Posted on Mar 21, 2021
About Leo Fender: American inventor and founder of the Fender company (1909 - 1991) | Biography,...
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On March 21, 1991, Leo Fender, American inventor (Fender guitar), died at the age of 81. From the article:
"Biography
Clarence Leonidas "Leo" Fender (August 10, 1909 – March 21, 1991) was an American inventor, who founded Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, or "Fender" for short. In January 1965, he sold the company to CBS and later founded two other musical instrument companies, Music Man and G&L Musical Instruments.
The guitars, bass guitars, and amplifiers he designed from the 1940s on are still widely used: the Fender Telecaster (1950) was the first mass-produced solid-body electric guitar; the Fender Stratocaster (1954) is among the world's most iconic electric guitars; the Fender Precision Bass (1951) set the standard for electric bass guitars, and the Fender Bassman amplifier, popular enough in its own right, became the basis for later amplifiers (notably by Marshall and Mesa Boogie) that dominated rock and roll music. Leo Fender was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992: a unique achievement given that he never learned to play the instruments that he made a career of making.
Biography
Early life
Clarence Leonidas Fender ("Leo") was born on August 10, 1909, to Clarence Monte Fender and Harriet Elvira Wood, owners of a successful orange grove located between Anaheim and Fullerton, California, United States.
From an early age, Fender showed an interest in tinkering with electronics. When he was 13 years old, his uncle, who ran an automotive-electric shop, sent him a box filled with discarded car radio parts, and a battery. The following year, Leo visited his uncle's shop in Santa Maria, California, and was fascinated by a radio his uncle had built from spare parts and placed on display in the front of the shop. Leo later claimed that the loud music coming from the speaker of that radio made a lasting impression on him. Soon thereafter, Leo began repairing radios in a small shop in his parents' home.
In the spring of 1928, Fender graduated from Fullerton Union High School, and entered Fullerton Junior College that fall, as an accounting major. While he was studying to be an accountant, he continued to teach himself electronics, and tinker with radios and other electrical items but never took any kind of electronics course.
After college, Fender took a job as a delivery man for Consolidated Ice and Cold Storage Company in Anaheim, where he was later made the bookkeeper. It was around this time that a local band leader approached Leo, asking him if he could build a public address system for use by the band at dances in Hollywood. Fender was contracted to build six of these PA systems.
In 1933, Fender met Esther Klosky, and they were married in 1934. About that time, he took a job as an accountant for the California Highway Department in San Luis Obispo. In a depression government change, his job was eliminated, and he then took a job in the accounting department of a tire company. After working there for six months, Leo lost his job along with the other accountants in the company.
Fender Radio Service
In 1938, with a borrowed $600, Leo and Esther returned to Fullerton, and Leo started his own radio repair shop, "Fender Radio Service". Soon, musicians and band leaders began coming to him for public address systems, which he built, rented, and sold. They also visited his store for amplification for the amplified acoustic guitars that were beginning to show up on the southern California music scene – in big band and jazz music, and for the electric "Hawaiian" or "lap steel" guitars becoming popular in country music.
Early guitar builds
During World War II, Leo Fender met Clayton Orr "Doc" Kauffman, an inventor and lap steel player who had worked for Rickenbacker, which had been building and selling lap steel guitars for a decade. While with Rickenbacker, Kauffman had invented the "Vibrola" tailpiece, a precursor to the later vibrato tailpiece. Fender convinced him that they should team up, and they started the "K & F Manufacturing Corporation" to design and build amplified Hawaiian guitars and amplifiers. In 1944, Leo and Doc patented a lap steel guitar with an electric pickup already patented by Fender. In 1945, they began selling the guitar in a kit with an amplifier designed by Fender.
Development of the electric guitar: Esquire/Broadcaster/Telecaster
As the Big Bands fell out of vogue towards the end of World War II, small combos playing boogie-woogie, rhythm and blues, western swing, and honky-tonk formed throughout the United States. Many of these outfits embraced the electric guitar because it could give a few players the power of an entire horn section. Pickup-equipped archtops were the guitars of choice in the dance bands of the late 1940s, but the increasing popularity of roadhouses and dance halls created a growing need for louder, cheaper, and more durable instruments. Players also needed 'faster' necks and better intonation to play what the country players called "take-off lead guitar." In the late 1940s, solid-body electric guitars began to rise in popularity, yet they were still considered novelty items, with the Rickenbacker Spanish Electro guitar being the most commercially available solid-body, and Les Paul's one-off home-made "Log" and the Bigsby Travis guitar made by Paul Bigsby for Merle Travis being the most visible early examples.
Fender recognized the potential for an electric guitar that was easy to hold, tune, and play, and would not feed back at dance hall volumes as the typical archtop would. In 1948, he finished the prototype of a thin solid-body electric; it was first released in 1950 as the Fender Esquire (with a solid body and one pickup), and renamed first Broadcaster and then Telecaster (with two pickups) the year after. The Telecaster, originally equipped with two single-coil pickups and widely used among country and western players, became one of the most popular electric guitars in history.
Stratocaster
Instead of updating the Telecaster, Fender decided, based on customer feedback, to leave the Telecaster as it was and design a new, upscale solid-body guitar to sell alongside the basic Telecaster. Western swing guitarist Bill Carson was one of the chief critics of the Telecaster, stating that the new design should have individually adjustable bridge saddles, four or five pickups, a vibrato unit that could be used in either direction and return to proper tuning, and a contoured body for enhanced comfort over the slab-body Telecaster's harsh edges. Fender, assisted by draftsman Freddie Tavares, began designing the Stratocaster in late 1953. It included a rounder, less "club-like" neck (at least for the first year of issue) and a double cutaway for easier reach to the upper registers.
Another novelty to the Stratocaster design included the use of three pickups wired to offer three different voicings, two of which could be further tailored by the player by adjusting the two tone controls.
The standard 5 way switch we know today was implemented much later [Late 1976] in the Stratocaster's development.
Bass guitars: Precision, Jazz
During this time, Fender also tackled the problems experienced by players of the acoustic double bass, who could no longer compete for volume with the other musicians. Besides, double basses were also large, bulky, and difficult to transport. With the Precision Bass (or "P-Bass"), released in 1951, Leo Fender addressed both issues: the Telecaster-based Precision Bass was small and portable, and its solid-body construction and four-magnet, single coil pickup let it play at higher volumes without feedback. Along with the Precision Bass (so named because its fretted neck allowed bassists to play with 'precision'), Fender introduced a bass amplifier, the Fender Bassman, a 25-watt amplifier with one 15-inch speaker (later updated to 45 watts and four 10-inch speakers).
1954 saw an update of the Precision Bass to coincide with the introduction of the Stratocaster. Incorporating some of the body contours of the Stratocaster, the update also included a two-section nickel-plated bridge and a white single-layer pickguard.
In June 1957, Fender announced a redesign of the Precision Bass. The remake included a larger headstock, a new pickguard design, a bridge with four steel saddles that could be individually adjusted and a new split single-coil pickup. This proved to be the final version of the instrument, which has changed little since then. In 1960, rosewood fingerboards, wider color selections and a three-ply pickguard became available for the P-Bass.
1960 saw the release of the Jazz Bass, a sleeker, updated bass with a slimmer neck, and offset waist body and two single coil pickups (as opposed to the Precision Bass and its split-humbucking pickup that had been introduced in 1957). Like its predecessor, the Jazz Bass (or simply "J-Bass") was an instant hit and has remained popular to this day, and early models are highly sought after by collectors.
1970 – Music Man and G&L
In the 1950s, Leo Fender contracted a streptococcal sinus infection that impaired his health to the point where he decided to wind up his business affairs, selling the Fender company to CBS in 1965. As part of this deal, Leo Fender signed a non-compete clause and remained a consultant with Fender for a while. Shortly after selling the company, he changed doctors and was cured of his illness. In 1971, Forrest White and Tom Walker formed the Tri-Sonix company (often incorrectly referred to as "Tri-Sonic"), based in Santa Ana, California. Walker and White went to Leo to help finance their company and it evolved into 'Music Man', a name Leo Fender preferred over their name, Tri-Sonix. After considerable financing, in 1975, Fender became its president.
The StingRay bass was an innovative early instrument. Though the body design borrowed heavily from the Precision Bass, the StingRay is largely considered the first production bass with active electronics. The StingRay's two-band active equalizer, high-output humbucking pickup, and high-gloss finished neck became a favorite of many influential bassists, including Louis Johnson, Bernard Edwards, John Deacon, and Flea. Later, a three-band active equalizer was introduced on the StingRay. Music Man was active in making amplifiers as well, but the HD-130 Reverb, designed to compete with the Twin Reverb, came at a time when the clean sounds of the Twin were going out of fashion.
In 1979, Leo Fender and old friends George Fullerton and Dale Hyatt started a new company called G&L (George & Leo) Musical Products. G&L guitar designs tended to lean heavily upon the looks of Fender's original guitars such as the Stratocaster and Telecaster, but incorporated innovations such as enhanced tremolo systems and electronics.
In 1979, Fender's wife Esther died of cancer. He remarried in 1980; Phyllis Fender is an Honorary Chairman of G&L. Despite suffering several minor strokes, Fender continued to produce guitars and basses. On March 21, 1991, he died, having long suffered from Parkinson's disease. He was buried at Fairhaven Memorial Park in Santa Ana, California. His accomplishments for "contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field" were acknowledged with a Technical Grammy Award in 2009. Fender Avenue in Fullerton, California was named after him."
COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen F. SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen SPC Woody Bullard 1SG Steven Imerman SFC William Farrell Lt Col Charlie Brown Col Carl Whicker SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth SP5 Geoffrey Vannerson MSG Felipe De Leon Brown LTC Stephen C. Maj William W. 'Bill' Price PO1 H Gene Lawrence LTC Jeff Shearer ] LTC Wayne Brandon PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SPC Douglas Bolton PVT Mark Zehner
"Biography
Clarence Leonidas "Leo" Fender (August 10, 1909 – March 21, 1991) was an American inventor, who founded Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, or "Fender" for short. In January 1965, he sold the company to CBS and later founded two other musical instrument companies, Music Man and G&L Musical Instruments.
The guitars, bass guitars, and amplifiers he designed from the 1940s on are still widely used: the Fender Telecaster (1950) was the first mass-produced solid-body electric guitar; the Fender Stratocaster (1954) is among the world's most iconic electric guitars; the Fender Precision Bass (1951) set the standard for electric bass guitars, and the Fender Bassman amplifier, popular enough in its own right, became the basis for later amplifiers (notably by Marshall and Mesa Boogie) that dominated rock and roll music. Leo Fender was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992: a unique achievement given that he never learned to play the instruments that he made a career of making.
Biography
Early life
Clarence Leonidas Fender ("Leo") was born on August 10, 1909, to Clarence Monte Fender and Harriet Elvira Wood, owners of a successful orange grove located between Anaheim and Fullerton, California, United States.
From an early age, Fender showed an interest in tinkering with electronics. When he was 13 years old, his uncle, who ran an automotive-electric shop, sent him a box filled with discarded car radio parts, and a battery. The following year, Leo visited his uncle's shop in Santa Maria, California, and was fascinated by a radio his uncle had built from spare parts and placed on display in the front of the shop. Leo later claimed that the loud music coming from the speaker of that radio made a lasting impression on him. Soon thereafter, Leo began repairing radios in a small shop in his parents' home.
In the spring of 1928, Fender graduated from Fullerton Union High School, and entered Fullerton Junior College that fall, as an accounting major. While he was studying to be an accountant, he continued to teach himself electronics, and tinker with radios and other electrical items but never took any kind of electronics course.
After college, Fender took a job as a delivery man for Consolidated Ice and Cold Storage Company in Anaheim, where he was later made the bookkeeper. It was around this time that a local band leader approached Leo, asking him if he could build a public address system for use by the band at dances in Hollywood. Fender was contracted to build six of these PA systems.
In 1933, Fender met Esther Klosky, and they were married in 1934. About that time, he took a job as an accountant for the California Highway Department in San Luis Obispo. In a depression government change, his job was eliminated, and he then took a job in the accounting department of a tire company. After working there for six months, Leo lost his job along with the other accountants in the company.
Fender Radio Service
In 1938, with a borrowed $600, Leo and Esther returned to Fullerton, and Leo started his own radio repair shop, "Fender Radio Service". Soon, musicians and band leaders began coming to him for public address systems, which he built, rented, and sold. They also visited his store for amplification for the amplified acoustic guitars that were beginning to show up on the southern California music scene – in big band and jazz music, and for the electric "Hawaiian" or "lap steel" guitars becoming popular in country music.
