Say electric guitar, and Fender is the first name that comes to mind. Stratocaster, Telecaster, Precision Bass are known to every guitarist. But who was behind these instruments?
His name was Leo Fender. And he was more than just a guitar maker. He was an inventor who changed modern music.
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Leo Fender: From Radio Repair to Guitar Maker
Clarence Leonidas Fender was born on August 10, 1909, in Anaheim, California. Leo grew up in a modest family. His father was a farmer, and his mother worked as a bookkeeper.
Leo became interested in electronics at an early age and spent a lot of time working with radios and other devices. At Fullerton Union High School, he built and repaired radios for friends and family.
After graduating from high school, Fender attended Fullerton Junior College, where he studied accounting, a skill that would later prove useful in his business ventures. But electronics remained his main interest, and he continued working with radios in his free time.
In 1938, Leo opened Fender Radio Service in Fullerton, California. He repaired radios and audio equipment and soon began building, selling, and renting PA systems and amplifiers for local musicians.
Leo had already experimented with improvements to automatic record changers. He then turned more of his attention to pickups and amplifiers.
The Birth of the Fender Company
In the mid-1940s, Leo Fender began building electric steel guitars and amplifiers with Clayton “Doc” Kauffman, a former Rickenbacker employee. In 1945, they formed K&F Manufacturing Corporation and began selling lap steel guitars together with amplifiers.
Kauffman left the partnership in 1946, and Leo continued the business on his own. The company soon became Fender Electric Instrument Company.
At first, Leo employed 15 people, but the company soon moved to a factory with 1,200 square meters of floor space. In 1949, it was expanded to 1,800 sq. meters.
By 1953, Fender had moved again, this time to a factory of almost 7,000 sq. m. Leo also created his own distribution company, Fender Sales Inc., led by Don Randall.
By 1955, Fender had 55 employees. Five years later, that number had more than doubled. New buildings were added in 1959, followed by another 2,000 sq. m. of floor space in 1960.
Because Leo Fender used assembly-line methods to mass-produce guitars, he became known as the “Henry Ford of the guitar”.
At first, Leo Fender was the company’s chief technician, administrator, and sole owner. Freddie Tavares and George Fullerton played important roles in developing Fender instruments. Musicians such as Rex Gallion and Bill Carson also tested new designs and suggested changes.
By the late 1950s, Fender had become one of the biggest electric guitar companies in the world, alongside Gibson.
The Telecaster
By 1949, Leo Fender and George Fullerton were working on a solid-body Spanish-style electric guitar. They gave prototypes to local musicians and used their feedback to improve the design.
Fender introduced the single-pickup Esquire in 1950, followed later that year by the two-pickup Broadcaster.
The earliest 1950 Esquires had no truss rod. Fender soon added one. On the one-piece maple necks, the truss rod was installed through a channel in the back of the neck, which was then filled with a strip of walnut. This created the familiar “skunk stripe.” The body was made of ash, while the bolt-on neck was made from a single piece of hard maple.
The Broadcaster name did not last long. Gretsch already used the name “Broadkaster” for a drum line, so Fender removed the model name from the headstock decals in early 1951. Guitars from this short period are now known as “Nocasters”. These short-lived “Nocasters” are now highly sought after by collectors.
Later in 1951, Fender adopted the name Telecaster, inspired by the growing popularity of television.
The Broadcaster name itself returned in 2000, when the Fender Custom Shop produced a limited run of just 50 Leo Fender Broadcaster guitars to mark the 50th anniversary of the original design.
The first Telecasters cost around $189. They were essentially the same guitar as the Broadcaster and quickly became popular with country and western players.
Early Telecasters used a three-way selector, but it worked very differently from the modern setup. In 1951, one position used the bridge pickup while the second knob blended in the neck pickup. Another position used the neck pickup by itself, while the third gave the neck pickup a very dark, bass-heavy sound that could be used for bass-like parts.
