08/17/2023
https://www.facebook.com/100064361036882/posts/671974211624607/?mibextid=cr9u03
Remembering inventor Leo Fender who was born Clarence Leonidas Fender on this date August 10, 1909 in Anaheim, CA. He is known for founding the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation and designing the company's early models, the Fender Telecaster, Fender Precision Bass, and Fender Stratocaster.
His guitars and amplifiers came to define the Southern California rock sound in the early 1960s, especially surf music. The guitarists and bassists in The Wrecking Crew can all been see pictured playing Fender Guitars, basses, and playing through Fender Amps.
The guitars, basses, and amplifiers he designed from the 1940s on are still widely used: the Fender Telecaster (1950) was the first mass-produced solid-body electric guitar; the Fender Stratocaster (1954) is among the most iconic electric guitars; the Fender Precision Bass (1951) set the standard for electric basses, and the Fender Bassman amplifier, popular in its own right, became the basis for later amplifiers (notably by Marshall and Mesa Boogie) that dominated rock and roll music.
In January 1965, he sold Fender to CBS, and later founded two other musical instrument companies, Music Man and G&L Musical Instruments.
Fender never learned to play the instruments.
Leo was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992. His instruments were played by many Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees such as Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Ritchie Blackmore, Curtis Mayfield, Mark Knopfler, Joe Walsh, Bonnie Raitt, Muddy Waters, Neal Schon, Jerry Garcia, Billy Gibbons, Eddie Hazel, James Burton, Steve Cropper, Frank Zappa, Keith Richards, David Gilmour, Pete Townshend, Buddy Guy, Jimmy Page, Duane Allman, and Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Fender died March 21, 1991 at the age of 81.