Early guitar builds
During World War II, Leo Fender met Clayton Orr "Doc" Kauffman, an inventor and lap steel player who had worked for Rickenbacker, which had been building and selling lap steel guitars for a decade. While with Rickenbacker, Kauffman had invented the "Vibrola" tailpiece, a precursor to the later vibrato tailpiece. Fender convinced him that they should team up, and they started the "K & F Manufacturing Corporation" to design and build amplified Hawaiian guitars and amplifiers. In 1944, Leo and Doc patented a lap steel guitar with an electric pickup already patented by Fender. In 1945, they began selling the guitar in a kit with an amplifier designed by Fender.
Development of the electric guitar: Esquire/Broadcaster/Telecaster
As the Big Bands fell out of vogue towards the end of World War II, small combos playing boogie-woogie, rhythm and blues, western swing, and honky-tonk formed throughout the United States. Many of these outfits embraced the electric guitar because it could give a few players the power of an entire horn section. Pickup-equipped archtops were the guitars of choice in the dance bands of the late 1940s, but the increasing popularity of roadhouses and dance halls created a growing need for louder, cheaper, and more durable instruments. Players also needed 'faster' necks and better intonation to play what the country players called "take-off lead guitar." In the late 1940s, solid-body electric guitars began to rise in popularity, yet they were still considered novelty items, with the Rickenbacker Spanish Electro guitar being the most commercially available solid-body, and Les Paul's one-off home-made "Log" and the Bigsby Travis guitar made by Paul Bigsby for Merle Travis being the most visible early examples.
Fender recognized the potential for an electric guitar that was easy to hold, tune, and play, and would not feed back at dance hall volumes as the typical archtop would. In 1948, he finished the prototype of a thin solid-body electric; it was first released in 1950 as the Fender Esquire (with a solid body and one pickup), and renamed first Broadcaster and then Telecaster (with two pickups) the year after. The Telecaster, originally equipped with two single-coil pickups and widely used among country and western players, became one of the most popular electric guitars in history.
Stratocaster
Instead of updating the Telecaster, Fender decided, based on customer feedback, to leave the Telecaster as it was and design a new, upscale solid-body guitar to sell alongside the basic Telecaster. Western swing guitarist Bill Carson was one of the chief critics of the Telecaster, stating that the new design should have individually adjustable bridge saddles, four or five pickups, a vibrato unit that could be used in either direction and return to proper tuning, and a contoured body for enhanced comfort over the slab-body Telecaster's harsh edges. Fender, assisted by draftsman Freddie Tavares, began designing the Stratocaster in late 1953. It included a rounder, less "club-like" neck (at least for the first year of issue) and a double cutaway for easier reach to the upper registers.
Another novelty to the Stratocaster design included the use of three pickups wired to offer three different voicings, two of which could be further tailored by the player by adjusting the two tone controls.
The standard 5 way switch we know today was implemented much later [Late 1976] in the Stratocaster's development.
Bass guitars: Precision, Jazz
During this time, Fender also tackled the problems experienced by players of the acoustic double bass, who could no longer compete for volume with the other musicians. Besides, double basses were also large, bulky, and difficult to transport. With the Precision Bass (or "P-Bass"), released in 1951, Leo Fender addressed both issues: the Telecaster-based Precision Bass was small and portable, and its solid-body construction and four-magnet, single coil pickup let it play at higher volumes without feedback. Along with the Precision Bass (so named because its fretted neck allowed bassists to play with 'precision'), Fender introduced a bass amplifier, the Fender Bassman, a 25-watt amplifier with one 15-inch speaker (later updated to 45 watts and four 10-inch speakers).
1954 saw an update of the Precision Bass to coincide with the introduction of the Stratocaster. Incorporating some of the body contours of the Stratocaster, the update also included a two-section nickel-plated bridge and a white single-layer pickguard.
In June 1957, Fender announced a redesign of the Precision Bass. The remake included a larger headstock, a new pickguard design, a bridge with four steel saddles that could be individually adjusted and a new split single-coil pickup. This proved to be the final version of the instrument, which has changed little since then. In 1960, rosewood fingerboards, wider color selections and a three-ply pickguard became available for the P-Bass.
1960 saw the release of the Jazz Bass, a sleeker, updated bass with a slimmer neck, and offset waist body and two single coil pickups (as opposed to the Precision Bass and its split-humbucking pickup that had been introduced in 1957). Like its predecessor, the Jazz Bass (or simply "J-Bass") was an instant hit and has remained popular to this day, and early models are highly sought after by collectors.
1970 – Music Man and G&L
In the 1950s, Leo Fender contracted a streptococcal sinus infection that impaired his health to the point where he decided to wind up his business affairs, selling the Fender company to CBS in 1965. As part of this deal, Leo Fender signed a non-compete clause and remained a consultant with Fender for a while. Shortly after selling the company, he changed doctors and was cured of his illness. In 1971, Forrest White and Tom Walker formed the Tri-Sonix company (often incorrectly referred to as "Tri-Sonic"), based in Santa Ana, California. Walker and White went to Leo to help finance their company and it evolved into 'Music Man', a name Leo Fender preferred over their name, Tri-Sonix. After considerable financing, in 1975, Fender became its president.
The StingRay bass was an innovative early instrument. Though the body design borrowed heavily from the Precision Bass, the StingRay is largely considered the first production bass with active electronics. The StingRay's two-band active equalizer, high-output humbucking pickup, and high-gloss finished neck became a favorite of many influential bassists, including Louis Johnson, Bernard Edwards, John Deacon, and Flea. Later, a three-band active equalizer was introduced on the StingRay. Music Man was active in making amplifiers as well, but the HD-130 Reverb, designed to compete with the Twin Reverb, came at a time when the clean sounds of the Twin were going out of fashion.
In 1979, Leo Fender and old friends George Fullerton and Dale Hyatt started a new company called G&L (George & Leo) Musical Products. G&L guitar designs tended to lean heavily upon the looks of Fender's original guitars such as the Stratocaster and Telecaster, but incorporated innovations such as enhanced tremolo systems and electronics.
In 1979, Fender's wife Esther died of cancer. He remarried in 1980; Phyllis Fender is an Honorary Chairman of G&L. Despite suffering several minor strokes, Fender continued to produce guitars and basses. On March 21, 1991, he died, having long suffered from Parkinson's disease. He was buried at Fairhaven Memorial Park in Santa Ana, California. His accomplishments for "contributions of outstanding technical significance to the recording field" were acknowledged with a Technical Grammy Award in 2009. Fender Avenue in Fullerton, California was named after him."
COL Mikel J. Burroughs LTC Stephen F. SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen SPC Woody Bullard 1SG Steven Imerman SFC William Farrell Lt Col Charlie Brown Col Carl Whicker SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth SP5 Geoffrey Vannerson MSG Felipe De Leon Brown LTC Stephen C. Maj William W. 'Bill' Price PO1 H Gene Lawrence LTC Jeff Shearer ] LTC Wayne Brandon PO1 William "Chip" Nagel SPC Douglas Bolton PVT Mark Zehner
About Leo Fender: American inventor and founder of the Fender company (1909 - 1991) | Biography,...
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When you think of contributions to the history of American music, celebrating the influence of the brand Fender should come to mind. This year marks the 30th...
Thank you my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that on March 21, 1991 American inventor, who founded Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company Leo Fender died at the age of 81.
The Fender Story
"When you think of contributions to the history of American music, celebrating the influence of the brand Fender should come to mind. This year marks the 30th anniversary of The Phelps Group, one of America's leading integrated marketing communications company in Los Angeles. The Phelps Group pays homage to one of its first clients and by posting some of its earlier work for Fender. This one was created for Fender in 1993."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqGVx-u9K4A
Images:
1. Leo Fender 1978
2. Leon Fender played the saxophone in high school band
3. 'The design of each element should be thought out in order to be easy to make and easy to repair' Leo Fender.
4. The Unassuming Leo Fender
Biographies
1. allmusic.com/artist/leo-fender-mn [login to see]
2. laterbloomer.com/leo-fender
1. Background from {[https://www.allmusic.com/artist/leo-fender-mn [login to see] ]}
"Artist Biography by AllMusic
Clarence Leonidas Fender, [born on] 10 August 1909, Anaheim, California, USA, d. 21 March 1991, Fullerton, California, USA. Along with Les Paul and Adolph Rickenbacker, Leo Fender was one of the key names in the development of the electric guitar in the middle of the twentieth century. He first came to the attention of the musical instrument manufacturing industry when he was working with ‘Doc’ Kauffman producing guitar amplifiers in the mid-40s. He had developed a new smaller pick-up, and designed a solid-body guitar based on the Hawaiian steel with which to demonstrate it. Although the pick-up itself was quite revolutionary, local musicians were more intrigued with the guitar, and so Fender decided to concentrate his efforts in that direction. In 1946 he left Kauffman and formed the Fender Electrical Instrument Company. The idea of a solid body guitar had been in the forefront of manufacturer’s minds since the advent of electrical amplification, which meant that hollow sound boxes were no longer essential. It was Fender, along with Californian neighbours Les Paul and Paul Bigsby, who spearheaded the forthcoming wave of electric guitars.
In 1948 Fender launched the Broadcaster (later called the Telecaster), which remained virtually unchanged for the next 30 or so years; there were a few variations such as the Esquire (1954), the Thinline (1969), the Deluxe (1972) and the Custom (1972). Famous rock ‘n’ roll guitarist James Burton favoured a Telecaster, as did Bruce Welch of the Shadows, Steve Cropper, Roy Buchanan and Bruce Springsteen. Fender’s next major instrument was the Stratocaster, developed in 1953 with his chief engineer Leo Tavares, and put into production the following year. Like the Telecaster, the Stratocaster was virtually untouched in design over the next few decades and became a favourite of Buddy Holly, Hank B. Marvin, Eric Clapton, Rory Gallagher, Mark Knopfler and the master, Jimi Hendrix, to name just a few of thousands. In 1990 a Stratocaster once owned by Hendrix was sold at auction for almost £200,000. The design, shape, feel and colour of the Stratocaster became an art form, and probably the accepted icon for the electric guitar.
In 1955 Fender contracted a virus that would dog him for the next decade. In the mid-60s, convinced that he had little time to live, Leo decided to order his affairs. The Fender Electrical Instrument Company was sold to CBS in January 1965 for $13 million, shortly after which Fender made a complete recovery. CBS employed him as a consultant and he continued to help design and develop new guitars. Later he formed the CLF Research Company before returning to consultancy work for Music Man guitars, started by former Fender employees Thomas Walker and Forrest White. In the 80s he formed G&L (George and Leo) Guitars with longtime associate George Fullerton. They continued to make popular instruments, although names like the F100-1 series were less appealing than their forebears. Leo Fender died in March 1991 at age 81. As well as the guitars mentioned, the Fender name is also attached to the Musicmaster (1956), the Jazzmaster (1958), the Jaguar (1961) and the Starcaster (1975). He also moved into electric basses in 1951 with the Precision and then the Jazz Bass (1960), Bass VI (1962) and Telecaster Bass (1968)."
2. Background from {[https://laterbloomer.com/leo-fender/]},
Leo Fender: The Accountant Who Revolutionized Rock Music in His 40s
Leo Fender has been called "The Henry Ford of electric guitar." But this late-blooming rock innovator started out as an accountant and didn't even know how to play or tune a guitar!
Do you know what Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Steve Harris, Buddy Holly, John Lennon, John Mayer, Bonnie Raitt, and Sting have in common (besides rock and roll)?
They span three generations, from Buddy Holly (born 1936) to John Mayer (born 1977). They’re not all guitarists. Sting and Steve Harris (of Iron Maiden) play bass.
The answer: They all favor the legendary Fender instruments conceived by a late-blooming accountant named Clarence Leonidas “Leo” Fender (1909-1991)!
Leo Fender’s Early Life
Leo Fender was born in a barn not far from what would become Disneyland, California, on August 10, 1909. His parents grew oranges, melons, and vegetables and sold their goods from a truck.
From an early age, Leo loved tinkering. At 13, he visited his uncle’s auto shop in Santa Maria. He became mesmerized by a spare-parts radio his uncle had built and the loud music playing from it. His passion was born.
Yet when the Depression started, he declared an accounting major. After graduation, Leo joined Consolidated Ice and Cold Storage Company as a deliveryman and eventually became their bookkeeper.
In 1934, he married Esther Klotzly and moved to San Luis Obispo. He got an accounting job with the California Highway Department. But after six months, with the Depression at its height, he got laid off.
This happened a few more times before Leo borrowed $600 and headed home to open Fender Radio Shop in Fullerton.
Then World War II broke out. Factories stopped making radios to make weapons. Old parts were plentiful, however, and Leo’s business boomed.