In 1952, Fender changed the wiring. The three positions now gave the bridge pickup, the neck pickup, and the neck pickup with the same dark bass preset. There was no normal switch position for both pickups together, although players discovered that they could balance the switch between positions to get both pickups at once.
In 1967, Fender finally changed the controls to the familiar setup used on modern Telecasters: bridge pickup / both pickups / neck pickup.
In 1954, Fender replaced the original brass bridge saddles with steel ones. In 1969, the company began replacing the 250K pots with 1-megohm pots, which gave the Telecaster an even brighter sound.
Several visible changes appeared during the mid-1950s. In 1954, Fender replaced the original black pickguard with a white one, switched from brass to steel bridge saddles, and changed the Blonde finish to a lighter look. In 1955, the original round pickup-selector tip was replaced by the familiar “top hat” style.
On the earliest Telecasters, the serial number was stamped on the metal bridge plate, while the neck plate was left blank. In late 1954, Fender moved the serial number to the neck plate.
IIn addition to the standard Telecaster, Fender produced several important variations:
- The Esquire – introduced in 1950 as the single-pickup version of Fender’s solid-body guitar. It remained in production until 1969.
- The Custom Telecaster – introduced in 1959 with a bound body and rosewood fingerboard. This model should not be confused with the later Telecaster Custom.
- The Telecaster Thinline – introduced in 1968 with a partly hollow body and one f-hole. In late 1971, the model was redesigned with two Fender Wide Range humbuckers, with the new version entering full production in 1972.
- The Rosewood Telecaster – produced in small numbers around 1969-1972. George Harrison played an early all-rosewood Telecaster during the Beatles‘ famous rooftop concert in 1969.
- The Telecaster Custom – introduced in 1972 with a Wide Range humbucker in the neck position and the traditional single-coil pickup at the bridge.
- The Telecaster Deluxe – introduced in 1973 with two Wide Range humbuckers, a Stratocaster-style headstock, and a choice of hardtail or tremolo bridge.
Fender also experimented with some much more unusual finishes. The Paisley Red and Blue Flower Telecasters appeared in 1968, using patterned wallpaper on the body under a clear finish.
The Telecaster has appeared in many versions over the years, but the basic no-nonsense design has changed surprisingly little: a flat body, two single-coil pickups, simple controls, and that unmistakable Telecaster sound.
The Precision Bass
The Precision Bass changed the sound of popular music. Leo Fender wanted a smaller and louder alternative to the upright bass, which he called the “doghouse”. His answer was the Precision Bass, introduced in 1951. It was easier to carry, easier to amplify on stage, and its fretted neck made accurate notes much easier to play.
Fender was not the first person to experiment with a bass that could be played more like a guitar. In the 1930s, Paul Tutmarc built the Audiovox 736, a fretted electric bass played horizontally. Around the same time, Regal sold the huge acoustic Bassoguitar, which looked like an oversized guitar but was played upright. Neither instrument became a major commercial success. The Precision did.
The first Precision Bass sold for $195.50. Its 34-inch scale and smaller body made it much easier to handle than an upright bass. The fretted neck also helped players hit notes accurately, which is where the name Precision came from.
The Precision Bass caught on quickly. During the 1950s and 1960s, the term “Fender bass” became so common that it was sometimes used for electric basses made by other companies. The Los Angeles Musicians Union even used Fender Bass as a category for electric bass players.
The first 1951 Precision Bass had a flat ash body, a one-piece maple neck, a single-coil pickup, and a Telecaster-style headstock. In 1954-55, Fender added body and forearm contours inspired by the Stratocaster, making the bass more comfortable to play.
In 1957, the Precision received its biggest redesign. Fender added the familiar split-coil pickup, a Stratocaster-style headstock, a new pickguard, and individual bridge saddles. This version established the basic Precision Bass design that is still familiar today.
In 1959, Fender introduced rosewood fingerboards. By the end of the 1960s, maple was available again as an option.
