About Fender Guitars
Summary
Although other companies actually fabricated and sold electric guitars before the Fender Company, Fender electric guitars were the first solid body electric guitars to be offered on the mass market. The Fender Company is responsible for popularizing the electric guitar in popular music with the introduction of their Fender Telecaster. The Broadcaster was actually the first solid body electric guitar made by Fender, but Fender made it economically feasible to mass produce the Telecaster, which inspired other manufacturers to make their own versions of the solid body electric guitar. Other famous Fender models include the Stratocaster, the Jazzmaster, the Mustang and the Jaguar.
Fender electric guitars are manufactured in Mexico and Asia as well as in the United States. Their ‘premium’ guitars are made in the US, although their Mexican line of guitars are highly regarded at that price point. The Squier brand is also manufactured under the Fender brand in Asia, but the lower end components and the quality control issues associated with their production sometimes result in a less than desirable instrument.
History
The Fender Company began as an electronic repair business run by Leo Fender that repaired amplifiers, radios, record players and other electronics. Leo’s own amplifier work began by improving existing designs and that work branched into designing new amplifiers. Fender’s original amp designs were innovative in that they incorporated tone controls, and became much more appreciated during the revival of the tube amp by musicians searching for the tone that was missing from the ‘modern’ electronic amplifiers. Although Fender is still known for their quality amplifiers, the company found fame in their original guitar designs beginning in the fifties.
Leo Fender and Clayton Orr Kauffman formed K & F Manufacturing Corporation where they first started to produce musical instruments in the forties. However, Fender and Kauffman had different business plans where Kauffman’s was more centered on repair while Fender was more focused on design. Consequently, Fender started his own company called the Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Corporation which later became the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.
In 1951, Fender released the Broadcaster that was soon renamed to the Telecaster due to copyright issues. Later that year Fender produced the electric Precision bass (P-Bass) guitar. In 1954, Fender introduced the Stratocaster; one of the most popular rock guitars of all time. The Fender Electric Instrument Company continued to grow on the primary success of these two stalwart guitars.
However, Leo Fender’s poor health led him to sell his company to the CBS corporation in 1965. Despite the marketing and advertising budgets of CBS, the brand began to decline in the late sixties and early seventies due to CBS’s lack of understanding of the market. Their efforts to maximize production resulted in a lessening of a quality guitar. The brand was further downgraded when CBS owned Fender produced the "Squire" Strat, a cheaper version of the Stratocaster, to combat the pricing competition of the Japanese guitar makers.
CBS took steps to try to reestablish the Fender brand in 1981 when William Schultz was appointed as the new President of the company. His business plan focused on strengthening the company’s research and design arm and increased advertising to retake Fender’s lost market share. However, in 1985 CBS decided to divest itself of Fender and Schultz and some investors bought Fender from the conglomerate and established the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.
Bill Schultz built two new manufacturing plants in California and Mexico to centralize manufacturing to improve quality and to minimize transportation costs down. Consequently, Schultz was able to reduce production costs through consolidation and centralization and eliminated the Japanese exported guitars, although they are still produced in Japan for the Asian market.
Fender acquired the Sunn Amplifier Company 1987 and in 1991 moved its’ headquarters from Corona, California to Scottsdale, Arizona. In 1995 Fender acquired Guild Guitar Company and has purchased other brands, including SWR Sound Corporation, Kaman Music Corporation (Ovation guitars) and Hamer Guitars.
Today Fender produces electric guitars, acoustic guitars, electric bass guitars, tube and solid state amplifiers, speaker cabinets and guitar effects. Visit the Fender web site for more information.