Leo Fender’s Legacy

Within the guitar community, few names command as much reverence as Leo Fender. While he wasn’t a guitarist himself, Fender’s early inventions fueled the burgeoning popularity of the solidbody electric guitar, largely set the standard for the electric bass, and birthed what’s debatably the prototypical rock guitar amplifier. In this article, we’ll revisit the life, history, and innovations of one of the music industry’s most respected heroes.

Early Life, Education, and Career

During his childhood, Fender developed an affinity for music, learning to play both the saxophone and the piano. While Fender was in his early teens, his uncle John West gave him a cache of discarded electric automobile parts as a Christmas present, which piqued the youngster’s interest in electronics and sound. This fascination was cemented further after the young Fender got his hands on a homemade radio during a subsequent visit to his uncle’s automotive-electric shop.

Fender graduated from Fullerton Union High School in 1928, after which he attended Fullerton Junior College. Contrary to popular belief, Fender didn’t study electrical engineering; rather, he took the arguably more pragmatic route and obtained an accounting degree. After college, Fender eventually settled into a bookkeeping position, although he continued working with electronics. In fact, Fender had such a strong aptitude for electronics that local musicians began approaching him to repair their PA systems.

Fender Electric Instrument Co., Est. 1946

Fender ultimately decided to pursue electronics full-time, and he established his first business in 1938, Fender Radio Service in Fullerton. Fender continued repairing PA systems, which he also built, rented, and sold. It was during this time that amplified acoustic guitars began to increase in popularity within the SoCal big band music scene, as did electric lap steel guitars.

In the early 1940s, Fender entered a partnership with Doc Kauffman, an inventor and musical pioneer. This collaboration gave rise to the K&F Manufacturing Corporation, which designed and built electric lap steel guitars and amplifiers. Among the duo’s most successful innovations was a lap steel guitar with an electric pickup, which they patented in 1944 and began selling alongside a custom-designed amplifier a year later.

By 1946, Kauffmann exited the business, and Fender renamed the company Fender Manufacturing then, later, Fender Electric Instrument Co.

The Rise of the Solidbody Electric Guitar

Toward the end of World War II, big bands began to fall out of fashion while the popularity of rhythm and blues, honky-tonk, Western swing, boogie-woogie, and other small-combo genres began to take off. Amplified archtops were the guitarist’s instrument of choice during this time; however, many players began to demand an instrument that was cheaper, thinner, more durable, and that could be amplified — loudly — without feedback.

In 1950, Fender responded to this demand with the Esquire, a solidbody electric guitar with a thin body shape and ergonomic playability, which sported one single-coil pickup. Later that year, Fender replaced the Esquire with a two-pickup version initially dubbed the Broadcaster but later renamed the Telecaster to avoid legal entanglements with rival Gretsch, who had trademarked the name Broadkaster.

While the Telecaster, commonly referred to as the “Tele,” wasn’t the industry’s first solidbody electric guitar, it quickly became one of the most popular production models around — a status it still maintains to this day. Indeed, the images of many popular musicians such as Bruce Springsteen, Keith Richards, Jason Isbell, Jim Root, Brent Mason, and Joe Strummer are inextricably linked to their signature Fender Telecasters.

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15 Famous Telecaster Players – InSync

Released in 1954, Fender’s next triumph, which was based on customer feedback on the Telecaster, was an upscale, more modern solidbody electric guitar called the Stratocaster. The Stratocaster eschewed the Telecaster’s slablike body for a contoured, double-cutaway shape, and it came outfitted with three single-coil pickups and the incorrectly named “tremolo bar,” which was used to produce expressive vibrato effects.

The commonly abbreviated “Strat” is arguably the most popular (and most copied) solidbody electric guitar design ever created. Not only is Fender’s Stratocaster still available today (and largely unchanged), but it spawned countless derivatives over the past seven decades, including the superstrat craze that began in the late 1970s. It continues to enjoy favor in pop, rock, blues, funk, and hard rock guitar circles.

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22 Cool Contemporary Fender Strat Players – InSync

In the ensuing decades, Fender created other iconic electric guitar models, most notably the Duo-Sonic in 1959, the Jazzmaster in 1959, the Jaguar in 1962, and the Mustang in 1964.

