Encyclopedia > Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company
Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, initially named the Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, was started by Leo Fender in the 1940s, and is one of the most widely recognised manufacturers of electric guitars, bass guitars and amplifiers in the world. Its headquarters are based in Scottsdale, Arizona, with manufacturing facilities in Corona, California, and OCONUS manufacturing facilities in Ensenada (Mexico), Korea and Japan. Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company was originally based in Fullerton, California. In 1965, Leo Fender sold his company to the Columbia Broadcasting Corporation, or CBS. In 1985, initiated by a company employee named William Schultz, the Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company was bought from CBS by its own employees, and renamed Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.
Fender is particularly important because of its role in bringing electric musical instruments to the masses. The first mass-produced solid-body Spanish-style electric guitar, dubbed the Telecaster (originally named Broadcaster, a name which was already registered by the Gretsch company (as "Broadkaster") for a line of drums), and the first electric bass guitar, the Precision Bass (or P-Bass) can be attributed to the Fender company. Leo Fender can also be credited with the invention of the Stratocaster guitar (or Strat), an icon of modern rock music. While other companies had produced electric guitars before Fender, they were either traditional acoustic guitars with pickups attached, or more specialized instruments such as Rickenbacker's solid-body Hawaiian lap steel guitars.
Fender also manufactures electric bass guitars. The most popular models include the Jazz Bass and the Precision Bass. The company has also always manufactured guitar, bass, and public address amplifiers and speaker systems, and all required guitar, bass and instrument amplifier accessories (it began as a PA system company in 1948, two years before it made any instruments). In recent years, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has branched out into making and selling acoustic guitars, and has purchased a number of other instrument firms, including the Guild Guitar Company, the Sunn Amplifier Company, and other brands such as SWR bass amplifiers and Jackson guitars.
Behind the Fender name, the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation has continued to grow, and add a wider range of products to its catalogs, while still keeping with traditional designs from the company's early years. The core of its instrument line, the Tele, Strat, P-Bass, and J-Bass, remains largely unchanged from the 1950s and 1960s originals. On nearly every stage in the country, small or large, traditional, blues, country and western or rock and roll styles of music, it is more common than not to see a Fender electric guitar or bass in the hands of one or more of the musicians, being amplified through Fender amplifiers. Fender guitars have been the instrument of choice for artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, and Keith Richards.
Fender Musical Instruments Corporation also has several subsidiaries including Squier, an Asian manufacturer producing less expensive copies of many Fender guitars and basses.
Fender Guitars
Electric Guitars
Electric Basses
See also
External links - A history of Fender (http://www.americanvintageguitar.com/Fender%20History.htm)
- Fender Musical Instruments (http://www.fender.com/)
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