FENDER ELECTRIC GUITARS
Fender Electric Guitars
Clarence Leonidas Fender, better known as Leo Fender created the world's most famous guitars. From beginners to pros, Fender seems to be a first choice for every one. Leo who was an extremely resourceful and creative man decided to start his own business. He borrowed six hundred dollars and opened an equipment repair shop called Fender Radio Service. Eventually Leo got involved in music industry. The first guitar built by Leo was the Broadcaster. Designed around 1950, it was the world's first commercially sold guitar with a solid body and bolt-on neck. Leo Fender aimed toward mass production and a simple, yet effective guitar. Shortly after George Fullerton joined Leo's Fender Electric Instrument Company in 1948, the company set about mass production of the broadcaster. The solid body brought clean amplified version of the string inherent tone. His next guitar, the Telecaster, which still remains in production to day, is the longest-running solid body guitar still in production. The Telecaster is a simple design, which works ass well today as it did when it was introduced in 1951. The Telecaster was Fender's original Broadcaster. The company was forced to change it when Gretsch claimed rights to the name. The guitar is known for it's bright and cutting tone. The guitar is used in several genres of music. The guitar is able to emulate steel guitar sounds, and is often being used in country music. The Stratocaster, perhaps on of the most popular electric guitars, became an art form and arguably the accepted icon for the electric guitar. Designed in 1951, The Stratocaster had an advanced, built-in vibrato that put shimmering, sustaining sound effects at the player's fingertips. Fender's distinctive headstock design let the strings pull straight over the guitar's nut, minimizing the only real source of de-tuning friction. Different from earlier designs, Fender made each individual Stratocaster bridge section adjustable for length and height. He tested a wide variety of pickup coils and pole pieces with different lengths and diameters to get the best tone. Convinced he had little time to live, in 1965 Leo Fender sold the company to CBS for 13 million dollars, after making a complete recovery he was signed on as a design consultant. Leo Fender died in 1991 at the age of 82.