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Fender history
Fender company history timeline
With an illustrious history dating back to 1946, Fender has touched and transformed music worldwide and in nearly every genre: rock ‘n’ roll, country and western, jazz, rhythm and blues, and many others.
During 1946, Fender designed and began manufacturing the Deluxe, the Professional, and the Dual Professional, along with the Princeston, a 4-watt practice amp.
When the two parted ways a few years later, Fender continued working under his own name, developing the original Princeton, Deluxe and Professional amps in 1946.
1946: Fender, now the company's sole proprietor, renames the company Fender Electric Instruments Company.
Leo Fender's lap steel guitar made in 1946 for Noel Boggs was probably the very first product of the new company, bearing an early presentation of the cursive "big F" Fender logo.
Fender Champion Lap Steels that Leo was making as early as 1948, shared a lot of design cues for the Fender Broadcaster.
In 1948, Fender began the “Champion” series of practice amp, which eventually was called “The Champ” and became one of the most popular amplifiers ever built.
1950 Fender Announces Esquire (in black with white pickguard)
With the design of the Telecaster finalized, mass production began in 1950.
1952 Fender Precision Bass with a 1952 TV front Fender Bassman 1×15 combo amp
In 1953, Leo Fender formed Fender Sales, Inc., to take over distribution from Radio-Tel.
In 1954, Fender Electric Instruments introduced the Stratocaster.
In 1954, Fender responded with a completely new design that Leo felt would replace the Telecaster.
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, pickguard, headstock shape, serial number placement, etc.
When Hayes died in an automobile accident in 1955, Fender and Randall bought his interest in Fender Sales from his widow and ousted Hall.
Building on the phenomenal success of the Stratocaster, Fender Electric Instruments introduced a line of less expensive guitars and amplifiers in 1955.
1955 Fender Telecaster – Whiteguard
Boutique amps are high quality hand built copies of classic amps, and the most popular are the 5F6-A Bassman, the 5F1 Champ (designed by Fender in 1955), the 5E3 Deluxe (also 1955), and the 5E8-A Twin (also 1955). Not to mention the Blackface amps that Leo was involved with.
Fender Musicmaster and Duo-Sonic guitars were introduced in 1956 as student models.
1956 - Below is a patent poster for the Stratocaster used to advertise the new features.
In 1958, Fender introduced the Jazzmaster a high end solid body that was originally targeted to Jazz players.
In 1959, Fender released the Jazzmaster guitar.
It is not uncommon to find many of the vintage Champions Lap Steel missing their original pickups, knobs or pots as players where able to buy these in pawn shops for low prices in after the late 1960’s.
1960 - The Fender Jazz Bass was introduced.
The Fender Jaguar was introduced in 1962.
Despite being shunned by the Jazz community, the guitar found a home in the growing surf rock music scene, one that would go on to influence the Jazzmaster's successor, the Jaguar in 1962.
Brian Setzer’s 1963 6G6-B Fender Bassman Amps
By late 1963, some Fender amplifiers moved to the start of blackface panels.
In 1964, Leo Fender, then 55, became ill and offered to sell Fender Electric Instruments to Randall, still his partner in Fender Sales, for $1.5 million.
In 1964, following the release of the new Fender Mustang, both the Musicmaster and Duo-Sonic were redesigned using Mustang neck and body blanks.
After 1964 the amps had skirted black knobs.
1964 - Fender begin production of their acoustic guitars.
In 1965 Leo Fender sold his companies to the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) for $13 million.
Though more recent use by Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead has raised the Starcaster's profile, CBS-era instruments are generally much less coveted or collectable than the "pre-CBS" models created by Leo Fender prior to selling the Fender companies to CBS in 1965.
Some amplifier repair technicians have often commented on what they feel was a general slip in production quality of amps produced in the 1966-68 era—particularly in chassis lead dress and other subtle electronic details.
Bound necks with block shaped position markers were introduced in 1966.
The most enduring visual image of Jimi Hendrix is his stunt at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival when he lit his Fender Stratocaster on fire and knelt behind it, coaxing the flames to grow higher.
Fender discontinued the blackface cosmetics in late 1967.
They made few substantial changes to the amps until the Silverface amps of 1968, where certain circuit changes made them less desirable to some players than the blackface amps.
The semi-hollowbody Thinline Telecaster, for example, launched in 1968.
A bolder black headstock logo, as well as a brushed aluminum face plate with blue or red labels (depending the model) for the guitar and bass amplifiers became standard features, starting in late 1968.
