American firm of electric guitar, amplifier and audio equipment manufacturers. The company takes its name from (Clarence) Leo Fender (b Anaheim, CA, 10 Aug 1909; d Fullerton, CA, 22 Nov 1994). He built his first acoustic guitar in the 1920s, before studying accounting. In 1939 he set up a radio repair company in Fullerton, California, and in about 1944 he was joined by Clayton Orr (‘Doc’) Kauffman, a musician who had designed equipment for Rickenbacker. As the K & F Company they began the production of amplifiers and steel guitars, designed for playing across the lap. In 1946 the partnership broke up and Fender soon formed the Fender Electric Instrument Company, based in Fullerton, California. George Fullerton joined the company in 1948. Two years later Fender introduced the world’s first commercially produced solid-bodied electric guitar, the Fender Broadcaster (renamed Telecaster in 1951; see illustration). In 1951 the company marketed the Fender Precision Bass, the first Electric bass guitar.
In 1954 Fender launched the stylish Stratocaster electric guitar, the first solid-body to use three pickups and the first Fender instrument to have the distinctive tremolo arm. Further models were introduced in later years, including the Jazzmaster (1958), the Jazz Bass (1960), a six-string bass (1961), the Jaguar (1962) and the Mustang (1964). By 1964, when Fender’s health failed and Randall began negotiations to sell the Fender companies to CBS, the workforce numbered about 600. The sale was completed in January 1965 for $13 million.
Leo Fender regained his health and joined CBS/Fender as a design consultant, working on the Fender-Rhodes electric piano and the Mustang electric bass guitar before he resigned in 1970. He set up CLF Research with Fullerton, which built guitars for Music Man until the late 1970s. In 1979 Fender and Fullerton formed G & L Music Sales to produce their own electric guitars and basses. CBS continued to use the Fender brand, introducing a new management team in 1981. During 1982 Fender Japan was established to make Fender instruments in Japan; the company also began to produce Vintage reissue instruments which sought to replicate classic guitars of the 1950s and 60s. The Squier brand for lower priced Fender instruments was launched in 1983. In 1985 the Fender companies were sold by CBS to a group of investors led by Fender’s president, Bill Schultz. Improved American Standard versions of the Stratocaster (1986) and Telecaster (1988) were issued. At the close of the 20th century Fender was one of the most successful brands in the international electric guitar business.
See also Electric guitar, §3.
L. Fender: ‘Pro's Reply’, Guitar Player, v/6 (1971), 9, 38 only
K. Achard: The Fender Guitar (London, 1977)
T. Bacon and P. Day: The Fender Book: a Complete History of Fender Electric Guitars (London, 1992, 2/1998)
T. Bacon and B. Moorhouse: The Bass Guitar Book (London, 1994)
G. Gruhn and W. Carter: Electric Guitars and Basses: a Photographic History (San Francisco, 1994)
T. Bacon, ed.: Classic Guitars of the Fifties (London, 1996)
T. Bacon, ed.: Classic Guitars of the Sixties (London, 1997)
TONY BACON