The Telecaster Bass appeared in 1968, but despite the name it was essentially a return to the original 1951 Precision Bass design. It had a flat body, one single-coil pickup, and a Telecaster-style headstock. In 1972, Fender redesigned it around a large humbucking pickup created by Seth Lover.
Fender also introduced a fretless Precision Bass in 1970. There was a certain irony in the name: the original Precision had been named for the accuracy provided by its frets, and now Fender was selling one without any frets at all.
On a fretless bass, the player’s finger determines the exact pitch of each note. This allows smooth slides and very small changes in pitch, but it also demands much more accurate finger placement.
The Jazz Bass arrived in 1960 as a more upscale alternative to the Precision. It borrowed the offset body shape of the Jazzmaster, had a narrower neck, and used two single-coil pickups instead of the Precision’s single split pickup. During 1966, Fender added white neck binding, followed later that year by the rectangular block inlays that became a familiar Jazz Bass feature.
The Stratocaster
The Stratocaster was developed in the early 1950s and introduced in the spring of 1954. It quickly became hugely popular, and its design has been copied countless times. With three pickups, a contoured body, and a tremolo system, it looked very different from Fender‘s earlier guitars.
One of the Stratocaster‘s biggest innovations was Fender’s synchronized tremolo system, developed by Leo Fender. The earliest Stratocasters had ash bodies, but from 1956 Fender mainly used alder, while ash continued to appear on some models and finishes.
Leo Fender did not design the Stratocaster alone. Freddie Tavares helped develop its new body shape, George Fullerton worked closely with Leo on the prototypes, and guitarists Bill Carson and Rex Gallion tested early instruments and suggested practical changes. Gallion is often credited with suggesting the deep body contours that made the Stratocaster much more comfortable to play than the Telecaster.
From the start, Fender wanted the new guitar to have three pickups and a new tremolo system. Leo spent much of 1953 working on the bridge, trying to improve on vibrato designs already used by Paul Bigsby and Doc Kauffman.
The first Stratocaster with tremolo sold for $249.50. Its contoured body made it much more comfortable to hold than the flat-sided Telecaster. One-piece maple necks were standard on the early Stratocasters. In 1959, Fender introduced a separate rosewood fingerboard, which soon became standard.
Maple fingerboards returned as an option in the late 1960s. Another obvious change came at the end of 1965, when Fender enlarged the Stratocaster headstock. The larger headstock became one of the most recognizable features of the CBS-era Stratocaster.
The Stratocaster’s distinctive curved headstock was also influenced by guitar designs from Paul Bigsby, while keeping Fender’s practical six-in-line tuner layout.
Early Stratocasters had a simple single-ply white pickguard. In 1959, Fender switched to a multi-ply white/black/white celluloid pickguard, which often aged to a greenish color now known as “mint green.” A small number of guitars from this period also appeared with anodized aluminum pickguards.
Early Stratocasters used a bone nut, while later Fender models have used a variety of natural and synthetic nut materials.
The early synchronized tremolo used a solid steel inertia block beneath the bridge. Fender later used different cast-metal blocks as the tremolo design evolved.
The original Stratocaster had a three-position pickup selector, with one position for each pickup. Players soon discovered that they could balance the switch between positions and use two pickups at the same time. These accidental “in-between” sounds became an important part of the Stratocaster sound.
They became so popular that in 1977, Fender finally replaced the three-way switch with a five-way selector, making the two in-between combinations official.
In 1971, Fender introduced a three-bolt neck joint with the Micro-Tilt system on the Stratocaster. A small adjustment screw in the neck plate allowed the angle of the neck to be changed without placing wooden shims between the neck and body.
The truss rod was a separate adjustment. It controlled the curve of the neck itself rather than the angle at which the neck joined the body.
The Stratocaster soon found its way into the hands of some of the biggest guitar players in popular music.