Plus, music lifted everyone’s spirits. In the 1940s, war bond dances were popular. People would meet to sing, dance, and buy bonds to support the troops.
Leo gained a following in big band circles for building acoustic guitar amplifiers and public address systems.
Although Leo profited from the War, his success takes on poignancy when you know why he couldn’t be drafted. At age 8, he lost his right eye in a farm accident. Leo wore a glass one all his life.
They Call Him the “Henry Ford of Electric Guitar”
One day, a lap steel guitar player named “Doc” Kauffman wandered into Leo’s radio shop to have his amp repaired. Kauffman once worked for Rickenbacker Guitars and the two jawed about how to build a better electric guitar.
In 1944, Leo and Doc applied for a patent on a guitar pickup and formed a joint venture funded by a design for a record changer they sold for $5,000. But after a few tough years working from a shack behind Leo’s shop, Doc sold his share of the business and returned to his Oklahoma ranch.
Leo Fender kept innovating and soon dominated the industry. He didn’t invent the solid body electric guitar, but he improved it. He became the “Henry Ford of the electric guitar” by automating its manufacture.
According to Les Paul, another electric guitar pioneer,
Fender could look at something and immediately discern the simplest method of doing whatever had to be done. He was a good, honest guy who made a straightforward guitar.
Leo’s signature electric guitar had several incarnations, starting in 1950 (when he was 41). First, there was the Esquire, then the Broadcaster, then the Telecaster and finally, the iconic Stratocaster.
In August 1951, Leo started producing an electric bass. As bands got bigger and guitars got louder, upright bassists fought for volume on stage. Plus, the uprights were bulky and difficult to move.
Leo’s guitar-shaped Precision Bass and its amplifier solved those problems. Again, he didn’t invent the electric bass, but he was the first to make it widely available.
But it was the Stratocaster, introduced in 1954, that made Fender a household name.
It was the first guitar to feature three pickups and a spring tension vibrato system (that good old wah-wah-wah sound). It was also the first Fender with a contoured body.
But another tragedy clouded the Stratocaster’s success. Just a year before, as several employees repaired an amplifier, Leo stuck his head into the cabinet to check the wiring.
Someone flipped the switch and the speaker screeched into Leo’s ears, shattering his eardrums.
Leo lost most of his hearing, a devastating injury for a man who loved music and the musicians who played his creations. Later, advances in hearing aids would improve his situation.
Leo Fender was a workaholic and by 1964, he was ill and exhausted. Doctors diagnosed him with a severe staph infection. They said it was incurable. He decided to sell the company and wind up his affairs so his wife, Esther, wouldn’t have to deal with them.
CBS bought the Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company for $13 million. Leo signed a ten-year noncompete agreement.
The Eternal Innovator
In 1974, with the aid of rest and strong antibiotics, Leo came out of retirement to head the Music Man Company. He was 65 years old!
In 1985, he formed G&L Musical Instruments with his friend George Fullerton.
In 1979, Esther passed away after a long battle with lung cancer, even though neither she nor Leo smoked. A year later he met Phyllis Dalton through George Fullerton and his wife. Phyllis was corporate vice-president twenty-five years his junior with three children from a previous marriage.
They married on September 20, 1980, on the Love Boat (the actual ship used in the TV show).
In her recent memoir, Phyllis reveals that Leo liked the way Elvis played his Fender guitar and bass, but not the way he shook his hips!
Leo also hated that Jimi Hendrix smashed his Stratocasters and set them on fire:
Those were his children and it pained him to see somebody beat it until it was smashed up completely, set fire to it, or just being horrible to it.
Leo made millions of dollars, yet remained a humble inventor. His coffee “mug” was a styrofoam cup with “Leo” printed on it. He brought his lunch to work every day because “With the money I save eating these sandwiches, I can buy a handful of resistors.” His employees loved him.
He showed up at G&L every day despite a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease near age 75.
On March 21, 1991, Phyllis found him on the floor of his bedroom. He had gotten up for work but didn’t make it. He passed away from a massive heart attack at age 81.
G&L, Leo’s last company, still makes instruments in Leo’s beloved hometown of Fullerton. The current owners simply closed the door on Leo’s office and lab the day he died. The factory remains much how Leo designed it.
Phyllis currently serves as Honorary Chairman of G&L. She often volunteers at the Fullerton Museum, where she shares stories about her life with Leo.
Despite losing his eye, detouring into accounting, and enduring near-deafness, Leo Fender turned his teenage passion for tinkering into an empire. Almost every song seared into our hearts for three generations lives because of Leo, who finally found his groove in his 40s.
And he never learned how to play, or even tune, a guitar!
Sources
• Phyllis Fender and Randall Bell. Leo Fender: The Quiet Giant Heard Around the World. Leadership Institute Press, 2017.
• Wired.com: This Day In Tech (8/10/2009)
• Opening Image: The Guitar Player by Paul Gauguin (1894)
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs SMSgt Lawrence McCarter SPC Michael Duricko, Ph.D GySgt Thomas Vick SGT Denny Espinosa SSG Stephen Rogerson SPC Matthew Lamb LTC (Join to see)Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. PO1 William "Chip" Nagel PO2 (Join to see) SSG Franklin Briant SPC Woody Bullard TSgt David L. SMSgt David A Asbury SPC Michael Terrell SFC Chuck Martinez CSM Charles Hayden
The Fender Story
"When you think of contributions to the history of American music, celebrating the influence of the brand Fender should come to mind. This year marks the 30th anniversary of The Phelps Group, one of America's leading integrated marketing communications company in Los Angeles. The Phelps Group pays homage to one of its first clients and by posting some of its earlier work for Fender. This one was created for Fender in 1993."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqGVx-u9K4A
Images:
1. Leo Fender 1978
2. Leon Fender played the saxophone in high school band
3. 'The design of each element should be thought out in order to be easy to make and easy to repair' Leo Fender.
4. The Unassuming Leo Fender
Biographies
1. allmusic.com/artist/leo-fender-mn [login to see]
2. laterbloomer.com/leo-fender
1. Background from {[https://www.allmusic.com/artist/leo-fender-mn [login to see] ]}
"Artist Biography by AllMusic
Clarence Leonidas Fender, [born on] 10 August 1909, Anaheim, California, USA, d. 21 March 1991, Fullerton, California, USA. Along with Les Paul and Adolph Rickenbacker, Leo Fender was one of the key names in the development of the electric guitar in the middle of the twentieth century. He first came to the attention of the musical instrument manufacturing industry when he was working with ‘Doc’ Kauffman producing guitar amplifiers in the mid-40s. He had developed a new smaller pick-up, and designed a solid-body guitar based on the Hawaiian steel with which to demonstrate it. Although the pick-up itself was quite revolutionary, local musicians were more intrigued with the guitar, and so Fender decided to concentrate his efforts in that direction. In 1946 he left Kauffman and formed the Fender Electrical Instrument Company. The idea of a solid body guitar had been in the forefront of manufacturer’s minds since the advent of electrical amplification, which meant that hollow sound boxes were no longer essential. It was Fender, along with Californian neighbours Les Paul and Paul Bigsby, who spearheaded the forthcoming wave of electric guitars.
In 1948 Fender launched the Broadcaster (later called the Telecaster), which remained virtually unchanged for the next 30 or so years; there were a few variations such as the Esquire (1954), the Thinline (1969), the Deluxe (1972) and the Custom (1972). Famous rock ‘n’ roll guitarist James Burton favoured a Telecaster, as did Bruce Welch of the Shadows, Steve Cropper, Roy Buchanan and Bruce Springsteen. Fender’s next major instrument was the Stratocaster, developed in 1953 with his chief engineer Leo Tavares, and put into production the following year. Like the Telecaster, the Stratocaster was virtually untouched in design over the next few decades and became a favourite of Buddy Holly, Hank B. Marvin, Eric Clapton, Rory Gallagher, Mark Knopfler and the master, Jimi Hendrix, to name just a few of thousands. In 1990 a Stratocaster once owned by Hendrix was sold at auction for almost £200,000. The design, shape, feel and colour of the Stratocaster became an art form, and probably the accepted icon for the electric guitar.
In 1955 Fender contracted a virus that would dog him for the next decade. In the mid-60s, convinced that he had little time to live, Leo decided to order his affairs. The Fender Electrical Instrument Company was sold to CBS in January 1965 for $13 million, shortly after which Fender made a complete recovery. CBS employed him as a consultant and he continued to help design and develop new guitars. Later he formed the CLF Research Company before returning to consultancy work for Music Man guitars, started by former Fender employees Thomas Walker and Forrest White. In the 80s he formed G&L (George and Leo) Guitars with longtime associate George Fullerton. They continued to make popular instruments, although names like the F100-1 series were less appealing than their forebears. Leo Fender died in March 1991 at age 81. As well as the guitars mentioned, the Fender name is also attached to the Musicmaster (1956), the Jazzmaster (1958), the Jaguar (1961) and the Starcaster (1975). He also moved into electric basses in 1951 with the Precision and then the Jazz Bass (1960), Bass VI (1962) and Telecaster Bass (1968)."
2. Background from {[https://laterbloomer.com/leo-fender/]},
Leo Fender: The Accountant Who Revolutionized Rock Music in His 40s
Leo Fender has been called "The Henry Ford of electric guitar." But this late-blooming rock innovator started out as an accountant and didn't even know how to play or tune a guitar!
Do you know what Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Steve Harris, Buddy Holly, John Lennon, John Mayer, Bonnie Raitt, and Sting have in common (besides rock and roll)?
They span three generations, from Buddy Holly (born 1936) to John Mayer (born 1977). They’re not all guitarists. Sting and Steve Harris (of Iron Maiden) play bass.
The answer: They all favor the legendary Fender instruments conceived by a late-blooming accountant named Clarence Leonidas “Leo” Fender (1909-1991)!
Leo Fender’s Early Life
Leo Fender was born in a barn not far from what would become Disneyland, California, on August 10, 1909. His parents grew oranges, melons, and vegetables and sold their goods from a truck.
From an early age, Leo loved tinkering. At 13, he visited his uncle’s auto shop in Santa Maria. He became mesmerized by a spare-parts radio his uncle had built and the loud music playing from it. His passion was born.
Yet when the Depression started, he declared an accounting major. After graduation, Leo joined Consolidated Ice and Cold Storage Company as a deliveryman and eventually became their bookkeeper.
In 1934, he married Esther Klotzly and moved to San Luis Obispo. He got an accounting job with the California Highway Department. But after six months, with the Depression at its height, he got laid off.
This happened a few more times before Leo borrowed $600 and headed home to open Fender Radio Shop in Fullerton.
Then World War II broke out. Factories stopped making radios to make weapons. Old parts were plentiful, however, and Leo’s business boomed.
Plus, music lifted everyone’s spirits. In the 1940s, war bond dances were popular. People would meet to sing, dance, and buy bonds to support the troops.
Leo gained a following in big band circles for building acoustic guitar amplifiers and public address systems.
Although Leo profited from the War, his success takes on poignancy when you know why he couldn’t be drafted. At age 8, he lost his right eye in a farm accident. Leo wore a glass one all his life.
They Call Him the “Henry Ford of Electric Guitar”
One day, a lap steel guitar player named “Doc” Kauffman wandered into Leo’s radio shop to have his amp repaired. Kauffman once worked for Rickenbacker Guitars and the two jawed about how to build a better electric guitar.
In 1944, Leo and Doc applied for a patent on a guitar pickup and formed a joint venture funded by a design for a record changer they sold for $5,000. But after a few tough years working from a shack behind Leo’s shop, Doc sold his share of the business and returned to his Oklahoma ranch.
Leo Fender kept innovating and soon dominated the industry. He didn’t invent the solid body electric guitar, but he improved it. He became the “Henry Ford of the electric guitar” by automating its manufacture.
According to Les Paul, another electric guitar pioneer,
Fender could look at something and immediately discern the simplest method of doing whatever had to be done. He was a good, honest guy who made a straightforward guitar.
Leo’s signature electric guitar had several incarnations, starting in 1950 (when he was 41). First, there was the Esquire, then the Broadcaster, then the Telecaster and finally, the iconic Stratocaster.
In August 1951, Leo started producing an electric bass. As bands got bigger and guitars got louder, upright bassists fought for volume on stage. Plus, the uprights were bulky and difficult to move.
Leo’s guitar-shaped Precision Bass and its amplifier solved those problems. Again, he didn’t invent the electric bass, but he was the first to make it widely available.
But it was the Stratocaster, introduced in 1954, that made Fender a household name.
