Fender, originally named the Fender Electric Instrument Company by its founder Clarence Leonidas ‘Leo’ Fender (1909-1991), started business in 1946. Known to most simply as Fender, it has become one of the most widely recognised manufacturers of electric guitars, basses and amplifiers in the world. Fender is particularly important to the music industry because of its ground breaking role in bringing solid-body electric guitars to mass markets in the 1950s.
Fender offered the first mass-produced Spanish-style solid-body electric guitar, the Telecaster to the public in 1950 and the enormously popular Stratocaster followed shortly after in 1954. Fender also pioneered the electric solid-body bass guitar, the Precision bass which first appeared in 1951. The key Fender models, revolutionary at the time, are still in production, largely unchanged in their fundamental design today.
Fender has also sustained a very successful line of guitar and bass amplifiers dating from the late 1940s to the current day, including landmark valve amps such as the Princeton, Champ, Bassman and the mighty Twin Reverb.
In early 1965, Leo Fender sold his company to the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). Production quality varied during the 1970s and Fender sales suffered considerably. Finally, in 1985, 20 years after being sold to CBS, a management buyout initiated by CEO William Schultz, the Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company was acquired from CBS by its own employees. Schultz (1926-2006) is widely regarded as ‘the man who saved Fender’. The newly privatised company was renamed Fender Musical Instruments Corporation (FMIC).
Fender’s headquarters are in Scottsdale, Arizona, with North American manufacturing facilities in Corona, California, and Ensenada (Mexico). Off-shore production is based in Korea and Japan. Fender has continued to innovate, introducing ‘custom shop’, ‘vintage reissue’ and ‘relic’ innovations to a market hungry to recapture the ‘golden years’ of pre-CBS Fender instruments and amps.
Vintage Fender guitars, basses and amplifiers are much sought after by collectors, musicians and enthusiasts alike, with many key models reaching high market values.
Fender’s official website is… Fender.com
Check out the Fender page on Wikipedia… Wikipedia.org
Other famous Fender instruments include… Jazzmaster (1958), Jaguar (1962), Jazz Bass (1960), Mustang (1964), Musicmaster (1956), Duo-Sonic (1964), Coronado (1966), Bronco (1967)
Some famous Fender guitar players include… Albert Collins, Albert Lee, Bruce Springsteen, Buddy Guy, Buddy Holly, David Gilmour (Pink Floyd). Elvis Costello, Eric Clapton, Eric Johnson, Francis Rossi (Status Quo), Hank Marvin (The Shadows), Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), Joe Strummer (The Clash), John Frusciante (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Jonny Marr(The Smiths), Keith Richards (The Rolling Stones), Muddy Waters, Pete Townshend (The Who), Rick Parfitt (Status Quo), Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple), Ronnie Wood (The Rolling Stones), Rory Gallagher, Stevie Ray Vaughan
Related Fender brands include… Squier, Gretsch, Jackson, Charvel, DeArmond, Takamine, Hamer
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