Perhaps the most famous Stratocaster player was Jimi Hendrix. He pushed the guitar far beyond its usual sound, using feedback, distortion, the tremolo arm, and effects in ways few players had done before.
At Woodstock in 1969, Hendrix used his 1968 Olympic White Stratocaster for his famous version of “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Filled with feedback, distortion, and screaming guitar sounds, the performance became one of the defining moments of the festival and was widely understood as a protest against the Vietnam War.
The same guitar was sold at Sotheby‘s in 1990 for GBP 198,000, then a record price for a guitar. It was later acquired by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and is now part of the Museum of Pop Culture collection in Seattle.
Hank Marvin played a Stratocaster with The Shadows.
Other famous Stratocaster players include Ritchie Blackmore, Rory Gallagher, Robin Trower, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Robbie Robertson, Bob Dylan, and George Harrison.
Its sound and design have kept the Stratocaster popular for generations, and for many beginners, owning a real Strat is still a goal.
What is remarkable is how little the basic Stratocaster design has changed since 1954.
The Stratocaster is also easy to modify. Pickups and other parts can be changed easily, so players can adjust a Strat to suit their own sound. Its basic design has also been copied by guitar makers all over the world.
Special models are specially priced: The ‘Strat 50th Anniversary Masterbuild’ has a price tag of just under six thousand dollars. It is an exact replica of the Stratocaster from 1954. On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Strat, Fender’s Custom Shop was also rebuilt under ‘Number One,’ the Stratocaster of the late Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Fender also continued to add new solid-body guitars to its range. In 1956, the company introduced the Duo-Sonic and Musicmaster, both of which were updated in 1964. The Duo-Sonic was discontinued after 1969.
In 1957, Fender began developing a new guitar design. The Jazzmaster was introduced in the summer of 1958. It was designed for jazz players and was positioned above the Stratocaster as Fender’s top electric guitar. The Jazzmaster had an offset body, a floating vibrato system, and separate lead and rhythm controls.
Early models had an anodized aluminum pickguard, black pickup covers, and chrome knobs. By 1959, Fender had begun changing these details, including the move to a tortoiseshell pickguard and white plastic parts.
More Than Electric Guitars: Fender Amps, Acoustics, and Experiments
Fender developed not only electric guitars, but also amplifiers, acoustic guitars, and other instruments.
Amplifier Innovations
Fender amplifiers were known for their clean, powerful tones and rugged, reliable construction.
Fender was building amplifiers before its famous electric guitars appeared. In 1946, the company introduced three of its first amps: the Princeton, Deluxe, and Professional. The original Deluxe was a compact 14-watt amplifier with a single 10-inch speaker, and the Deluxe name would remain part of Fender’s amplifier line for decades.
In 1952, Fender introduced the Twin, a much more powerful amplifier with two 12-inch speakers. It became especially known for its loud, clean sound and remained one of Fender’s major amplifier models for decades.
Another important model was the Bassman, introduced in 1952 for the new Precision Bass. Guitarists soon discovered that it also sounded great with electric guitars. By the end of the 1950s, the tweed 5F6-A Bassman had become so influential that its circuit was later used as the starting point for the first Marshall amplifiers.
Fender continued adding new amps throughout the 1950s and 1960s, including the Vibrolux and the Super Reverb, introduced in 1963. These models helped establish the bright clean sound and natural tube overdrive that became strongly associated with Fender amplifiers.
Fender Acoustic Guitars
In the early 1960s, Fender decided to start producing acoustic guitars. In 1962, the company hired designer Roger Rossmeisl to develop the new acoustic line. The first production models appeared in the summer of 1963: the King, Concert, Classic, and Folk. They had bolt-on necks and Stratocaster-style headstocks, giving them a very different look from traditional acoustic guitars.
One of Fender‘s strangest acoustic ideas was the Wildwood series, introduced in 1966. Its colorful wood grain was created by injecting dye into growing beech trees before the wood was harvested. The result was a natural grain pattern in bright green, blue, purple, gold, and other colors.
