What’s considered the best-selling pop instrument of all time was invented by Southern Californian Leo Fender.
Some of the most notable electric guitar companies have their roots in Southern California. Rickenbacker began in the 1930s, Gibson built its second factory here in the 1950s and Fender was started in 1946.
Notable early Fender events
Aug. 10, 1909: Clarence Leonidas Fender is born in Anaheim.
1928: Fender graduates from high school and runs an amateur radio station while building amplifiers and public address systems.
1938: Fender opens his first shop, named Fender’s Repair Service, offering homemade PA systems and musical instruments.
Early 1940s: During World War II, Fender meets Clayton Orr “Doc” Kauman, a musician and the chief designer of electric guitars for Rickenbacker (based in Santa Ana and the first maker of electric guitars). Kauman had patented one of the first mechanical vibrato units in 1935. He soon becomes Fender’s business partner and they start the K&F Manufacturing Corp. to design, manufacture and market electric instruments and amplifiers.
1946: Kauman and Fender amicably part ways. Fender renames his business Fender Electric Instruments Co. He turns his radio shop over to Dale Hyatt in order to concentrate on building guitars.
1950: Fender Electric Instruments introduces a single- and dual-pickup, solid-body electric guitar. It is named the Esquire, and about 50 are made. It is renamed the Broadcaster and renamed again a year later to the Telecaster. The name change is done due to a conflict with Gretsch Broadkaster drums.
1951: Fender closes his repair shop to focus entirely on building instruments, which by late 1951 include the first electric bass. The Precision bass remains one of the most popular designs to this day.
1954: The Stratocaster is introduced, going on to become the most popular guitar ever made and copied. It makes Fender’s company extremely profitable and transforms him into an icon in the music world. The Stratocaster sees many changes from year to year, including varying amounts of contouring on the body, materials used for the control knobs, pick guard, headstock shape, serial number placement, etc. The business grows to more than 100 employees.
1960: The Jazz Bass is introduced.
1964: Fender begins production of acoustic guitars. The company has more than 600 employees, 500 of them in manufacturing. At age 55, Fender develops health problems and offers to sell Fender Electric Instruments to his partner, Donald Randall, for $1.5 million. Randall, unable to make the purchase, agrees to find another buyer.
Jan. 5, 1965: The company is sold to Columbia Records Distribution Corp., a subsidiary of CBS, for $13 million (the equivalent of approximately $130 million today).
Later years: Fender goes on to work for a couple other guitar companies in Southern California. He is president of Music Man in the early 1970s. In 1979, he and old friends Hyatt and George Fullerton start a company called G&L (for George and Leo). He continues to work on guitars until his death March 21, 1991, from complications from Parkinson’s disease. He is buried at Fairhaven Memorial Park in Santa Ana.
The company’s brands include Fender, Squier, Gretsch, Jackson, Charvel, EVH and others. In the 1980s, a group of employees and investors bought the company from CBS.
In 1985, Fender opened its flagship U.S. factory and headquarters in Corona, and a manufacturing plant in Ensenada, Mexico, in 1987.
Rankings determined by number of units sold.
The Stratocaster hasn’t always been on top, and the company has been through many ups and downs. This has resulted in an uneven output of instruments and amps. Certain years are more desirable than others.
The best of all years is considered to be 1962. There were more changes made to the Stratocaster that year than usual. The Brazilian rosewood used for the fretboard of the neck was made thinner to bring out a brighter tone.
The Stratocaster has a unique “double-cutaway” body shape that features contours for the player’s comfort and balance of the instrument, and which allows easier access to the highest notes on the neck.
The Stratocaster has had maple necks since the beginning. In 1962, the company offered the option of a rosewood fretboard on top of the maple neck. The advantages of the more robust material were less friction between fingers and wood and less wear.
What some have gone for at auction.
Kurt Cobain’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” Mustang: $4.55 million
David Gilmour’s Black Stratocaster: $3.98 million
“Reach Out to Asia” Stratocaster: $2.7 million
1962 Stratocasters can cost from $3,000 to $84,000, depending on condition.
The year a guitar was manufactured can be verified via a complex system of serial numbers on many components.
Sources: Fender, reverb.com, fenderguru.com, Chasing Guitars, Sound Unlimited, Guitar.com, True Vintage Guitar