The Esquire’s sales eventually declined and the model was discontinued in 1969.
In 1969 more transistor amplifiers were introduced, including the ‘Zodiac’ series and the Super Showman System.
In 1969 the Thinline was updated with a pair of Fender Wide Range humbucking pickups that were designed by Seth Lover, formally of Gibson were he created the first Humbucker pickups.
These first "silverface" amps added an aluminium trim detail around the speaker baffle until 1970.
Due to the very poor reputation for the transistor amps had the entire solid-state line discontinued in 1971.
In 1971, Forrest White and Tom Walker formed the Tri-Sonix company based in Santa Ana, California.
In 1972, Fender's consulting business, CLF Research, began manufacturing stringed instruments for Tri-Sonics, Inc., a company formed by White and Tom Walker, a former district manager at Fender Sales.
The Bullet truss-rod and 3-bolt neck came to the Thinline in 1972.
Tri-Sonics changed its name briefly to Musitek, short for Music Technology, before finally settling on Music Man, Inc., in 1974.
The Squier name was retired in 1975 and the strings were sold under the Fender name.
By the start of 1975, the Stratocaster was at its most popular—more and more artists were playing them and more people than ever were buying them, yet the new ones weren’t nearly as good as the older ones.
In June 1976, production started on guitars and in August basses followed.
By 1976, Leo, along with George Fullerton, built a manufacturing facility for musical instruments and was contracted to make Music Man products.
1977 - “It’s a business machine”: Fender ad showing a natural-finish, black-pickguard Stratocaster typical of that era.
In 1979, Travis wrote in the JEMF Quarterly that he loaned his guitar to Fender for a week to make a copy, and he argued for years that he, not Fender, should be considered the father of the solidbody electric guitar.
George Fullerton and Leo Fender founded G&L in 1979 as they had a factory and had a falling out with the partners at Music Man.
G&L was incorporated May 1980. “G” for George and “L” for Leo.
1980 - The larger headstock design introduced by CBS is abandoned,and the original smaller shape returns.
Fender Musical Instruments experienced tremendous growth over the next 20 years, but a lack of commitment and real understanding of music and musicians by CBS gradually became apparent.To “re-invent” Fender, CBS recruited new management in 1981.
They brought them back for a brief period in 1981, and discontinued them again the following year.
1981: William Schultz is named president of the Fender division.
1982: Schultz reorganizes Fender, producing only top-of-the-line, classic models in America.
The Squire Series originally was intended for the Japanese and European market, but export to the United States market began in 1983.
The company was sold in 1984.
1985 - On the 5th of March, CBS sells up to the management group run by William Schultz for $12.5 million.
In June the company laid off 59 out of 800 production workers from its flagship Corona facility, the first layoff at the plant since Schultz's acquisition of Fender in 1985.
In 1985 saw Fender open its flagship United States factory in Corona, Calif.
1985: Fender division sold by CBS to a management company headed by Schultz.
He and a small group of investors bought Fender from CBS in 1985, whereupon he engineered the creation of the modern Fender corporation.
Schultz also slashed employment at Fender Musical Instruments from 800 to about 90 workers, mostly in research and design. As a result, Schultz, chairman of the company, was forced to halt all United States production of Fender guitars, and only Japanese-made instruments were listed in the 1985 catalog.
In 1986, Fender Musical Instruments introduced the American Standards model Stratocasters and Telecaster guitars.
1986 G&L ASAT/Broadcaster from the first weeks production
The G&L Comanche which has a body shape similar to a Stratocaster was introduced in 1987 with Magnetic Field Design Z-Coil pickups designed to improve tone with less hum by Leo Fender.
These relationships led to the formalizing of Fender's custom operation in 1987.
Fender had acquired this legendary company, whose products had been endorsed by the Who, the Rolling Stones, and Jimi Hendrix, in 1987.
1987 - Two years after U.S production was shut down, Fender open their custom shop in Corona California.
1988 - Eric Clapton and Yngwie Malmsteen artist series strats are released.
1988 Eric Clapton Strat advert showing the first generation of his signature guitar.
1988 ad for the Yngwie Malmsteen Stratocaster
Also, in the late 1990’s, mostly due to the internet, and the renewed availability of quality vacuum tubes, a new industry began to spring up, boutique amplifiers.
Faced with internal financial troubles in the early 1990's, Guild management had decided to sell the company.
As Fender Musical Instruments Corporation forges through the 1990's and into the 21st century, its management team will maintain Fender's number-one status through a winning combination of business acumen and a love of music.
