The design of the Strat headstock was probably influenced by the the one on the solid body electric Paul Bigsby made for Merle Travis in the late 40's . Travis wanted the convenience of having the tuners all on one side but an added benefit was that the strings pull straight over the nut which supposedly improves tuning (Bigsby also made a neck for Travis' D-28 with a six-on-a-side headstock).

My favorites are Larrivees, the Collings haircut and the ones found on the guitars of a local (Naples, FL) builder, Ross Teigen, which actually have an oval hole in them.

And Sorcha, a fiddler/artist friend of mine from Germany made his own non-traditionally shaped fiddle and carved a likeness of the devil into the scroll. Very cool.vl