I'm watching a special on Fender on the news right now! They're showing the manufacturing process of a Fender guitar. I never knew the Leo Fender was not a guitar player! He did play sax. Building guitars was something he did as a new venture and he teamed up with and listened to the opinion of musicians to come up with his designs.

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"If I don't see you no more in this world I'll meet you on the next one and don't be late... don't be late." -Jimi Hendrix

Lol! Heard that he can't even tune a guitar!! Anyways he is still highly respected by guitarist worldwide for creating the cool tele and strat...

He was building amps for a good while before he started on guitars.

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No no and no

Buy a couple of books on the subject, you'll see some of the interesting "idiosyncrasies" of Mr. Fender... lol

The fact that he WASN'T a guitar player was probably his greatest asset... he started with a new creation, and thanks to that, we didn't end up with an ornate set-nect arch-top. lol

Clarence Leonidas Fender

I would have loved to have met and talked with the man!

A quote from his bio :

"In 1938, with $600 dollars he borrowed, Leo and Esther returned to Fullerton, and Leo started his own radio repair shop, known as "Fender Radio Service". Soon thereafter, musicians and band leaders began coming to Leo for PA systems, which he began building, selling and renting, and for amplification for the amplified acoustic guitars that beginning to show up in the southern California music scene, in big band and jazz music, and for the electric "Hawaiian" or "lap steel" guitars becoming popular in country music.

During WWII, Leo met Clayton Orr "Doc" Kauffman, an inventor and lap steel player, who had worked for Rickenbacker Guitars, a company that had been building and selling lap steel guitars for a decade. While with Rickenbacker, Kauffman had invented the "Vibrola Tailpiece"...the precursor to the later "vibrato" or "tremolo" tailpiece. Leo convinced Doc that they should team up, and they started the "K & F Manufacturing Corporation", to design and build amplified Hawaiian guitars and amplifiers. In 1944, Leo and Doc patented a lap steel guitar, that had an electric pickup already patented by Fender. In 1945, they began selling the guitar, in a kit with an amplifier designed by Leo."

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Thanks for the history lesson Miami Mike. I would not doubt it if you said Leo Fender was actually an alien sent here with technology to help us evolve. He must have been somewhat of a mad genius to have done all he has.

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"If I don't see you no more in this world I'll meet you on the next one and don't be late... don't be late." -Jimi Hendrix

He was also a hypochondriac but that's besides the point.

He apporoached things in a functional way for working musician's and their needs.

Genius is seeing what's there.

A few months ago I was reading an article about Tony McManus and his large collection of very top end acoustic guitars. And he remarked that several of the luthiers who's glamorous instruments he owns can't actually play the guitars they build.

Weird, huh? Who'd have thunk...

Cheers - C

The impression I'm left with is that Leo Fender did for the electric guitar what Henry Ford did for the automobile. And his electric guitar had as much impact on American culture as did Ford's cars.

I have a friend who is a luthier. His prized possession is his hand made Bass that he designed himself. When I saw the paint job he did I almost wanted to cry... it was that beautiful. He plays though. I have another friend who is like a savant when it comes to tone. Play any chord on any instrument and he'll tell you what it is. He'd be a great musician except he has no rhythm what-so-ever.

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"If I don't see you no more in this world I'll meet you on the next one and don't be late... don't be late." -Jimi Hendrix

No duh.
Anyone who's done even the most cursory investigation into Fender knows that Leo wasn't a guitar player. Visionary for sure, guitarist NOT!

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"Life is like eating jalapenos. What you do today may burn your arse tomorrow"

Agreed! Had he gone into this guitar venture with preconceived notions as to what guitar should look like and how it should work, I'm sure our Fenders would be very different today.

Here's an article I've posted here before, but I think it addresses Leo Fender's brilliance very well:

What We Can Learn from the Fender Stratocaster by Wayne Greenwood

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I really like all them "Aster" guitars. You know, like the Stratoc, Telec and Jazzm.

Isn't too far off from the story of Laurens Hammond (founder of the Hammond Organ Company). Any picture of him sitting at any given Hammond organ model is just that...a picture of him sitting at... . So Leo Fender played saxophone, which would be where any similarites in the two stories end, as it was Hammond's engineers that came up with the various console and spinet organ/tone cabinet designs. Laurens Hammond was more of a salesman, and also happened to hold the patent on the asynchronous motor that drives the tonewheel generators...and shuffled/dealt cards from an automatic card table, and keeps time in Hammond clocks.

Matt

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Fast Cars & Loud Guitars!