It was the first guitar to feature three pickups and a spring tension vibrato system (that good old wah-wah-wah sound). It was also the first Fender with a contoured body.
But another tragedy clouded the Stratocaster’s success. Just a year before, as several employees repaired an amplifier, Leo stuck his head into the cabinet to check the wiring.
Someone flipped the switch and the speaker screeched into Leo’s ears, shattering his eardrums.
Leo lost most of his hearing, a devastating injury for a man who loved music and the musicians who played his creations. Later, advances in hearing aids would improve his situation.
Leo Fender was a workaholic and by 1964, he was ill and exhausted. Doctors diagnosed him with a severe staph infection. They said it was incurable. He decided to sell the company and wind up his affairs so his wife, Esther, wouldn’t have to deal with them.
CBS bought the Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company for $13 million. Leo signed a ten-year noncompete agreement.
The Eternal Innovator
In 1974, with the aid of rest and strong antibiotics, Leo came out of retirement to head the Music Man Company. He was 65 years old!
In 1985, he formed G&L Musical Instruments with his friend George Fullerton.
In 1979, Esther passed away after a long battle with lung cancer, even though neither she nor Leo smoked. A year later he met Phyllis Dalton through George Fullerton and his wife. Phyllis was corporate vice-president twenty-five years his junior with three children from a previous marriage.
They married on September 20, 1980, on the Love Boat (the actual ship used in the TV show).
In her recent memoir, Phyllis reveals that Leo liked the way Elvis played his Fender guitar and bass, but not the way he shook his hips!
Leo also hated that Jimi Hendrix smashed his Stratocasters and set them on fire:
Those were his children and it pained him to see somebody beat it until it was smashed up completely, set fire to it, or just being horrible to it.
Leo made millions of dollars, yet remained a humble inventor. His coffee “mug” was a styrofoam cup with “Leo” printed on it. He brought his lunch to work every day because “With the money I save eating these sandwiches, I can buy a handful of resistors.” His employees loved him.
He showed up at G&L every day despite a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease near age 75.
On March 21, 1991, Phyllis found him on the floor of his bedroom. He had gotten up for work but didn’t make it. He passed away from a massive heart attack at age 81.
G&L, Leo’s last company, still makes instruments in Leo’s beloved hometown of Fullerton. The current owners simply closed the door on Leo’s office and lab the day he died. The factory remains much how Leo designed it.
Phyllis currently serves as Honorary Chairman of G&L. She often volunteers at the Fullerton Museum, where she shares stories about her life with Leo.
Despite losing his eye, detouring into accounting, and enduring near-deafness, Leo Fender turned his teenage passion for tinkering into an empire. Almost every song seared into our hearts for three generations lives because of Leo, who finally found his groove in his 40s.
And he never learned how to play, or even tune, a guitar!
Sources
• Phyllis Fender and Randall Bell. Leo Fender: The Quiet Giant Heard Around the World. Leadership Institute Press, 2017.
• Wired.com: This Day In Tech (8/10/2009)
• Opening Image: The Guitar Player by Paul Gauguin (1894)
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs SMSgt Lawrence McCarter SPC Michael Duricko, Ph.D GySgt Thomas Vick SGT Denny Espinosa SSG Stephen Rogerson SPC Matthew Lamb LTC (Join to see)Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. PO1 William "Chip" Nagel PO2 (Join to see) SSG Franklin Briant SPC Woody Bullard TSgt David L. SMSgt David A Asbury SPC Michael Terrell SFC Chuck Martinez CSM Charles Hayden
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LTC Stephen F.
Leo Fender History
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmdeWE_rA7g
Images:
1. Leo Fender with images of Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Tom Petty and Saul Hudson [Slash]
2. Jimi Hendrix with his Stratocaster
3. Leo Fender and his wife Phyllis Fender
4. Bonnie Raitt with her Stratocaster.
Biographies:
1. enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/173564
2. peoplepill.com/people/leo-fender
1. Background from {{lhttps://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/173564]}
Born Clarence Leonidas Fender
August 10, 1909 at Anaheim, California, United States
Died March 21, 1991 (aged 81) at Ione, California, United States
Occupation Inventor
Clarence Leonidas "Leo" Fender (August 10, 1909 – March 21, 1991) was an American inventor who founded Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, now known as Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, and later founded MusicMan and G&L Musical Products (G&L Guitars). His guitar, bass, and amplifier designs from the 1940s continue to dominate popular music more than half a century later. Marshall, Mesa Boogie, most boutique amplifier companies and many other guitar amplifier production companies have used Fender instruments as the foundation of their products.
Biography
Early life
Clarence Leonidas Fender was born on August 10, 1909, to Clarence Monte Fender and Harriet Elvira Wood, owners of a successful orange grove located between Anaheim and Fullerton, California.
From an early age, Leo showed an interest in tinkering with electronics. When he was 13 years old, his uncle, who ran an automotive-electric shop, sent him a box filled with discarded car radio parts, and a battery. The following year, Leo visited his uncle's shop in Santa Maria, California, and was fascinated by a radio his uncle had built from spare parts and placed on display in the front of the shop. Leo later claimed that the loud music coming from the speaker of that radio made a lasting impression on him. Soon thereafter, Leo began repairing radios in a small shop in his parents' home.
In the spring of 1928, Leo graduated from Fullerton Union High School, and entered Fullerton Junior College that fall, as an accounting major. While he was studying to be an accountant, he continued to teach himself electronics, and tinker with radios and other electrical items. He never took any kind of electronics course while in college.
After college, Fender took a job as a deliveryman for Consolidated Ice and Cold Storage Company in Anaheim, where he later was made the bookkeeper. It was around this time that a local band leader approached Leo, asking him if he could build a public address system for use by the band at dances in Hollywood. Fender was contracted to build six of these PA systems.
In 1933, Fender met Esther Klosky, and they were married in 1934. About that time, Leo took a job as an accountant for the California Highway Department in San Luis Obispo. In a depression government change-up, Leo's job was eliminated, and he then took a job in the accounting department of a tire company. After working there six months, Leo lost his job along with the other accountants in the company.
Fender Radio Service
In 1938, with $600 he borrowed, Leo and Esther returned to Fullerton, and Leo started his own radio repair shop, known as "Fender Radio Service." Soon thereafter, musicians and band leaders began coming to Leo for PA systems, which he began building, selling and renting, and for amplification for the amplified acoustic guitars that were beginning to show up in the southern California music scene, in big band and jazz music, and for the electric "Hawaiian" or "lap steel" guitars becoming popular in country music.
Early Guitar Making
During WWII, Leo met Clayton Orr "Doc" Kauffman, an inventor and lap steel player, who had worked for Rickenbacker Guitars, a company that had been building and selling lap steel guitars for a decade. While with Rickenbacker, Kauffman had invented the "Vibrola" tailpiece, a precursor to the later vibrato or "tremolo" tailpiece. Leo convinced Doc that they should team up, and they started the "K & F Manufacturing Corporation," to design and build amplified Hawaiian guitars and amplifiers. In 1944, Leo and Doc patented a lap steel guitar, that had an electric pickup already patented by Fender. In 1945, they began selling the guitar, in a kit with an amplifier designed by Leo.
Personal life
In 1979, Leo's wife Esther died of cancer. He remarried in 1980.[1] Phyllis Fender is an Honorary Chairman of G&L.
Death
On March 21, 1991, Leo Fender was found passed out in his home, and died as he was being transported to hospital. For years, Fender had suffered from Parkinson's disease.
Fender and development of the electric guitar
As the Big Bands fell out of vogue toward the end of World War II, small combos playing boogie-woogie, rhythm and blues, western swing, and honky-tonk formed throughout the United States. Many of these outfits embraced the electric guitar because it could give a few players the power of an entire horn section. Pickup-equipped archtops were the guitars of choice in the dance bands of the late-'40s, but the increasing popularity of roadhouses and dance halls created a growing need for louder, cheaper, and more durable instruments. Players also needed faster necks and better intonation to play what the country players called "take-off lead guitar." Custom-made solidbodies such as Les Paul's home-made "Log" and the Bigsby Travis guitar made by Paul Bigsby for Merle Travis evolved from this need, but these were beyond the means of the average player.
Fender recognized the potential for an electric guitar that was easy to hold, easy to tune, and easy to play. He also recognized that players needed guitars that would not feed back at dance hall volumes as the typical arch top would. In addition, Fender sought a tone that would command attention on the bandstand and cut through the noise in a bar. By 1949, he had begun working in earnest on what became the first Telecaster (originally called the Broadcaster) at the Fender factory in Fullerton, California.
Although he never admitted it, Fender seemed to base his practical design on the Rickenbacker Bakelite.[2] One of the Rickenbacker's strong points—a detachable neck that made it easy to make and service—was not lost on Fender, who was a master at improving already established designs. Not surprisingly, his first prototype was a single-pickup guitar with a detachable hard rock maple neck and a pine body painted white.[2]
Esquire
Don Randall, who managed Fender's distributor, the Radio & Television Equipment Company, recognized the commercial possibilities of the new design and made plans to introduce the instrument as "The Esquire Model." Fender supported the Esquire name, saying that it "sounded regal and implied a certain distinction above other guitars."
In April 1950, Radio-Tel started promoting the Esquire—the first Fender 6-string officially introduced to the public. The company prepared its Catalog No. 2, picturing a black single-pickup Esquire with a tweed form-fit case. Another picture showed Jimmy Wyble of Spade Cooley's band holding a blond Esquire. These debut models, with a planned retail price of $154.95, exhibited the shape of thousands of Fender guitars to come.
Randall's primary marketing ploy was to establish the Esquire in music instruction studios, reasoning that the affordable, practical guitar would be a hot commodity in those circles. In addition, a healthy response for the one-pickup version would prime the market for the more expensive two-pickup model that Fender already had in mind.
Broadcaster
The factory went into full production in late 1950, initially producing only dual-pickup Esquires. Fender's decision compromised Radio-Tel's earlier marketing strategy, forcing Randall to hold orders for the single-pickup Esquire and come up with a new name for the two-pickup model, eventually naming it the Broadcaster. Dealers who insisted on Esquires had to wait until the single-pickup guitars went into full production in January 1951 and were delivered the following month.
Musical Merchandise magazine carried the first announcement for the Broadcaster in February 1951 with a full-page insert that described it in detail. The guitar was described as having a "modern cut-away body," a "modern styled head," and an "adjustable solo-lead pickup" that was "completely adjustable for tone-balance by means of three elevating screws."
"Broadcaster" becomes "Telecaster"
Fender sold 87 Broadcasters on the guitar's initial release in January 1951. Many people took note—including Gretsch, who claimed the Broadcaster name infringed on the company's trademark "Broadkaster," which was the name of a model lineup of drums. Reacting to this, Randall informed his salespeople on February 21 that Radio-Tel was abandoning the Broadcaster name and requesting suggestions for a new name. On February 24 he announced that the Broadcaster had been renamed the "Telecaster."
The Broadcaster-to-Telecaster name change cost Radio-Tel hundreds of dollars, and derailed the initial marketing effort. Brochures and envelope inserts were destroyed, and the word "Broadcaster" was clipped from hundreds of headstock decals. For several months, the new twin-pickup guitars were marked only with the word "Fender." These early-to-mid-'51 guitars were eventually called "No-casters" by guitar collectors.
Stratocaster
Leo Fender regularly sought feedback from his customers, and, in preparation for redesigning the Telecaster he asked his customers what new features they would want on the Telecaster. The large number of replies, along with the continued popularity of the Telecaster, caused him to leave the Telecaster as it was and to design a new, upscale solid body guitar to be sold alongside the basic Telecaster instead. Western swing guitarist Bill Carson was one of the chief critics of the Telecaster, stating that the new design should have individually adjustable bridge saddles, four or five pickups, a vibrato unit that could be used in either direction and return to proper tuning, and a contoured body for enhanced comfort over the slab-body Telecaster's harsh edges. Fender, assisted by draftsman Freddie Tavares, began designing a new guitar in late 1953 that addressed most of Carson's ideas. It included a rounder, less "club-like" neck (at least for the first year of issue) and a double cutaway for easier reach to the upper registers.[3]
Released in 1954, the Stratocaster (or "Strat") has been in continuous production ever since.
Other guitars
Other significant developments of this period include the Jazzmaster and Jaguar, significant departures from the Strat and Tele in their introduction of complex pickup selection switches and volume controls. Although unsuccessful at their introduction, both soon became popular with Surf Rock musicians due to their clean, bright, warm tone. They became popular again, (to a much larger extent), in the early 90's due to their use by alternative rock artists such as Dinosaur Jr.'s and Sonic Youth's famous hoard of vintage Jazzmasters and Kurt Cobain's (of Nirvana) use of a heavily modified 1965 Jaguar.