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The Electric Bass Takes the Stage

By the time the early 1950s arrived, acoustic double bass players had begun looking for new ways to compete with the volume of the other musicians onstage. What’s more, the sheer bulk of the double bass made it a difficult instrument to transport. Unveiled in 1951, Fender’s Precision Bass (commonly referred to as a P Bass) solved both issues with a four-magnet, single-coil pickup and a comparatively lightweight body. It borrowed several features from the Telecaster, such as the headstock shape, neck plate, and domed chrome knobs, to name a few. Moreover, bassists were treated to a new “precision” level of playability, thanks to the P Bass’s fretted design. In 1957, the Precision Bass was upgraded with a hum-canceling split-coil pickup, which became the model’s defining feature and remains so to this day. Despite what urban legends might tell you, the P Bass wasn’t the first electric bass guitar to hit the market. That said, it certainly set the standard for every electric bass that followed.

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Fender followed with the Jazz Bass (J Bass) in 1960, providing players with a sleeker instrument with an offset, Jazzmaster-inspired body along with a slimmer neck and two single-coil pickups. Touted as Fender’s deluxe electric bass model, the J Bass found instant favor with rock, funk, and fusion players, such as Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones, Sly and the Family Stone’s Larry Graham, and Weather Report’s Jaco Pastorius.

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The Precision Bass is known for its bright, mid-forward tone, which many recording engineers appreciate for its ability to fit effortlessly into a mix. The Jazz Bass, on the other hand, delivers a growling, mid-scooped sound and an expanded palette that well suits a wide range of musical scenarios.

Cranking It to 12 (That’s One More Than 11)

Instruments aside, Fender was also an early innovator of tube amplifiers, dating all the way back to his days at K&F Manufacturing. The first amplifiers built under the Fender Electric Instrument banner, which were constructed from spare wood laying around the factory, included early iterations of the Princeton and the Deluxe. Production of these models, later dubbed “Woodies,” ceased in 1948 when the Fender company began producing what would later be referred to as “Tweed” amplifiers.

Fender’s Tweed models, named for their tweed-like, cotton-twill cloth coverings, are considered by many vintage amplifier aficionados to be the finest of the company’s designs. Early Tweed amplifiers brandished a TV-style front while later models boasted a wide-panel design and finally a narrow-panel design. It was in the Tweed era that Fender first brought their now-legendary tremolo circuitry to the table with the Tremolux amplifier before spuriously renaming the effect “vibrato” on later amps. Tweed amplifiers continued to be produced until the early 1960s when Fender began producing Tolex-covered models.

The first Tolex-covered amplifiers featured brown- and blonde-colored coverings with brown control panels, the latter of which is responsible for their common “Brownface” moniker. During the Brownface era, Fender innovated both a standalone spring reverb unit and a reverb-equipped combo amplifier.

The amplifiers Fender produced between 1963 and 1968 included black control panels, hence their common “Blackface” designation. Likely the most recognizable of Fender amplifiers, the Blackface era continued until around 1967, at which time the amplifiers began to slowly transition to the “Silverface” aesthetic.

Fender designed many iconic amplifier models between 1948 and 1965, including (but not limited to) the Princeton, the Champ, the Bassman, and the Twin.

The first Princeton amplifiers were built during the Woody era as 3-watt practice amps with no controls — not even a power switch. During the Tweed era, the Princeton evolved into a 12-watt, cathode-biased, 6V6-loaded combo with a two-stage preamp section and straightforward volume and tone controls. Brownface-era Princetons housed a redesigned preamp and added a tube-driven tremolo; and during the Blackface era, the amplifier’s tone control was expanded to include individual bass and treble knobs.

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The Champ was introduced in 1948 during the Tweed era. This low-watt, 6V6-fueled combo, originally released under the name Champion 800 with an 8-inch speaker, was renamed Champion 600 a year later with a 6-inch speaker and was officially called Champ in 1955. The Champ boasted an even simpler control set than the Princeton, sporting a single volume knob with no tone controls. During the Blackface era, an iteration of the Champ was outfitted with tremolo, upgraded with tone controls, and rechristened the Vibro Champ.

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In 1952, immediately following the launch of the Precision Bass, Fender introduced the Bassman. Originally, the Bassman was a 26-watt tube combo amplifier with one 15-inch speaker marketed toward bassists. The Bassman was retooled in 1954, increasing the amplifier’s power to 45 watts and expanding it with four 10-inch speakers. Moreover, the Bassman also found enthusiastic approval among electric guitarists.

