickups, and locking vibrato systems, most commonly the Floyd Rose.

There is no formal definition of a superstrat; the categorization is still largely left to popular opinion and depends greatly on the artist(s) associated with a particular model and how it is marketed.

With the increased popularity of heavy metal music during the early 1980s, guitarists began seeking out guitars more suited to the new style, both in terms of looks (more-"pointy" aggressive designs) and playability (ease of playing and larger tone that sounds pleasant with hi-gain amplification). Guitarists such as Ritchie Blackmore, Uli Jon Roth and Dave Murray had used Fender Stratocasters, but each had minor modifications made to their instrument to suit their individual playing style.

Ritchie Blackmore was one of the first to build a guitar with superstrat characteristics. Dissatisfied with the performance of then-available original stock model commercial guitars, Blackmore sought to create a hybrid instrument that would suit his acrobatic playing style as seen in Deep Purple concert photos from Manchester in 1974.

Eddie Van Halen was another pioneer of the idea. The stock single-coil pickups of a Fender Stratocaster were noisy, and lacked the output necessary to drive an amplifier into hard distortion (characteristic of the Van Halen sound), but the body shape and wide pitch range of the Fender fulcrum tremolo appealed to him. An avid tinkerer, Van Halen assembled a Boogie Bodies Stratocaster body with a thin, 21-fret maple neck and a humbucking Gibson PAF pickup in the bridge slot. This guitar, known as the "Frankenstrat" was featured on Van Halen's 1978 debut album Van Halen, and pictured on the album cover. It was later repainted with a top coat of red, and has had different humbuckers over the years, some of them custom-wound.

While many believe Van Halen's 1977 Frankenstrat to be the first Superstrat, Michael Hampton of Parliament-Funkadelic often used a sunburst Stratocaster with 3 humbucking pickups and a reversed headstock during the band's tours in the mid-to-late 1970s. This guitar can be seen on the DVD George Clinton: The Mothership Connection, which was filmed in 1976.

Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead had played various Stratocasters through the 1960s and early 70s, most notably an ash 1957 Strat, "Alligator," given to him by Graham Nash and heavily modified by Alembic Sound. He commissioned Doug Irwin to make him several unique custom instruments, all with Strat-like features and control layouts. The first incarnation of the "Wolf" guitar had Stratocaster pickups mounted in a brass plate that allowed for any pickup combinations.

Soon, other guitarists and luthiers would also apply similar custom modifications to their instruments. Many sources cite Grover Jackson as one of the first (and most influential) guitar makers to have crafted custom shop guitars with all the features of superstrats, doing so as early as 1981. Later all these improvements were integrated in the factory-produced Jackson Soloist model.