Electric bass guitar
During this time, Fender also conceived an instrument that would play a major role in popular music. Until this time, bassists played acoustic double basses, also known as "upright basses." As the size of bands and orchestras grew, bassists found themselves increasingly fighting for volume and presence in the sound spectrum. Apart from their sonic disadvantages, double basses were also large, bulky, and difficult to transport. With the Precision Bass (or "P-Bass"), released in 1951, Leo Fender addressed both of these issues. Unlike double basses, the Telecaster-based Precision Bass was small and portable, and its solid body construction and four magnet, single coil electronic pickup allowed it to be amplified at higher volumes without the feedback issues normally associated with acoustic instruments. Along with the Precision Bass (so named because its fretted neck allowed bassists to play with 'precision'), Fender introduced a bass amplifier, the Fender Bassman; a 45 watt amplifier with four 10" speakers (although initially with one 15" speaker). Neither were firsts; Audiovox had begun advertising an "electric bass fiddle" in mid 1930s catalogs, and Ampeg had introduced a 12 watt "Bassamp" in 1949, but the P-Bass and its accompanying amplifier were the first widely produced of their kind, and the P-bass was the first bass to be fretted like a guitar. The P-Bass remains one of the most popular basses in music today. 1954 saw a redesign of the Precision Bass to coincide with the introduction of the Stratocaster. Incorporating the same body contours as the Stratocaster, the redesign also included a split single coil pickup and a gold anodized pickguard. In 1960, rosewood fingerboards, wider color selections and a three-ply pickguard became available for the P-Bass.
1960 saw the release of the Jazz Bass, a sleeker, updated bass with a slimmer neck, and offset waist body and two single coil pickups (as opposed to the Precision Bass and its split-humbucking pickup that had been introduced in 1957). Like its predecessor, the Jazz Bass (or simply "J-Bass") was an instant hit and has remained popular to this day, and early models are highly sought after by collectors.
1970 - Music Man and G&L
Some of Fender's most widely known and loved contributions to music were developed in the 1970s, after his sale to CBS of his eponymous brand in 1965.: he designed guitars, basses and amplifiers for the Music Man corporation, and in 1976 designed and released another innovative instrument, the StingRay. Though the body design borrowed heavily from the Precision Bass, the StingRay is largely considered to be the first production bass with active electronics. The StingRay's 2-band active equalizer, high output humbucking pickup and smooth satin finished neck went on to become a favorite of many influential bassists, including Louis Johnson, John Deacon and Flea. Later on a 3-band active equalizer was introduced. In 1979 he and old friends George Fullerton and Dale Hyatt started a new company called G&L (George & Leo)[4] Musical Products. G&L guitar designs tended to lean heavily upon the looks of Fender's original guitars such as the Stratocaster and Telecaster, but incorporated innovations such as enhanced tremolo systems and electronics. Despite suffering several minor strokes, Leo Fender continued to produce guitars and basses. While he continued to refine the fundamental designs he had created decades earlier, he also earned many new patents for innovative designs in magnetic pickups, vibrato systems, neck construction, and other areas. Nevertheless, he never learned how to play the guitar.
A friendly, modest and unassuming man (his "coffee mug" was a styrofoam cup with the word "Leo" inked on it), he had the lifelong admiration and devotion of his employees, many of whom have remarked that the best working years of their lives were spent under Leo Fender. An example of frugal living, Fender was once asked why he brought his lunch (egg salad sandwiches) to work every day instead of buying lunch from the local lunch truck. Fender replied, "With the money I save eating these sandwiches, I can buy a handful of resistors." He died March 21, 1991, in Fullerton from complications of Parkinson's disease, and is interred at Fairhaven Memorial Park in Santa Ana.[5] His pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. The company which bears his name, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, is now one of the largest musical instrument conglomerates in the world.
References
1. ^ http://www.freeinfosociety.com/site.php?postnum=808
2. ^ a b (Smith, Richard (May 1998). History of the Fender Telecaster.)
3. ^ Burrows, T. et al. "The Complete Book of the Guitar" p. 71-72 Carlton Books Limited, 1998 ISBN 1 85868 529X
4. ^ http://www.glguitars.com/factorytour/index.asp
2. Background from {[https://peoplepill.com/people/leo-fender]}
Leo Fender Biography
Clarence Leonidas Fender was born on August 10, 1909, to Clarence Monte Fender and Harriet Elvira Wood, owners of a successful orange grove located between Anaheim and Fullerton, CA.
From an early age, Leo showed an interest in tinkering with electronics. When he was 13 years old, his uncle, who ran an automotive-electric shop, sent him a box filled with discarded car radio parts, and a battery. The following year, Leo visited his uncle's shop in Santa Maria, CA, and was fascinated by a radio his uncle had built from spare parts and placed on display in the front of the shop. Leo later claimed that the loud music coming from the speaker of that radio made a lasting impression on him. Soon thereafter, Leo began repairing radios in a small shop in his parents' home.
In the spring of 1928, Leo graduated from Fullerton Union High School, and entered Fullerton Junior College that fall, as an accounting major. While he was studying to be an accountant, he continued to teach himself electronics, and tinker with radios and other electrical items. He never took any kind of electronics course while in college.
After college, Fender took a job as a deliveryman for Consolidated Ice and Cold Storage Company in Anaheim, where he later was made the bookkeeper. It was around this time that a local band leader approached Leo, asking him if he could build a public address system for use by the band at dances in Hollywood. Fender was contracted to build six of these PA systems.
In 1933, Fender met Esther Klosky, and they were married in 1934. About that time, Leo took a job as an accountant for the California Highway Department in San Luis Obispo. In a depression government change-up, Leo's job was eliminated, and he then took a job in the accounting department of a tire company. After working there six months, Leo lost his job along with the other accountants in the company.
So, in 1938, with $600 dollars he borrowed, Leo and Esther returned to Fullerton, and Leo started his own radio repair shop, known as "Fender Radio Service". Soon thereafter, musicians and band leaders began coming to Leo for PA systems, which he began building, selling and renting, and for amplification for the amplified acoustic guitars that beginning to show up in the southern California music scene, in big band and jazz music, and for the electric "Hawaiian" or "lap steel" guitars becoming popular in country music.
During WWII, Leo met Clayton Orr "Doc" Kauffman, an inventor and lap steel player, who had worked for Rickenbacker Guitars, a company that had been building and selling lap steel guitars for a decade. While with Rickenbacker, Kauffman had invented the "Vibrola Tailpiece"...the precursor to the later "vibrato" or "tremolo" tailpiece. Leo convinced Doc that they should team up, and they started the "K & F Manufacturing Corporation", to design and build amplified Hawaiian guitars and amplifiers. In 1944, Leo and Doc patented a lap steel guitar, that had an electric pickup already patented by Fender. In 1945, they began selling the guitar, in a kit with an amplifier designed by Leo.
By the beginning of 1946, Leo had decided that building and selling musical instruments and amplifiers would be much more profitable than repairing them. Doc was unconvinced, pulled out of the company, and they parted ways. Leo changed the name of the company to "Fender Electric Instrument Company", and specialized in Fender lap steel guitars, and amplifiers.
Early in WWII, it was clearly shown that electric circuits had to be rugged to withstand the rigors of military use. Leo realized that amplifiers should be similarly rugged to withstand the abuse they would receive by traveling musicians, so he designed Fender amplifiers to be extremely rugged. During 1946, Fender designed and began manufacturing the Deluxe, the Professional, and the Dual Professional, along with the Princeston, a 4-watt practice amp. Pushing from 18 to 45 watts, these were easily the most powerful amplifiers commercially produced. With heavy steel chassis, chromed control plates, and heavy pine cases covered with tweed fabric, Fender amps caught on immediately. In 1948, Fender began the "Champion" series of practice amp, which eventually was called "The Champ" and became the most popular amplifier built.
Also in 1948, engineer George Fullerton was hired by Leo, beginning a partnership and friendship that would last for more than 40 years.
By this time, all commercially available amplified "spanish style" (non-lap styled) guitars were acoustic guitars with pickups added. Rickenbacker had designed a spanish styled guitar made of bakelite, a predecessor to plastic, in 1935, and surely Leo was aware of its existence from Doc Kauffman. 15 miles from Fullerton, inventor and guitarist Les Paul was experimenting with a solid body "spanish neck" electric guitar he eventually called "the log". But, it pretty much has been accepted that Leo got the idea for designing a solid body spanish styled electric guitar from country guitarist Merle Travis, who had designed a solid body electric guitar and had one built for him by Paul Bixby, another southern California lap steel builder.
In 1948, Leo Fender began work on a solid bodied spanish style electric guitar. In the spring of 1950, the first commercially available, mass produced, solid bodied spanish styled electric guitar was introduced, the Fender Esquire. The Esquire had one pickup; the body was one solid piece of ash wood; the neck was one solid piece of maple wood without a truss rod inserted, and was bolted onto the body instead of the traditional method of gluing the neck to the body; the tuning heads were located all on one side of the neck, and were designed in a way that the strings were parallel to the body of the guitar from the tuning head to the bridge. The Esquire had a tone selector switch, a volume knob, and one tone knob. It was available it two colors, black with a white scratch plate, and semi-transparent "butterscotch blond" with a white scratch plate. Most early models were of the latter color.
In June, 1950, Fender added a two-pickup model of the Esquire, and in November, it acquired a neck truss rod, and was renamed the "Broadcaster". In early 1951, Gretch Musical Instrument company sent a telegram to Leo, complaining of his use of the name "Broadcaster", as Gretch had a line of drums called "Broadkaster". Fearing legal action, and being a newcomer to the musical instrument industry, Leo immediately stopped putting the name label on the Broadcasters until he could come up with a suitable new name. The guitars manufactured in this interim period are now known as "nocasters" and are rare and extremely desired. In late 1951, Leo changed the name to "Telecaster", to relate the guitar to the new and increasingly popular medium of television.
The Esquire, Broadcaster, and Telecaster caught on quickly, mostly with country music guitarists...probably because country music was extremely popular in southern California at the time. Within a year or two, the Chicago based blues guitarist Muddy Waters could be seen playing one. Its distinctive "twangy" sound became a standard for country music, and remains so today. The Telecaster of the 2000's is relatively unchanged from the original Telecaster.
The "upright bass" or "double bass" was a problem for most bands. It is large, unwieldy, hard to successfully amplify, and is easily damaged. The first solid bodied fretted electric bass guitar was introduced by Audiovox in 1935. It really never caught on, obviously due to the lack of proper amplification. In late 1951, Fender introduced the Precision Bass, a single-pickup solid bodied bass guitar with a 34" scale. With a fretted neck, and a double-cutaway body, the bassist was able to play "with precision", hence the name. In early 1952, Fender introduced "The Bassman" amplifier, a 35 watt amplifier designed for the Precision Bass. Author's note: supposedly, the Precision Bass caught on immediately. This early popularity was obviously in Jazz bands, because electric bass isn't found in pop, blues, or rock and roll until 1955-1956. In blues and the earliest rock and roll, the upright bass often served as a percussive instrument as well as a stringed instrument.
Despite the immediate popularity of the Telecaster, there were many guitarists that didn't really care for its signature "twangy" sound, and many guitarists complained of its sharp edges uncomfortably biting into their sides while playing for long periods of time. To answer these complaints, in 1954 Fender introduced the Stratocaster. With three pickups instead of two, a modern shaped, contoured body, reminiscent of the "wings" that were beginning to appear on cars, a "vibrato tailpiece" that allowed the guitarist to "bend" notes, and a name that made one think of outer space, the "Strat" was an instant hit, and eventually became the single most popular electric guitar. The Strat's contoured body style followed over to the Precision Bass.
The Bassman amp went through several changes through the 1950's. In 1958, Fender began using the circuit design designated "5F6-A", and this particular circuit was used through 1960. Though a mediocre bass amp, guitarists loved the tone and power of this amp, and it became much more popular for guitars than basses, Many people considered it to be the perfect guitar amp. In the 1960's, many amplifier manufacturers designed guitar amps based off of this circuit...including Jim Marshall. An amplifier based on the 5F6-A with a few modifications launched Marshall Amplification.
In 1960, Fender introduced the "Deluxe Model" of the Precision Bass. Leo felt that a thinner neck would appeal to jazz musicians, and aid in the transition from upright to electric bass. The body was less symmetrical than the Precision, more like the recently introduced Jazzmaster and Jaguar guitars. The two pickups opposed to the single split pickup on the standard Precision Bass gave it a totally different sound.
