01/12/2020
Part one of our series- America's four most transformative and innovative rock guitarists- and not for the reason you think. Welcome toAmerican Stories Innovators and Entrepreneurs.
(Part1) The three most transformative, innovative rock guitarists in history -and the notable mention of the man who changed everything and yet wasn’t part of the club.
I will begin the series with the odd man out.
Leo was an innovator and an entrepreneur. He designed and repaired radios, then happened upon a way to amplify the burgeoning idea of electrical signals for guitars and these new things call pickups. His amplifiers sounded better than anything on the market. He thought he could make these new amplifiers for a price point that would allow the average person to afford them if he could sell enough of them. But, he had a problem. He didn’t play the guitar, or any musical instrument for that matter. The guitars on the market at the time were very expensive and most of them were hollow bodies, or semi-hollow bodies.
Gibson was working on a solid body guitar that would also change the world (more on that in another story), but those guitars were going to be more expensive, not less, than what was currently available and beyond the price point of most people.
Leo’s number one problem, how was he going to sell more amplifiers if very few people could afford to buy electric guitars. Leo partnered with friend George Fullerton and they decided to approach the problem from a completely different perspective.
They would design and build a solid body guitar that they could manufacture at a price point which would allow the average citizen to buy one and then that player would need to buy a Fender amplifier to resonate the sound.
They invented the Broadcaster (later to become the Telecaster). Then came the Stratocaster (one of the two most iconic guitars in rock history). Both were based on a basic premise- build the best quality product possible for the most affordable price possible when produced on a mass scale.
I will discuss how the entrepreneurs at Fender and Gibson approached their guitars differently in later parts of this series, but suffice it to say these guitars were fairly simple. More simple than any other guitars being made at the time. Two to three pieces of quality, light, but not attractive wood, glued together in a usable shape, with easy to make single coil pickups. Most of them were painted in basic or pastel colors to cover up the fact that the wood was usually not very attractive. The necks were bolted on, versus the common glued on fixed necks. Little did they know at the time they were creating guitars that would allow players to customize their instruments in years to come.
Leo was of course Leo Fender and he sold millions of guitars and millions of amplifiers. Those guitars and amplifiers deservedly became iconic in music history- so much so that he was later inducted into the rock-n-roll hall of fame. During the years of 1957-1959, which are well known as three of the greatest years in guitar history, when Gibson sold 800,000 Les Pauls, Fender sold millions of Stratocasters.
They cost less to build and less to buy and nearly every young player could save up enough money to buy one. Players like Buddy Holly gravitated to the light easy to play Strat.
Eventually many rock icons used the Telecaster or Stratocaster as their guitar of choice.
Leo Fender continued to build new and unique amplifiers and changed music history- in a way he never imagined. Is guitars are now worth tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars today and his vintage amplifiers are still in use. He sold the company in 1965 to CBS and went on the found Music Man and G&L Guitars. Each of those brands has developed its own following and the Fender name- though sold several times over the years- continues to be one of the two most revered brands in the industry.
Thousands of people over the years, and their families-generations of families- have found employment, support for their families, and the ability to grow and innovate in their own careers thanks to Leo Fender.
The non-guitar player who changed rock history and yet was never one the players club.
