History of Fender

Fender Musical Instruments Corporation

The story of Fender guitars starts in sunny Southern California, in the town of Fullerton. In 1938, Leo Fender, the father of the company, "Fender's Radio Service," where he worked as a qualified electronics technician. Though his general business wasn't focused solely on music, he did repair electric tube amplifiers. The guitar had recently been electrified, 1931 to be exact, and this niche market was just what Fender needed to get in the game. Eventually, the company started crafting their own electric amplifiers and selling them, further solidifying its place in the industry. By 1945, after having formed a partnership with named Kauffman, Fender began the design, manufacture, and sell electric instruments, as well as amplifiers. One of these instruments was the lap steel guitar, typical of the "Hawaiian" music of the era. Later, however, as Fender began designing newer style guitars, he hit a roadblock: his guitars had massive design flaws that he refused to ameliorate. Nevertheless, in the 1950's he conceded and fixed that flaw by adding a metal rod into the neck of the guitar, called a "truss rod." This new model was named the "Telecaster," and it is still one of the most popular guitars in the world.

Leo Fender

The Fender Telecaster

A Legend is Born

The Fender Stratocaster was first conceived when Fender faced competition from Gibson, another guitar manufacturing giant. In 1952, when the Les Paul guitar was introduced, the company suffered some losses. They needed a guitar to bring them bac, for the Telecaster just wasn't the guitar to do it. After some time, it began to face criticism. It had rather uncomfortable, squared-off edges. Musician Rex Gallion is credited with giving Fender the idea to smoothen out the edges, granting the Stratocaster its soft, curved lines. He stated that a "solid-body guitar didn't need squared-off edges since it didn't have an internal sound chamber," and what a suggestion that was. Leo Fender also designed the guitar with three pickups, granting the player a wider tonal versatility. Finally, in 1954, the Fender Stratocaster is born. Originally the guitars came in a "sunburst" finish, giving it a more refined, elegant look. Perhaps the most important innovation was the bridge of the guitar, which included a built-in vibrato system, though early models of the guitar were plagued with faulty bridges that consistently de-tuned the guitars, this problem was eventually overcome.

Unfortunately, the guitar did not face immediate success in its early years. In fact, it took about 3 years for anybody to really hear of the novel innovation. On Sunday, December 1, 1957, a band called "The Crickets" performed on the Ed Sullivan Show, and America saw a young bespectacled man wielding the relatively new guitar. This man was Buddy Holly.

This is part of the famous performance that granted the Stratocaster so much attention.

As the 1950's came to a close, the future of the Stratocaster became more and more uncertain. The Telecaster remained a popular choice, surprisingly to Fender. In 1958, Fender unveiled a new guitar: The Jazzmaster. The surge in popularity of this guitar caused Stratocaster sales to decrease. Unbeknownst to them, however, was a new generation of British rockers thirsting for that electric sound, introduced to them by Southern blues masters, all playing the Strat. Welcome to the Swingin Sixities.