Fender Guitars, Basses and Accessories for sale

The company Fender Musical Instruments Corporation was founded in 1946 by Leo Fender and his partner George Fullerton under the name Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company and is one of the most recognized manufacturers of electric guitars, electric bass and guitar amplifiers.

Leo Fender is next to Lester William Polfus (Les Paul) one of the pioneers in the development of solid body electric guitar (body made of solid wood). Leo Fender could not play guitar.

Although Fender produces almost all types of electric and acoustic stringed instruments, so is the awareness of the brand primarily determined by their electric-guitars. It is hardly a well-known rock guitarist who has not at least had one Fender guitar. The Fender Stratocaster is the prototype of the modern electric guitar and is probably the most copied guitar in the world. The Fender Telecaster is even older.
From the traditional main rival Gibson (eg, Gibson Les Paul, SG) the Fender Guitars are different in general, especially by some small but crucial details of construction:

The neck in almost all Fender models is bolted to the body, with Gibson usually it is glued into the body. The scale length (string length) of 648 mm differs in general from the short Gibson scale length of 625 mm. Jaguar and Mustang are even shorter scale lengths of 610 mm. In addition, the machine heads on most Fender guitars are all side by side on one side of the headstock. There are deviations from these characteristics it depends on the series for both manufacturers.

Fender also used generally lighter woods such as alder or ash for the body (Gibson mostly mahogany, rosewood or maple for acoustic guitars). In the original models are almost exclusively single coil pickups used. All these details bear the name of the Fender's amplifier to the famous "Fender sound" that is generally compared with the sound of a clear bell.

The Fender Stratocaster is universally acknowledged as a design classic, even outside guitar-playing circles. This is largely due to the fact that it is the best selling guitar design ever, and over 40 years on remains in production, largely unchanged. Like Levi jeans or the Zippo lighter, it has achieved iconic status, yet the reason for this status has rarely been analyzed. Even now, the crowning achievement of Leo Fender, working with George Fullerton and Freddie Tavares, tends to be taken for granted. The Stratocaster, released in 1954, was conceived as an up market model that would sit alongside the basic slab-bodied Telecaster. The guitar's new features included the then radical double cutaways, or 'horns', a revolutionary tremolo system, and a three pickup layout. But this was an instrument that was more than functional-it allowed for playing techniques which would only be developed years later by the likes of Jimi Hendrix or Jeff Beck.

Furthermore, although the Strat was an expensive model to develop in terms of initial tooling, it was optimized for mass production, a fact that has allowed hundreds of copyists to plagiarize Fender's design, but has also, ironically, ensured the model's long-term survival.

It is impossible to overstate the significance of the Broadcaster on its launch in 1950; Leo Fender's new instrument, which would soon be rechristened the Telecaster, turned centuries of tradition on its head. Fender's rivals complained that this, the first commercially available solid-bodied guitar, dispensed with notions of craftsmanship, and could be assembled by any idiot with a band saw. They failed to notice that this was exactly the point. Leo Fender had re-considered the electric guitar from first principles, and this plank with six strings attached established precedents in guitar-making which are followed to this day.

Before the Telecaster, electric guitars were sumptuously finished, with carved tops and f-holes derived from violins; Fender's creation dispensed with these fripperies and used a solid body made from a single piece of ash, while the all maple neck was simply attached by means of four screws. Every other detail, from the six-a-side machine heads to the adjustable bridge, was perfectly considered. But even though it was supremely practical, the Telecaster had a touch of magic about it. Its brittle, cutting tone is distinctive today, but in 1950 was completely unique, while the no-nonsense feel and construction of a vintage model have the brute blue-collar appeal of a pair of well-worn Levis.

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