In the early days of making electric musical instruments, one person who did more to create a musical revolution was Clarence Leonidas Fender, known to the world as just Leo Fender. In the late 1930's Fender and another guitar luminary, Doc Kauffman worked together to find a solution to making a marketable electric guitar that didn't generate feedback at louder volumes. At issue were pick-ups and unwanted reverberations from the body and sound board of guitars of the time. Fender found that a solid-body guitar using wound pick-ups transferred the sound only from the strings and not the body of the guitar also. It was a perfect fit for use with amplifiers. The sound of the guitar could be clean and defined, to be enhanced by the use of vintage guitar amplifiers without unwanted feedback.
Leo found another electronics enthusiast in C. O. (Doc) Kauffman and formed a company to design, manufacture and sell Hawaiian lap steel guitars and their amplifiers in the early 1940's, named the K & F Manufacturing Company. K & F began making lap steel guitars in 1945 using their innovation of wound electronic pick-ups to gather the sound from the strings to feed it to the amplifier. The next generation of the company evolved to be the Fender Electric Instrument Company after Doc Kauffman left Leo Fender in 1946.
The first electric guitar Fender made was the Esquire, styled after the Rickenbacker Bakelite with a detachable neck. In 1951, Fender invented and marketed the Broadcaster, a new solid-body guitar with Spanish styling, the first to go into commercial production. The Broadcaster was later renamed the Telecaster to avoid legal problems with Gretch and their trademarked "Broadkaster" drum kit. Bass players were soon delighted to a Fender electric bass also in 1951, allowing them to have the freedom and flexibility of sound volume and tone control at their fingertips.
The hallmark of vintage electric guitars, the original Fender Stratocaster, came a few years later. Leo Fender's health, unfortunately, began to deteriorate during his highlight years of vintage guitar production. He sold the company to the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) in January, 1965. During the 20 years CBS owned Fender, serious musicians and music historians maintain the quality and innovation of the company fell well short of that during Leo Fender's ownership. Musicians felt the parent company had little interest in their market needs of making superior electric guitars. Employees, loyal distributors and investors interested in returning Fender to the top bought the company back in 1985 to resume making the best electric guitars possible.
Although the present Fender company has come back to make extremely high quality musical instruments, the most prized Fender vintage guitars are those made up until January, 1965. Guitars made before January 5, 1965 were the original Fender masterpieces and those from that date until 1985 were a production of CBS. Master musicians and serious vintage electric guitar collectors highly desire Esquires, Telecasters and Stratocasters sporting Fender serial numbers from 1951 through 1964. Additional models like the Mustang introduced in 1964, the JazzMaster in 1958, the Jaguar, a new version of the JazzMaster introduced in 1962 are all rare finds and highly prized. In fact, the so-called "student" guitars like the Mustang, the MusicMaster and the DuoSonic of pre-1965 command high values because of their year of make and who made them.
The sale to CBS put Leo Fender in a very short retirement before he founded more music instrument companies, MusicMan Instruments and G & L Corporation. Equipment from these companies are fairly rare and, although neither company were financially successful, each have a huge following of professional musicians who use their vintage electric guitars. Fender died March of 1991 at age 81, partially from the stresses of the two companies as well as due to Parkinson's disease. Leo Fender's legacy is that of master of the electric guitar revolution. Thank you, Leo! - 15359
Leo found another electronics enthusiast in C. O. (Doc) Kauffman and formed a company to design, manufacture and sell Hawaiian lap steel guitars and their amplifiers in the early 1940's, named the K & F Manufacturing Company. K & F began making lap steel guitars in 1945 using their innovation of wound electronic pick-ups to gather the sound from the strings to feed it to the amplifier. The next generation of the company evolved to be the Fender Electric Instrument Company after Doc Kauffman left Leo Fender in 1946.
The first electric guitar Fender made was the Esquire, styled after the Rickenbacker Bakelite with a detachable neck. In 1951, Fender invented and marketed the Broadcaster, a new solid-body guitar with Spanish styling, the first to go into commercial production. The Broadcaster was later renamed the Telecaster to avoid legal problems with Gretch and their trademarked "Broadkaster" drum kit. Bass players were soon delighted to a Fender electric bass also in 1951, allowing them to have the freedom and flexibility of sound volume and tone control at their fingertips.
The hallmark of vintage electric guitars, the original Fender Stratocaster, came a few years later. Leo Fender's health, unfortunately, began to deteriorate during his highlight years of vintage guitar production. He sold the company to the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) in January, 1965. During the 20 years CBS owned Fender, serious musicians and music historians maintain the quality and innovation of the company fell well short of that during Leo Fender's ownership. Musicians felt the parent company had little interest in their market needs of making superior electric guitars. Employees, loyal distributors and investors interested in returning Fender to the top bought the company back in 1985 to resume making the best electric guitars possible.
Although the present Fender company has come back to make extremely high quality musical instruments, the most prized Fender vintage guitars are those made up until January, 1965. Guitars made before January 5, 1965 were the original Fender masterpieces and those from that date until 1985 were a production of CBS. Master musicians and serious vintage electric guitar collectors highly desire Esquires, Telecasters and Stratocasters sporting Fender serial numbers from 1951 through 1964. Additional models like the Mustang introduced in 1964, the JazzMaster in 1958, the Jaguar, a new version of the JazzMaster introduced in 1962 are all rare finds and highly prized. In fact, the so-called "student" guitars like the Mustang, the MusicMaster and the DuoSonic of pre-1965 command high values because of their year of make and who made them.
The sale to CBS put Leo Fender in a very short retirement before he founded more music instrument companies, MusicMan Instruments and G & L Corporation. Equipment from these companies are fairly rare and, although neither company were financially successful, each have a huge following of professional musicians who use their vintage electric guitars. Fender died March of 1991 at age 81, partially from the stresses of the two companies as well as due to Parkinson's disease. Leo Fender's legacy is that of master of the electric guitar revolution. Thank you, Leo! - 15359
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Vintage guitars are a great investment in this wayward and slippery economy. Add value to your investments with a vintage guitar.