The Telecaster, Precision Bass, Stratocaster, and Jazz Bass are testaments to the innovation of Leo Fender. All four instruments have remained extremely popular, and modern versions have changed very little from Leo's original designs. Likewise, Leo's "Tweed" amplifiers are considered by many the best amps ever made, and the originals fetch huge sums of money. Also, in the late 1990's, mostly due to the internet, and the renewed availability of quality vacuum tubes, a new industry began to spring up, boutique amplifiers. Boutique amps are high quality hand built copies of classic amps, and the most popular are the 5F6-A Bassman, the 5F1 Champ (designed by Fender in 1955), the 5E3 Deluxe (also 1955), and the 5E8-A Twin (also 1955). Copies of these amps are also very popularly built by do-it-yourselfers, and kits are available of these circuits by several companies.
Leo worked feverously into the 1960's. He was a workoholic, usually working late into the night, and often working seven days a week. He worked both on the business and R&D sides of the company. By early 1964, he was totally exhausted, and his health was failing. In late 1964, he was approached by Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), who was looking to get into the musical instrument business. At the end of the year, Leo sold his beloved company to CBS for $13 million. Part of the agreement between CBS and Leo was a "non-compete clause". Leo agreed that he would not participate in the musical instrument industry for 10 years after the sale.
In 1971, Leo, Forrest White, and Tom Walker, formed a new company called "Tri-sonics, Inc". Leo and Tom began designing amps, and Forrest began designing guitars, all carefully designed not to be confused with CBS Fender instruments. Later, they changed the name to "Musictek, Inc", and by January 1974, to "Musicman, Inc". During this time, Leo did not take an active role in the company, and did not until 1975, when it was officially announced that he had been elected president of the company.
Musicman was fairly successful in the beginning, but the late 1970s was a hard time for guitar and amplifier manufacturers. They made rugged amplifiers, and functional guitars with enhanced electronics.
In 1979, Leo's beloved wife Esther died of cancer. He remarried in 1980.
By 1985, the performance of the company was bad enough that Leo left, and the company was sold to Ernie and Sterling Ball.
After leaving Musicman, Leo once again teamed up with George Fullerton, and they formed G & L Guitars. G&L Guitars were styled similarly to Fender's original guitars, with some cosmetic differences, but had much more modern electronics and tremolo systems.
Leo continued to refine the designs he had originally created, and received many patents for his later designs of pickups and tremolo systems, and neck designs.
Leo worked at G&L every day...he actually went to work the day before his death on March 21, 1991...despite having several small strokes and Parkinson's Disease. He remained the same man he had always been, hard working to near obsessive, friendly, unassuming...his coffee cup was a styrofoam cup with "Leo" written on the side with a black marker. This man, who singlehandedly changed the music industry, and did more than any other one person to create the modern electric guitar, though he had taken piano lessons as a child, and played saxophone in the high school band, never learned how to play guitar.
Article written by Frank Stroupe'
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmdeWE_rA7g
Images:
1. Leo Fender with images of Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Tom Petty and Saul Hudson [Slash]
2. Jimi Hendrix with his Stratocaster
3. Leo Fender and his wife Phyllis Fender
4. Bonnie Raitt with her Stratocaster.
Biographies:
1. enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/173564
2. peoplepill.com/people/leo-fender
1. Background from {{lhttps://enacademic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/173564]}
Born Clarence Leonidas Fender
August 10, 1909 at Anaheim, California, United States
Died March 21, 1991 (aged 81) at Ione, California, United States
Occupation Inventor
Clarence Leonidas "Leo" Fender (August 10, 1909 – March 21, 1991) was an American inventor who founded Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, now known as Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, and later founded MusicMan and G&L Musical Products (G&L Guitars). His guitar, bass, and amplifier designs from the 1940s continue to dominate popular music more than half a century later. Marshall, Mesa Boogie, most boutique amplifier companies and many other guitar amplifier production companies have used Fender instruments as the foundation of their products.
Biography
Early life
Clarence Leonidas Fender was born on August 10, 1909, to Clarence Monte Fender and Harriet Elvira Wood, owners of a successful orange grove located between Anaheim and Fullerton, California.
From an early age, Leo showed an interest in tinkering with electronics. When he was 13 years old, his uncle, who ran an automotive-electric shop, sent him a box filled with discarded car radio parts, and a battery. The following year, Leo visited his uncle's shop in Santa Maria, California, and was fascinated by a radio his uncle had built from spare parts and placed on display in the front of the shop. Leo later claimed that the loud music coming from the speaker of that radio made a lasting impression on him. Soon thereafter, Leo began repairing radios in a small shop in his parents' home.
In the spring of 1928, Leo graduated from Fullerton Union High School, and entered Fullerton Junior College that fall, as an accounting major. While he was studying to be an accountant, he continued to teach himself electronics, and tinker with radios and other electrical items. He never took any kind of electronics course while in college.
After college, Fender took a job as a deliveryman for Consolidated Ice and Cold Storage Company in Anaheim, where he later was made the bookkeeper. It was around this time that a local band leader approached Leo, asking him if he could build a public address system for use by the band at dances in Hollywood. Fender was contracted to build six of these PA systems.
In 1933, Fender met Esther Klosky, and they were married in 1934. About that time, Leo took a job as an accountant for the California Highway Department in San Luis Obispo. In a depression government change-up, Leo's job was eliminated, and he then took a job in the accounting department of a tire company. After working there six months, Leo lost his job along with the other accountants in the company.
Fender Radio Service
In 1938, with $600 he borrowed, Leo and Esther returned to Fullerton, and Leo started his own radio repair shop, known as "Fender Radio Service." Soon thereafter, musicians and band leaders began coming to Leo for PA systems, which he began building, selling and renting, and for amplification for the amplified acoustic guitars that were beginning to show up in the southern California music scene, in big band and jazz music, and for the electric "Hawaiian" or "lap steel" guitars becoming popular in country music.
Early Guitar Making
During WWII, Leo met Clayton Orr "Doc" Kauffman, an inventor and lap steel player, who had worked for Rickenbacker Guitars, a company that had been building and selling lap steel guitars for a decade. While with Rickenbacker, Kauffman had invented the "Vibrola" tailpiece, a precursor to the later vibrato or "tremolo" tailpiece. Leo convinced Doc that they should team up, and they started the "K & F Manufacturing Corporation," to design and build amplified Hawaiian guitars and amplifiers. In 1944, Leo and Doc patented a lap steel guitar, that had an electric pickup already patented by Fender. In 1945, they began selling the guitar, in a kit with an amplifier designed by Leo.
Personal life
In 1979, Leo's wife Esther died of cancer. He remarried in 1980.[1] Phyllis Fender is an Honorary Chairman of G&L.
Death
On March 21, 1991, Leo Fender was found passed out in his home, and died as he was being transported to hospital. For years, Fender had suffered from Parkinson's disease.
Fender and development of the electric guitar
As the Big Bands fell out of vogue toward the end of World War II, small combos playing boogie-woogie, rhythm and blues, western swing, and honky-tonk formed throughout the United States. Many of these outfits embraced the electric guitar because it could give a few players the power of an entire horn section. Pickup-equipped archtops were the guitars of choice in the dance bands of the late-'40s, but the increasing popularity of roadhouses and dance halls created a growing need for louder, cheaper, and more durable instruments. Players also needed faster necks and better intonation to play what the country players called "take-off lead guitar." Custom-made solidbodies such as Les Paul's home-made "Log" and the Bigsby Travis guitar made by Paul Bigsby for Merle Travis evolved from this need, but these were beyond the means of the average player.
Fender recognized the potential for an electric guitar that was easy to hold, easy to tune, and easy to play. He also recognized that players needed guitars that would not feed back at dance hall volumes as the typical arch top would. In addition, Fender sought a tone that would command attention on the bandstand and cut through the noise in a bar. By 1949, he had begun working in earnest on what became the first Telecaster (originally called the Broadcaster) at the Fender factory in Fullerton, California.
Although he never admitted it, Fender seemed to base his practical design on the Rickenbacker Bakelite.[2] One of the Rickenbacker's strong points—a detachable neck that made it easy to make and service—was not lost on Fender, who was a master at improving already established designs. Not surprisingly, his first prototype was a single-pickup guitar with a detachable hard rock maple neck and a pine body painted white.[2]
Esquire
Don Randall, who managed Fender's distributor, the Radio & Television Equipment Company, recognized the commercial possibilities of the new design and made plans to introduce the instrument as "The Esquire Model." Fender supported the Esquire name, saying that it "sounded regal and implied a certain distinction above other guitars."
In April 1950, Radio-Tel started promoting the Esquire—the first Fender 6-string officially introduced to the public. The company prepared its Catalog No. 2, picturing a black single-pickup Esquire with a tweed form-fit case. Another picture showed Jimmy Wyble of Spade Cooley's band holding a blond Esquire. These debut models, with a planned retail price of $154.95, exhibited the shape of thousands of Fender guitars to come.
Randall's primary marketing ploy was to establish the Esquire in music instruction studios, reasoning that the affordable, practical guitar would be a hot commodity in those circles. In addition, a healthy response for the one-pickup version would prime the market for the more expensive two-pickup model that Fender already had in mind.
Broadcaster
The factory went into full production in late 1950, initially producing only dual-pickup Esquires. Fender's decision compromised Radio-Tel's earlier marketing strategy, forcing Randall to hold orders for the single-pickup Esquire and come up with a new name for the two-pickup model, eventually naming it the Broadcaster. Dealers who insisted on Esquires had to wait until the single-pickup guitars went into full production in January 1951 and were delivered the following month.
Musical Merchandise magazine carried the first announcement for the Broadcaster in February 1951 with a full-page insert that described it in detail. The guitar was described as having a "modern cut-away body," a "modern styled head," and an "adjustable solo-lead pickup" that was "completely adjustable for tone-balance by means of three elevating screws."
"Broadcaster" becomes "Telecaster"
Fender sold 87 Broadcasters on the guitar's initial release in January 1951. Many people took note—including Gretsch, who claimed the Broadcaster name infringed on the company's trademark "Broadkaster," which was the name of a model lineup of drums. Reacting to this, Randall informed his salespeople on February 21 that Radio-Tel was abandoning the Broadcaster name and requesting suggestions for a new name. On February 24 he announced that the Broadcaster had been renamed the "Telecaster."
The Broadcaster-to-Telecaster name change cost Radio-Tel hundreds of dollars, and derailed the initial marketing effort. Brochures and envelope inserts were destroyed, and the word "Broadcaster" was clipped from hundreds of headstock decals. For several months, the new twin-pickup guitars were marked only with the word "Fender." These early-to-mid-'51 guitars were eventually called "No-casters" by guitar collectors.
Stratocaster
Leo Fender regularly sought feedback from his customers, and, in preparation for redesigning the Telecaster he asked his customers what new features they would want on the Telecaster. The large number of replies, along with the continued popularity of the Telecaster, caused him to leave the Telecaster as it was and to design a new, upscale solid body guitar to be sold alongside the basic Telecaster instead. Western swing guitarist Bill Carson was one of the chief critics of the Telecaster, stating that the new design should have individually adjustable bridge saddles, four or five pickups, a vibrato unit that could be used in either direction and return to proper tuning, and a contoured body for enhanced comfort over the slab-body Telecaster's harsh edges. Fender, assisted by draftsman Freddie Tavares, began designing a new guitar in late 1953 that addressed most of Carson's ideas. It included a rounder, less "club-like" neck (at least for the first year of issue) and a double cutaway for easier reach to the upper registers.[3]
Released in 1954, the Stratocaster (or "Strat") has been in continuous production ever since.
Other guitars
Other significant developments of this period include the Jazzmaster and Jaguar, significant departures from the Strat and Tele in their introduction of complex pickup selection switches and volume controls. Although unsuccessful at their introduction, both soon became popular with Surf Rock musicians due to their clean, bright, warm tone. They became popular again, (to a much larger extent), in the early 90's due to their use by alternative rock artists such as Dinosaur Jr.'s and Sonic Youth's famous hoard of vintage Jazzmasters and Kurt Cobain's (of Nirvana) use of a heavily modified 1965 Jaguar.