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The year 1952 also saw the release of the Twin, an 80-watt, dual-speaker behemoth that’s now legendary for its high-headroom clean tones. Many iterations of the Twin were built during the Tweed era, the most coveted being produced between 1958 and 1960, and were renowned for their high-output clean tones and rock-ready harmonic character.

After a brief absence, the Twin re-emerged during the Brownface era with various speakers as the Fender company struggled to find speakers with enough power handling to accommodate its extreme output. During the Blackface era, the Twin was superseded by the Twin Reverb, which saw the inclusion of spring reverb and a power bump to a rafter-shaking 85 watts.

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The influence of Fender’s amplifier designs extends well beyond the models released by Fender Electric Instrument Co. For example, Jim Marshall’s legendary JTM45, which ostensibly gave birth to hard rock and heavy metal guitar tones, was designed around a modified version of Fender’s Bassman circuit. Likewise, Fender’s Princeton circuit was later used as the basis for the Mesa/Boogie Mark Series, which combines a hot-rodded Princeton with a Bassman transformer to achieve paint-peeling high-gain tones.

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This means, of course, that many of today’s guitar tones, whether they be Fender-inspired, Marshall-inspired, or Mesa-inspired, can be traced back to Mr. Leo Fender.

Sale to CBS and Success with Music Man

By the time the mid-1960s had rolled around, Fender’s health had taken a turn for the worse. As a result, he sold Fender Electric Instrument Co. to the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) in a $13 million deal that was finalized in 1965. Fortunately, Fender’s health improved, and in 1971, he helped finance Forrest White and Tom Walker’s new company, Tri-Sonix, which then evolved into Music Man. Fender remained a silent partner for the first few years of Music Man’s existence due to a noncompete clause he had entered into with CBS. In 1975, once the legal restriction expired, Fender became president of Music Man.

One of Fender’s biggest triumphs as the leader of Music Man was the development of the StingRay electric bass guitar. The StingRay took much inspiration from Fender’s earlier Precision Bass design but offered an impressive array of innovative features. For starters, the StingRay holds the distinction of being the first production-model bass guitar with an active preamp, which was gooped with epoxy to safeguard against reverse engineering. It also included a specially positioned, high-output humbucker and an extremely articulate neck with a unique high-gloss finish. Early StingRays brandished an active 2-band equalizer while later iterations expanded its sound-shaping implements to three bands and added esoteric features such as piezo-loaded bridge saddles.

Today, the StingRay remains one of the industry’s most iconic basses, favored by such artists as John Deacon, Pino Palladino, Kim Deal, Tony Levin, and Flea.

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G&L Musical Instruments

After a business dispute in 1979, Fender cut ties with Music Man and formed another company, G&L Musical Instruments, alongside former Fender company designer George Fullerton. G&L instruments were largely based on Fender’s early designs, such as the Telecaster, Stratocaster, and Precision Bass, but added newer innovations that improved upon the original models.

Of these innovations, three proved to be the most popular with customers. First, G&L eschewed the Stratocaster’s synchronized tremolo for the evolved — and more accurately named — Dual-Fulcrum vibrato, which offered better tuning stability, optimal sustain, and smooth bidirectional operation. Second, G&L’s updated Saddle-Lock bridge reduced the side-to-side movement of the individual string saddles for improved tuning stability.

The last — and arguably most significant — of G&L’s innovations were their Magnetic Field Design pickups. Not only did MFD pickups yield less unwanted noise and provide individually adjustable pole pieces, but they also delivered a distinctive, high-fidelity tone with super-strong output and more authoritative attack than Fender’s original single-coil designs.

Fender was extremely proud of his accomplishments at G&L, famously stating that their products were “the best instruments I have ever made.”

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Legacy

Leo Fender passed away on March 21, 1991, at the age of 81 due to complications from Parkinson’s disease. Fender continued innovating right up until the last moments of his life, even after suffering numerous strokes and dealing with other unfortunate health setbacks. In fact, the last prototype of Fender’s career was finalized on the day of his death.

Fender’s mark on the history of the electric guitar is incalculable. Instead of positioning the solidbody electric merely as a feedback-resistant alternative to its more popular hollowbody forerunners, Fender’s designs — with their distinctive 6-in-line headstocks and thin, brazenly un-acoustic-like bodies — established the electric guitar as an instrument in its own right.

So, if you ever make your way to Fullerton, California, be sure to take a stroll down Fender Avenue. And if anyone asks why you’re there, just tell them Leo sent you!

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