Rossmeisl also designed the semi-hollow Coronado series, introduced in 1966. Some Coronados were later offered in unusual finishes such as Wildwood and Antigua.
Fender Experiments
One of Leo Fender‘s more unusual partnerships was with piano inventor Harold Rhodes. Rhodes had been developing portable electric pianos since the 1940s. In 1959, the two joined forces and began working on instruments under the Fender Rhodes name.
One of their first products was the Fender Rhodes Piano Bass, a compact 32-note keyboard covering the bass range. Ray Manzarek of The Doors became one of its best-known users. Since the band had no regular bass guitarist on stage, Manzarek could play bass lines on the Piano Bass with his left hand while playing organ with his right.
After CBS bought Fender in 1965, the Fender Rhodes line expanded into full-size electric pianos. Their warm, bell-like sound became common in rock, jazz, funk, and soul during the following years.
Leo Fender After Leaving His Company: Music Man and G&L
By the end of 1964, Leo Fender’s health had become a serious concern, and he decided to sell the company. On January 5, 1965, Fender was sold to CBS for $13 million. Leo remained with the company as a consultant for several years, but the sale marked the beginning of the CBS era.
The term “pre-CBS” soon took on a special meaning among guitar players and collectors. But Fender guitars did not change overnight after the sale. During 1965, instruments were still being built with many of the same parts and methods used before CBS took over.
Some problems did appear as CBS changed production. One involved pickup wax potting. Fender had dipped pickup coils in wax to reduce unwanted vibration and microphonic feedback. After a change in coil wire, the hot wax could damage the new insulation, so some pickups were left unpotted and became more prone to squeal.
CBS also pushed Fender into solid-state amplifiers in 1966. The transistor amps were heavily promoted as the future, but guitarists never really accepted them, and Fender dropped the entire solid-state line in 1971.
At the same time, CBS greatly expanded Fender production and sold instruments in much larger numbers. Another visible CBS-era change appeared in late 1965, when Fender began using neck plates stamped with a large “F”.
In 1966, Leo founded CLF Research, where he continued experimenting with electronics and instrument design. He was still working as a consultant for CBS/Fender and remained under the non-compete agreement connected with the sale of his old company.
In 1972, Leo Fender, Forrest White, and Tom Walker formed Music Man. Because of the non-compete agreement with CBS, Leo initially kept a low public profile in the new company.
In 1976, Music Man introduced the StingRay Bass, designed by Leo Fender and Tom Walker. It became the first production four-string bass with onboard active equalization, giving players direct control over the tone from the instrument itself.
By the end of the 1970s, Leo’s relationship with Music Man had ended. He was already working on new ideas through CLF Research and was ready to start another guitar company.
In 1980, Leo started G&L with his longtime colleague George Fullerton. The name stood simply for George & Leo.
At G&L, Leo continued reworking ideas he had been developing for decades. His later designs included Magnetic Field Design pickups, the Saddle-Lock Bridge, the Dual-Fulcrum Vibrato, and the PTB tone system.
Leo Fender died on March 21, 1991, at the age of 81. According to G&L, he had completed his last prototype that same day.
Later in 1991, his wife Phyllis Fender arranged for G&L to pass to BBE Sound, which continued the company in Fullerton.
By the 1960s, Fender guitars and basses were already everywhere. Its guitars were played by Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, David Gilmour, Stevie Ray Vaughan and generations of musicians who followed them. These musicians made Fender instruments part of the sound of rock and roll, blues, country and more.
The Stratocaster and Telecaster became guitars everyone recognizes. Their designs have changed surprisingly little, and guitar makers all over the world have built instruments inspired by them. The Precision Bass became a standard for the modern electric bass.
More than seventy years later, musicians are still playing the guitars Leo Fender and his small team developed in Fullerton.
And today, Fender is still one of the most famous names in the guitar world.