Electric bass guitar
During this time, Fender also conceived an instrument that would play a major role in popular music. Until this time, bassists played acoustic double basses, also known as "upright basses." As the size of bands and orchestras grew, bassists found themselves increasingly fighting for volume and presence in the sound spectrum. Apart from their sonic disadvantages, double basses were also large, bulky, and difficult to transport. With the Precision Bass (or "P-Bass"), released in 1951, Leo Fender addressed both of these issues. Unlike double basses, the Telecaster-based Precision Bass was small and portable, and its solid body construction and four magnet, single coil electronic pickup allowed it to be amplified at higher volumes without the feedback issues normally associated with acoustic instruments. Along with the Precision Bass (so named because its fretted neck allowed bassists to play with 'precision'), Fender introduced a bass amplifier, the Fender Bassman; a 45 watt amplifier with four 10" speakers (although initially with one 15" speaker). Neither were firsts; Audiovox had begun advertising an "electric bass fiddle" in mid 1930s catalogs, and Ampeg had introduced a 12 watt "Bassamp" in 1949, but the P-Bass and its accompanying amplifier were the first widely produced of their kind, and the P-bass was the first bass to be fretted like a guitar. The P-Bass remains one of the most popular basses in music today. 1954 saw a redesign of the Precision Bass to coincide with the introduction of the Stratocaster. Incorporating the same body contours as the Stratocaster, the redesign also included a split single coil pickup and a gold anodized pickguard. In 1960, rosewood fingerboards, wider color selections and a three-ply pickguard became available for the P-Bass.
1960 saw the release of the Jazz Bass, a sleeker, updated bass with a slimmer neck, and offset waist body and two single coil pickups (as opposed to the Precision Bass and its split-humbucking pickup that had been introduced in 1957). Like its predecessor, the Jazz Bass (or simply "J-Bass") was an instant hit and has remained popular to this day, and early models are highly sought after by collectors.
1970 - Music Man and G&L
Some of Fender's most widely known and loved contributions to music were developed in the 1970s, after his sale to CBS of his eponymous brand in 1965.: he designed guitars, basses and amplifiers for the Music Man corporation, and in 1976 designed and released another innovative instrument, the StingRay. Though the body design borrowed heavily from the Precision Bass, the StingRay is largely considered to be the first production bass with active electronics. The StingRay's 2-band active equalizer, high output humbucking pickup and smooth satin finished neck went on to become a favorite of many influential bassists, including Louis Johnson, John Deacon and Flea. Later on a 3-band active equalizer was introduced. In 1979 he and old friends George Fullerton and Dale Hyatt started a new company called G&L (George & Leo)[4] Musical Products. G&L guitar designs tended to lean heavily upon the looks of Fender's original guitars such as the Stratocaster and Telecaster, but incorporated innovations such as enhanced tremolo systems and electronics. Despite suffering several minor strokes, Leo Fender continued to produce guitars and basses. While he continued to refine the fundamental designs he had created decades earlier, he also earned many new patents for innovative designs in magnetic pickups, vibrato systems, neck construction, and other areas. Nevertheless, he never learned how to play the guitar.
A friendly, modest and unassuming man (his "coffee mug" was a styrofoam cup with the word "Leo" inked on it), he had the lifelong admiration and devotion of his employees, many of whom have remarked that the best working years of their lives were spent under Leo Fender. An example of frugal living, Fender was once asked why he brought his lunch (egg salad sandwiches) to work every day instead of buying lunch from the local lunch truck. Fender replied, "With the money I save eating these sandwiches, I can buy a handful of resistors." He died March 21, 1991, in Fullerton from complications of Parkinson's disease, and is interred at Fairhaven Memorial Park in Santa Ana.[5] His pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. The company which bears his name, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, is now one of the largest musical instrument conglomerates in the world.
References
1. ^ http://www.freeinfosociety.com/site.php?postnum=808
2. ^ a b (Smith, Richard (May 1998). History of the Fender Telecaster.)
3. ^ Burrows, T. et al. "The Complete Book of the Guitar" p. 71-72 Carlton Books Limited, 1998 ISBN 1 85868 529X
4. ^ http://www.glguitars.com/factorytour/index.asp
2. Background from {[https://peoplepill.com/people/leo-fender]}
Leo Fender Biography
Clarence Leonidas Fender was born on August 10, 1909, to Clarence Monte Fender and Harriet Elvira Wood, owners of a successful orange grove located between Anaheim and Fullerton, CA.
From an early age, Leo showed an interest in tinkering with electronics. When he was 13 years old, his uncle, who ran an automotive-electric shop, sent him a box filled with discarded car radio parts, and a battery. The following year, Leo visited his uncle's shop in Santa Maria, CA, and was fascinated by a radio his uncle had built from spare parts and placed on display in the front of the shop. Leo later claimed that the loud music coming from the speaker of that radio made a lasting impression on him. Soon thereafter, Leo began repairing radios in a small shop in his parents' home.
In the spring of 1928, Leo graduated from Fullerton Union High School, and entered Fullerton Junior College that fall, as an accounting major. While he was studying to be an accountant, he continued to teach himself electronics, and tinker with radios and other electrical items. He never took any kind of electronics course while in college.
After college, Fender took a job as a deliveryman for Consolidated Ice and Cold Storage Company in Anaheim, where he later was made the bookkeeper. It was around this time that a local band leader approached Leo, asking him if he could build a public address system for use by the band at dances in Hollywood. Fender was contracted to build six of these PA systems.
In 1933, Fender met Esther Klosky, and they were married in 1934. About that time, Leo took a job as an accountant for the California Highway Department in San Luis Obispo. In a depression government change-up, Leo's job was eliminated, and he then took a job in the accounting department of a tire company. After working there six months, Leo lost his job along with the other accountants in the company.
So, in 1938, with $600 dollars he borrowed, Leo and Esther returned to Fullerton, and Leo started his own radio repair shop, known as "Fender Radio Service". Soon thereafter, musicians and band leaders began coming to Leo for PA systems, which he began building, selling and renting, and for amplification for the amplified acoustic guitars that beginning to show up in the southern California music scene, in big band and jazz music, and for the electric "Hawaiian" or "lap steel" guitars becoming popular in country music.
During WWII, Leo met Clayton Orr "Doc" Kauffman, an inventor and lap steel player, who had worked for Rickenbacker Guitars, a company that had been building and selling lap steel guitars for a decade. While with Rickenbacker, Kauffman had invented the "Vibrola Tailpiece"...the precursor to the later "vibrato" or "tremolo" tailpiece. Leo convinced Doc that they should team up, and they started the "K & F Manufacturing Corporation", to design and build amplified Hawaiian guitars and amplifiers. In 1944, Leo and Doc patented a lap steel guitar, that had an electric pickup already patented by Fender. In 1945, they began selling the guitar, in a kit with an amplifier designed by Leo.
By the beginning of 1946, Leo had decided that building and selling musical instruments and amplifiers would be much more profitable than repairing them. Doc was unconvinced, pulled out of the company, and they parted ways. Leo changed the name of the company to "Fender Electric Instrument Company", and specialized in Fender lap steel guitars, and amplifiers.
Early in WWII, it was clearly shown that electric circuits had to be rugged to withstand the rigors of military use. Leo realized that amplifiers should be similarly rugged to withstand the abuse they would receive by traveling musicians, so he designed Fender amplifiers to be extremely rugged. During 1946, Fender designed and began manufacturing the Deluxe, the Professional, and the Dual Professional, along with the Princeston, a 4-watt practice amp. Pushing from 18 to 45 watts, these were easily the most powerful amplifiers commercially produced. With heavy steel chassis, chromed control plates, and heavy pine cases covered with tweed fabric, Fender amps caught on immediately. In 1948, Fender began the "Champion" series of practice amp, which eventually was called "The Champ" and became the most popular amplifier built.
Also in 1948, engineer George Fullerton was hired by Leo, beginning a partnership and friendship that would last for more than 40 years.
By this time, all commercially available amplified "spanish style" (non-lap styled) guitars were acoustic guitars with pickups added. Rickenbacker had designed a spanish styled guitar made of bakelite, a predecessor to plastic, in 1935, and surely Leo was aware of its existence from Doc Kauffman. 15 miles from Fullerton, inventor and guitarist Les Paul was experimenting with a solid body "spanish neck" electric guitar he eventually called "the log". But, it pretty much has been accepted that Leo got the idea for designing a solid body spanish styled electric guitar from country guitarist Merle Travis, who had designed a solid body electric guitar and had one built for him by Paul Bixby, another southern California lap steel builder.
In 1948, Leo Fender began work on a solid bodied spanish style electric guitar. In the spring of 1950, the first commercially available, mass produced, solid bodied spanish styled electric guitar was introduced, the Fender Esquire. The Esquire had one pickup; the body was one solid piece of ash wood; the neck was one solid piece of maple wood without a truss rod inserted, and was bolted onto the body instead of the traditional method of gluing the neck to the body; the tuning heads were located all on one side of the neck, and were designed in a way that the strings were parallel to the body of the guitar from the tuning head to the bridge. The Esquire had a tone selector switch, a volume knob, and one tone knob. It was available it two colors, black with a white scratch plate, and semi-transparent "butterscotch blond" with a white scratch plate. Most early models were of the latter color.
In June, 1950, Fender added a two-pickup model of the Esquire, and in November, it acquired a neck truss rod, and was renamed the "Broadcaster". In early 1951, Gretch Musical Instrument company sent a telegram to Leo, complaining of his use of the name "Broadcaster", as Gretch had a line of drums called "Broadkaster". Fearing legal action, and being a newcomer to the musical instrument industry, Leo immediately stopped putting the name label on the Broadcasters until he could come up with a suitable new name. The guitars manufactured in this interim period are now known as "nocasters" and are rare and extremely desired. In late 1951, Leo changed the name to "Telecaster", to relate the guitar to the new and increasingly popular medium of television.
The Esquire, Broadcaster, and Telecaster caught on quickly, mostly with country music guitarists...probably because country music was extremely popular in southern California at the time. Within a year or two, the Chicago based blues guitarist Muddy Waters could be seen playing one. Its distinctive "twangy" sound became a standard for country music, and remains so today. The Telecaster of the 2000's is relatively unchanged from the original Telecaster.
The "upright bass" or "double bass" was a problem for most bands. It is large, unwieldy, hard to successfully amplify, and is easily damaged. The first solid bodied fretted electric bass guitar was introduced by Audiovox in 1935. It really never caught on, obviously due to the lack of proper amplification. In late 1951, Fender introduced the Precision Bass, a single-pickup solid bodied bass guitar with a 34" scale. With a fretted neck, and a double-cutaway body, the bassist was able to play "with precision", hence the name. In early 1952, Fender introduced "The Bassman" amplifier, a 35 watt amplifier designed for the Precision Bass. Author's note: supposedly, the Precision Bass caught on immediately. This early popularity was obviously in Jazz bands, because electric bass isn't found in pop, blues, or rock and roll until 1955-1956. In blues and the earliest rock and roll, the upright bass often served as a percussive instrument as well as a stringed instrument.
Despite the immediate popularity of the Telecaster, there were many guitarists that didn't really care for its signature "twangy" sound, and many guitarists complained of its sharp edges uncomfortably biting into their sides while playing for long periods of time. To answer these complaints, in 1954 Fender introduced the Stratocaster. With three pickups instead of two, a modern shaped, contoured body, reminiscent of the "wings" that were beginning to appear on cars, a "vibrato tailpiece" that allowed the guitarist to "bend" notes, and a name that made one think of outer space, the "Strat" was an instant hit, and eventually became the single most popular electric guitar. The Strat's contoured body style followed over to the Precision Bass.
The Bassman amp went through several changes through the 1950's. In 1958, Fender began using the circuit design designated "5F6-A", and this particular circuit was used through 1960. Though a mediocre bass amp, guitarists loved the tone and power of this amp, and it became much more popular for guitars than basses, Many people considered it to be the perfect guitar amp. In the 1960's, many amplifier manufacturers designed guitar amps based off of this circuit...including Jim Marshall. An amplifier based on the 5F6-A with a few modifications launched Marshall Amplification.
In 1960, Fender introduced the "Deluxe Model" of the Precision Bass. Leo felt that a thinner neck would appeal to jazz musicians, and aid in the transition from upright to electric bass. The body was less symmetrical than the Precision, more like the recently introduced Jazzmaster and Jaguar guitars. The two pickups opposed to the single split pickup on the standard Precision Bass gave it a totally different sound.
The Telecaster, Precision Bass, Stratocaster, and Jazz Bass are testaments to the innovation of Leo Fender. All four instruments have remained extremely popular, and modern versions have changed very little from Leo's original designs. Likewise, Leo's "Tweed" amplifiers are considered by many the best amps ever made, and the originals fetch huge sums of money. Also, in the late 1990's, mostly due to the internet, and the renewed availability of quality vacuum tubes, a new industry began to spring up, boutique amplifiers. Boutique amps are high quality hand built copies of classic amps, and the most popular are the 5F6-A Bassman, the 5F1 Champ (designed by Fender in 1955), the 5E3 Deluxe (also 1955), and the 5E8-A Twin (also 1955). Copies of these amps are also very popularly built by do-it-yourselfers, and kits are available of these circuits by several companies.