Schultz, who moved company headquarters to Scottsdale, Arizona, in 1991, also opened guitar-manufacturing facilities in Mexico, China and Korea.
In 1991, the Fender Custom Amp Shop was created in Scottsdale, Arizona.
In 1991, FMIC moved its corporate headquarters from its Corona location to Scottsdale, Arizona, where "administration, marketing, advertising, sales and export operations" take place, not only for the United States operations, but many other countries also.
In late 1992, the Amp Custom Shop was opened in Scottsdale, Arizona, to offer custom and limited editions of professional amplifiers for working musicians.
Wheeler, Tom, American Guitars: An Illustrated History, New York: Harper Perennial, 1992.
Fender acquired Guild in 1995, signaling a return to ownership by a group of people dedicated to producing the finest value in American-made acoustic and electric guitars.
By 1996, the Corona plant, which also produced the company's amplifiers and speakers, employed about 600.
First opened in 1996, the new Guild Custom Shop boasts an 8,000 square-foot , climate controlled facility near downtown Nashville that allows a great deal of extra space for production and storage of raw materials.
Fender had purchased the DeArmond brand of musical instrument pickups in 1997 and then combined the company with Guild to produce an alternative line of high quality, affordable guitars and basses that are modeled on Guild designs.
And for Guild, 1998 brought the expansion of its Custom Shop in Nashville, Tennessee.
Guild had also introduced DeArmond guitars in 1998.
But the biggest event for Fender in 1998 was the opening of its new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Corona.
1998 - A new state of the art 177,000 square foot facility is built in Corona, California.
The Best Bands From the First Two Waves of Emo (90‘s and 2000‘s)
In 2000, Fender's reported revenue reached $280 million, and the company name maintained prominence among musicians, with regular reviews in Guitar Player magazine and an entire Web site (http://www.tdpri.com) devoted to discussion of the Fender Telecaster.
Costanza, Michael, “Guitar Factory to Leave Westerly, R.I. for Southern California,” The Day, June 28, 2001.
2001: Fender debuts the CyberTwin amplifier.2001: Fender awards construction contract for new headquarters in Scottsdale.
Schultz retired in 2005, and Mendello became CEO. Since its founding, FMIC has grown to be one of the world's leading marketers, manufacturers, and distributors of musical instruments.
2005 - William Schultz retires
William Schultz died on September 21, 2006.
Late 2006 G.E. Smith Fender Signature Telecaster one of the very early ones
2007 - Leo Fender, Donald Randall, William Schultz and other key staff are en-ducted into the Fender Hall Of Fame.
George Fullerton remained a permanent consultant until his own death on July 4, 2009.
Fender FINALLY in 2010, did use the Broadcaster name for a 60th Anniversary Limited Edition Custom Shop guitar after getting permission for Fred Gretsch.
2014 - Fender sells Guild
Representing the next era in Fender innovation, the company launched Fender Digital in 2015, connecting players with a vast digital ecosystem of products designed to elevate their musical experience.
Fender has been around for over 70 years, initially setting the bar for guitars, basses and amplifiers and repeatedly raising that bar with new innovations, such as Fender Play's debut in 2017.
In 2018, Fender released an advanced line of guitar pedals, offering players a range of dynamic tools designed to expand their sound and capture some of Fender’s most iconic tones.
Fender’s spirit of innovation continued in 2019 with the debut of the groundbreaking Tone Master® Twin Reverb and Deluxe Reverb® amps.
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"Fender Musical Instruments Company ." International Directory of Company Histories. . Retrieved June 21, 2022 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/fender-musical-instruments-company-0
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Fender competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Martin Guitar | 1833 | $130.5M | 500 | 2 |
| Taylor Guitars | 1974 | $180.0M | 750 | 10 |
| Paoli | 1926 | $100.0M | 375 | - |
| HALCON | 1977 | $28.0M | 350 | 11 |
| Gibson | 1902 | $990.0M | 2,800 | 45 |
| GNP Company | 1926 | $27.0M | 3,239 | - |
| Jacuzzi | 1915 | $16.0M | 4,907 | 95 |
| Stanley Furniture | 1924 | $32.0M | 140 | 30 |
| Legacy Cabinets | 1994 | $160.0M | 750 | 2 |
| Wellborn Cabinet | 1961 | $320.0M | 1,207 | - |
Fender history FAQs
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Fender may also be known as or be related to Fender, Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, Fender Musical Instruments, Fender Musical Instruments Corp. and Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.