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 | Clarence Leo Fender is born. By 1922 he had
graduated high school and was running an
amateur radio station while building amplifiers
and public address systems. |  | |
Leo opens his first shop named Fender’s Repair
Service,offering home made PA systems and musical
instruments. | |
Leo renamed his business to the Fender Electric Instruments
Company. He turned his radio shop over to Dale Hyatt so he
could concentrate on building instruments. By 1949 Fender
guitars and amps were firmly established in the music industry. |  | |
During the spring of this year, the Fender Electric Instruments
Company introduced a single and dual pickup solid body electric
guitar. It was named the Esquire, about 50 were made, and were
not fitted with a truss rod. Orders were being placed, though
before production started, the instrument had been modified with
an adjustable neck and renamed the Broadcaster. It was
renamed again a year later to the Telecaster. The rename
was done due to a conflict with Gretch Broadkaster drums. | |
Leo closed his repair shop to focus entirely on
building solid body instruments, which by late 1951
included the first electric bass. The Precision bass is
the most popular bass design ever. Leo needed an
amp to run it through though, so he built the Bassman
amp. |  | |
This was the year the Stratocaster was introduced.
The most popular guitar ever made and copied. It
made the Fender company worth millions and made
Leo an icon in the music world. From it’s release in
1954, the strat had many changes made from year to
year, including varying amounts of contouring on the
body, materials used for the control knobs, pickgaurd, headstock shape, serial number placement,
etc. | |
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At this point, Fender had more than 100 employees. From 1955
with the success of the stratocaster, Fender began production of a
less expensive range of amps and guitars. These “Studio Instruments”
were, branded “White” After Forest White, the production manager.
They also dabbled in various other instruments. Including three-
quarter sized solid body electrics,an electric mandolin in 1957 and
a short lived electric violin in 1958. Fender also bought a horn
company in 1954 making brass instruments. However, the horn
company, like the “White” brand of instruments, were abandoned
a year later. Also a year later in 1960 Fender introduced the Jazz
bass. |  | |
Fender begin production of their acoustic guitars. Fender at this
point now had over 600 employees, 500 of them in manufacturing.
At age 55, Leo suffered health problems and offered to sell Fender
Electric Instruments to his parter in Fender Sales, Donald Randall,
for $1.5 million. Randoll not having the resources to purchase the
company himself, agreed to find another buyer. In August the
Fender Mustang was introduced | |
On January 5th 1965, Fender was sold to a subsidiary of CBS
(Columbia Broadcasting Systems) called Columbia Records
Distribution Corp. for $13 million. CBS began making changes
almost immediately. | |
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Forest White was demoted from vice-president to plant
manager after the takeover. He quit less than two years later over
a dispute regarding the quality of an amplifier CBS planned
on producing. | |
Donald Randall, now vice-president and general manager under
CBS also left the company. His departure was due to corporate
politics and concerns over quality. Many other long term employees
felt quality was taking a back seat since CBS took over. | |
The larger headstock design introduced by CBS is abandoned,
and the original smaller shape returns. The same year, Leo Fender
and George Fullerton (a long term employee at Fender) form G&L guitars (George and Leo). | |
During the early 80’s CBS also recruited three top executives
from Yamaha Musical Instruments. John McLaren, William Schultz
and Dan Smith. In The Fender Book, Tony Bacon and Paul Day,
quote Smith: "We were brought in to kind of turn the reputation of
Fender around, and to get it so it was making money again. It was
starting to lose money, and at that point in time everybody
hated Fender. We thought we knew how bad it was. We took
for granted that they could make Stratocasters and Telecasters
the way they used to make them, but we were wrong. So many
things had changed in the plant." | |
William Schultz practically shut down U.S production of
Fender guitars. Focussing on reissuing limited edition high end “classic” pre CBS Fenders. | |
Japanese Squiers hit the U.S market | |
On the 5th of March, CBS sells up to the management group run
by William Schultz for $12.5 million. The company name was
changed to Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. However,
the sale did not include many Fender patents, machinery and nor
the Fullerton facility, which was sold separately. As a result, no U.S
production was taking place. Only Japanese models appeared in
the 1985 catalogue. At this point after the sale. Fender Musical
Instruments Corp. were roughly $11 million in debt. | |
Two years after U.S production was shut down, Fender open their
custom shop in Corona California. This same year the American
Standard Strat is released. | |
Eric Clapton and Yngwie Malmsteen artist series strats are released. | |
Fender move their headquarters in Corona to Arizona. Over seeing
all their facilities, now on a global scale. Including, the U.S, Mexico,
Japan, France, Korea, Chine, the UK and Germany. Leo Fender also
dies this same year. | |
Fender buys the Guild Guitar Company | |
Production of Fender guitars is estimated at 50,000 guitars a year.
The company at this point is worth approximately $250 million. | |
A new state of the art 177,000 square foot facility is built in Corona,
California. Built on a nineteen acre site, which at this time can manufacture 350 guitars per day. | |
The 50th Anniversary strat is released, replicating the original
1954 design. | |
| William Schultz retires | |
Leo Fender, Donald Randall, William Schultz and other key staff
are en-ducted into the Fender Hall Of Fame. | |
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