Leo worked feverously into the 1960's. He was a workoholic, usually working late into the night, and often working seven days a week. He worked both on the business and R&D sides of the company. By early 1964, he was totally exhausted, and his health was failing. In late 1964, he was approached by Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), who was looking to get into the musical instrument business. At the end of the year, Leo sold his beloved company to CBS for $13 million. Part of the agreement between CBS and Leo was a "non-compete clause". Leo agreed that he would not participate in the musical instrument industry for 10 years after the sale.
In 1971, Leo, Forrest White, and Tom Walker, formed a new company called "Tri-sonics, Inc". Leo and Tom began designing amps, and Forrest began designing guitars, all carefully designed not to be confused with CBS Fender instruments. Later, they changed the name to "Musictek, Inc", and by January 1974, to "Musicman, Inc". During this time, Leo did not take an active role in the company, and did not until 1975, when it was officially announced that he had been elected president of the company.
Musicman was fairly successful in the beginning, but the late 1970s was a hard time for guitar and amplifier manufacturers. They made rugged amplifiers, and functional guitars with enhanced electronics.
In 1979, Leo's beloved wife Esther died of cancer. He remarried in 1980.
By 1985, the performance of the company was bad enough that Leo left, and the company was sold to Ernie and Sterling Ball.
After leaving Musicman, Leo once again teamed up with George Fullerton, and they formed G & L Guitars. G&L Guitars were styled similarly to Fender's original guitars, with some cosmetic differences, but had much more modern electronics and tremolo systems.
Leo continued to refine the designs he had originally created, and received many patents for his later designs of pickups and tremolo systems, and neck designs.
Leo worked at G&L every day...he actually went to work the day before his death on March 21, 1991...despite having several small strokes and Parkinson's Disease. He remained the same man he had always been, hard working to near obsessive, friendly, unassuming...his coffee cup was a styrofoam cup with "Leo" written on the side with a black marker. This man, who singlehandedly changed the music industry, and did more than any other one person to create the modern electric guitar, though he had taken piano lessons as a child, and played saxophone in the high school band, never learned how to play guitar.
Article written by Frank Stroupe'
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LTC Stephen F.
Leo Fender was tha man who created Fender guitars and amplifiers, but what was the story behind his life?----------------------------------------------------...
The Story of Leo Fender
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yY9loCFzHE
Images:
1. Leo Fender at work on an electric guitar.
2. Leo Fender wearing purple jacket
3. Phyllis Fender volunteers at the Fullerton Museum where she shares with visitors stories about her life with Leo.
4. Leo Fender 1978 full size
Background from {[https://fashionmaniac.com/leo-fender-the-man-who-influenced-all-rock-and-roll/}]
Music lovers understand that Leo Fender‘s revolutionary electric guitar has been the preferred choice of great musicians like Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison, Jeff Beck, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and the list goes on.
What they may not know is that the man whose name was synonymous with mind-blowing rock and roll was actually a very shy, down-to-earth person who was almost deaf and wore a glass eye.
Through Leo Fender: The Quiet Giant Heard Around the World, written by Leo‘s wife Phyllis and co-authored with Dr. Randall Bell, music lovers now have the opportunity to learn all about the eccentricities of this unassuming giant!
Leo Fender: The Man Who Influenced All Rock And Roll
Fullerton, CA, May 22, 2018 ― Leo Fender invented the electric guitar. But what made him even more special is that his guitars were used by giants ― spanning decades of music from Elvis to Eric Clapton to Jimi Hendrix to Keith Richards ― all the greats of rock and roll!
When Rolling Stone Magazine published a list of the world’s top 100 guitarists, 90 of them used one of Leo‘s guitars ― and the rest used guitars that basically copied Leo‘s invention.
While Fender guitars were recognized around the world, few people knew much about the man behind the legendary guitar.
Leo Fender grew up in California, where an interest in electronics led him to open up a radio repair shop in 1938.
But he didn’t just work on radios; his reputation earned him the respect of musicians and band leaders who trusted him to repair their equipment.
As time went on he founded Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company and later, G&L Musical Instruments.
Now, Leo‘s wife Phyllis, along with Randall Bell, Ph.D., give music fans a memory-filled look into the remarkable world of this quiet genius in their latest book, Leo Fender: The Quiet Giant Heard Around the World.
Randall Bell also grew up in Leo‘s neighborhood and his father was the head of the R&D department at Fender‘s company.
While this quirky genius invented the electric guitar that helped produce fist-pumping rock and roll for music icons around the world, in reality this shy, unassuming inventor was nearly deaf and wore a glass eye.
Leo was a workaholic and lived very simply.
In fact, when he sold his company for $300 million, he was living in a trailer and continued to do so for some time.
The book does a great job of showing the private side of this iconic genius, and what made him tick!
Fender‘s game-changing contributions to the music world have been widely recognized.
He was presented with the Country Music Association Pioneer Award in 1981, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Rock Walk of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His accomplishments were also acknowledged with a Technical Grammy Award in 2009.
Leo Fender died in 1991.
Today, Phyllis Fender volunteers at the Fullerton Museum where she shares with visitors stories about her life with Leo.
She also has held numerous positions at her church and serves as the Honorary Chairman of G&L Guitars, based in Fullerton, California.
Keith Richards, The Rolling Stones: “When other companies made electric guitars, that is all they did. Leo had the whole concept in mind. He made an amplifier to match. It is, after all electric. This left the other guys with half an egg. So simple, so complete whether you prefer a stratocaster or a telecaster. If you used a Fender amp, you had the whole deal. Sturdy, reliable and beautifully made, they remain the standard that others strived to reach, let alone the BASS!!”
Rob Schilling, Host of WINA’s The Schilling Show: “As a longtime guitar player and the owner of many vintage Fender instruments and amplifiers, I was delighted to learn more about the man behind the legendary company. One of the “friendliest” signatures in the world comes to life in this amazing behind-the-scenes glimpse into the life of Leo Fender.”
Eric Dahl, Maverick Magazine: “Few names in the world of guitars are more recognized than Fender. If Leo had stopped after creating the Telecaster he would still hold a secure place in guitar history. Not only is he in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but Fender also received a Grammy Award, Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award and an ACM award … . Phyllis and Randall are both obviously proud of the legacy that Leo left behind. This book reads more like a personal journal with family photos interspersed between touching moments. Leo Fender – The Quiet Giant Heard Around the World isn’t a guitar book but if you’re a fan of the man that invented them it is a must read!”
Matt Gibney, The Stratosphere: “A must read for any person who has ever plugged into an amplifier or dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur. We get a unique view under the hood of the selfless utilitarian genius who worked tirelessly around the clock up until his final days to perfect the craft. Phyllis Fender takes us behind the scenes of the man who worked famously behind the scenes for 1 reason alone – to serve the musician. A true underdog story.”
Vaughn Skow, Vintage Guitar Magazine: “This short yet captivating book is required reading for any true Fender affectionado. While much has been written about the work of Clarence Leonidas “Leo” Fender, precious little has been written about Leo Fender the man. This book is a game changer.”
FYI LTC John Shaw 1SG Steven ImermanGySgt Gary CordeiroPO1 H Gene LawrenceSgt Jim BelanusSGM Bill FrazerMSG Tom EarleySGT Michael HearnSGT Randell Rose[SGT Denny EspinosaA1C Riley SandersSSgt Clare MaySSG Robert WebsterCSM Chuck StaffordPFC Craig KarshnerSFC Don VanceSFC (Join to see) SPC Nancy GreenePVT Mark Zehner
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yY9loCFzHE
Images:
1. Leo Fender at work on an electric guitar.
2. Leo Fender wearing purple jacket
3. Phyllis Fender volunteers at the Fullerton Museum where she shares with visitors stories about her life with Leo.
4. Leo Fender 1978 full size
Background from {[https://fashionmaniac.com/leo-fender-the-man-who-influenced-all-rock-and-roll/}]
Music lovers understand that Leo Fender‘s revolutionary electric guitar has been the preferred choice of great musicians like Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison, Jeff Beck, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and the list goes on.
What they may not know is that the man whose name was synonymous with mind-blowing rock and roll was actually a very shy, down-to-earth person who was almost deaf and wore a glass eye.
Through Leo Fender: The Quiet Giant Heard Around the World, written by Leo‘s wife Phyllis and co-authored with Dr. Randall Bell, music lovers now have the opportunity to learn all about the eccentricities of this unassuming giant!
Leo Fender: The Man Who Influenced All Rock And Roll
Fullerton, CA, May 22, 2018 ― Leo Fender invented the electric guitar. But what made him even more special is that his guitars were used by giants ― spanning decades of music from Elvis to Eric Clapton to Jimi Hendrix to Keith Richards ― all the greats of rock and roll!
When Rolling Stone Magazine published a list of the world’s top 100 guitarists, 90 of them used one of Leo‘s guitars ― and the rest used guitars that basically copied Leo‘s invention.
While Fender guitars were recognized around the world, few people knew much about the man behind the legendary guitar.
Leo Fender grew up in California, where an interest in electronics led him to open up a radio repair shop in 1938.
But he didn’t just work on radios; his reputation earned him the respect of musicians and band leaders who trusted him to repair their equipment.
As time went on he founded Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company and later, G&L Musical Instruments.
Now, Leo‘s wife Phyllis, along with Randall Bell, Ph.D., give music fans a memory-filled look into the remarkable world of this quiet genius in their latest book, Leo Fender: The Quiet Giant Heard Around the World.
Randall Bell also grew up in Leo‘s neighborhood and his father was the head of the R&D department at Fender‘s company.
While this quirky genius invented the electric guitar that helped produce fist-pumping rock and roll for music icons around the world, in reality this shy, unassuming inventor was nearly deaf and wore a glass eye.
Leo was a workaholic and lived very simply.
In fact, when he sold his company for $300 million, he was living in a trailer and continued to do so for some time.
The book does a great job of showing the private side of this iconic genius, and what made him tick!
Fender‘s game-changing contributions to the music world have been widely recognized.
He was presented with the Country Music Association Pioneer Award in 1981, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Rock Walk of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His accomplishments were also acknowledged with a Technical Grammy Award in 2009.
Leo Fender died in 1991.
Today, Phyllis Fender volunteers at the Fullerton Museum where she shares with visitors stories about her life with Leo.
She also has held numerous positions at her church and serves as the Honorary Chairman of G&L Guitars, based in Fullerton, California.
Keith Richards, The Rolling Stones: “When other companies made electric guitars, that is all they did. Leo had the whole concept in mind. He made an amplifier to match. It is, after all electric. This left the other guys with half an egg. So simple, so complete whether you prefer a stratocaster or a telecaster. If you used a Fender amp, you had the whole deal. Sturdy, reliable and beautifully made, they remain the standard that others strived to reach, let alone the BASS!!”
Rob Schilling, Host of WINA’s The Schilling Show: “As a longtime guitar player and the owner of many vintage Fender instruments and amplifiers, I was delighted to learn more about the man behind the legendary company. One of the “friendliest” signatures in the world comes to life in this amazing behind-the-scenes glimpse into the life of Leo Fender.”
Eric Dahl, Maverick Magazine: “Few names in the world of guitars are more recognized than Fender. If Leo had stopped after creating the Telecaster he would still hold a secure place in guitar history. Not only is he in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but Fender also received a Grammy Award, Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award and an ACM award … . Phyllis and Randall are both obviously proud of the legacy that Leo left behind. This book reads more like a personal journal with family photos interspersed between touching moments. Leo Fender – The Quiet Giant Heard Around the World isn’t a guitar book but if you’re a fan of the man that invented them it is a must read!”
Matt Gibney, The Stratosphere: “A must read for any person who has ever plugged into an amplifier or dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur. We get a unique view under the hood of the selfless utilitarian genius who worked tirelessly around the clock up until his final days to perfect the craft. Phyllis Fender takes us behind the scenes of the man who worked famously behind the scenes for 1 reason alone – to serve the musician. A true underdog story.”
Vaughn Skow, Vintage Guitar Magazine: “This short yet captivating book is required reading for any true Fender affectionado. While much has been written about the work of Clarence Leonidas “Leo” Fender, precious little has been written about Leo Fender the man. This book is a game changer.”
FYI LTC John Shaw 1SG Steven ImermanGySgt Gary CordeiroPO1 H Gene LawrenceSgt Jim BelanusSGM Bill FrazerMSG Tom EarleySGT Michael HearnSGT Randell Rose[SGT Denny EspinosaA1C Riley SandersSSgt Clare MaySSG Robert WebsterCSM Chuck StaffordPFC Craig KarshnerSFC Don VanceSFC (Join to see) SPC Nancy GreenePVT Mark Zehner
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