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Lot Essay
Like so many creation stories, the one about the invention of the solidbody electric guitar features more than a few protagonists.
The names Adolph Rickenbacker, Paul Bigsby, Merle Travis, Les Paul and the lesser known Paul Tutmarc, were all instrumental in the early development of solid-body electrics. Yet it is Leo Fender’s name that is synonymous with the electric guitar. By borrowing from the ideas and innovations of all those who proceeded him, he achieved what all the others had aimed for: a purely electric guitar that could fulfill the needs of the professional musician. Unlike his predecessors, Fender was not ahead of his time, but uniquely current within the era in which he worked. His first electric guitar, the Esquire, introduced in 1950, paralleled the early development of Rock and Roll with the likes of Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and later Buddy Holly.
Born in 1909 Leo Fender grew up in the agricultural communities of Fullerton and Anaheim, California. At the age of thirteen he had many interests including playing the saxophone, but it was the recent innovations in electronics and radio that held his fascination. These two hobbies would ultimately serve him well.
It was always Fender’s idea that to successfully produce and market an electric guitar it should be easy to construct and affordable without sacrificing quality. It must be both dependable and easy to service. He wanted to supply a tool for the guitarist that they could rely on. Though he was never predisposed to a solid body construction, the natural progression of his early prototypes led him in that direction.
The first successful model, the Esquire, laid the template that proceeding models would be based on. Abandoning his early attempts working with laminated or routed-out body cavities, he chose to work in solid ash and later alder. These woods were easy to work with, strong and affordable.
Fender decided to design his guitars so that the neck and body could be completed separately in their entirety. It would entail the mounting of all the hardware and electronics as well as having the finish applied to each. This made it possible for the mass production of two fully completed components that could be easily assembled at the end of a production line
Fender would not incorporate a separate fingerboard made of rosewood or ebony as a traditional maker would. Instead, he carved his necks of hard American rock maple, finished the playing surface and inlayed the frets directly into the finished neck. This eliminated the added labor a separate fingerboard would entail. He fitted this neck into a pre-routed neck pocket in the body, using a neck plate and four screws. This was an idea he derived from the many Rickenbacker guitars he had seen. The peghead design, synonymous with all Fender instruments, was a return to a 1820 Viennese design reminiscent of Johann Stauffer and Christian Frederick Martin. With all six tuners mounted on the bass side, they were easily accessible to the player. The resulting shape was once again contemporary after 130 years.
Understanding the need for players to access the whole range of the fingerboard, Fender, with the help of George Fullerton, designed a body shape that incorporated a full cutaway on the treble side and added a less extreme cut on the bass side. The resulting shape was uncannily modern for 1949 and would be modified visually with each successive model. Even more than the design, it was the sound of Fender instruments that guitarists and audiences immediately appreciated.
Fender first used one simple single-coil pickup. He later expanded this to include two pickups and added a third on the Stratocaster model introduced in 1954. Fender applied his years of experience in electronics to design and produce these pickups. They would prove to produce a balanced, clear and bell like tone that was easily controllable across a full spectrum of tones even when pushed to their decibel limit. It was this sound and power that guitarists and audiences craved, and which gave the voice to Rock-a-Billy, Rhythm and Blues and ultimately Rock and Roll.
The names Adolph Rickenbacker, Paul Bigsby, Merle Travis, Les Paul and the lesser known Paul Tutmarc, were all instrumental in the early development of solid-body electrics. Yet it is Leo Fender’s name that is synonymous with the electric guitar. By borrowing from the ideas and innovations of all those who proceeded him, he achieved what all the others had aimed for: a purely electric guitar that could fulfill the needs of the professional musician. Unlike his predecessors, Fender was not ahead of his time, but uniquely current within the era in which he worked. His first electric guitar, the Esquire, introduced in 1950, paralleled the early development of Rock and Roll with the likes of Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and later Buddy Holly.
Born in 1909 Leo Fender grew up in the agricultural communities of Fullerton and Anaheim, California. At the age of thirteen he had many interests including playing the saxophone, but it was the recent innovations in electronics and radio that held his fascination. These two hobbies would ultimately serve him well.
It was always Fender’s idea that to successfully produce and market an electric guitar it should be easy to construct and affordable without sacrificing quality. It must be both dependable and easy to service. He wanted to supply a tool for the guitarist that they could rely on. Though he was never predisposed to a solid body construction, the natural progression of his early prototypes led him in that direction.
The first successful model, the Esquire, laid the template that proceeding models would be based on. Abandoning his early attempts working with laminated or routed-out body cavities, he chose to work in solid ash and later alder. These woods were easy to work with, strong and affordable.
Fender decided to design his guitars so that the neck and body could be completed separately in their entirety. It would entail the mounting of all the hardware and electronics as well as having the finish applied to each. This made it possible for the mass production of two fully completed components that could be easily assembled at the end of a production line
Fender would not incorporate a separate fingerboard made of rosewood or ebony as a traditional maker would. Instead, he carved his necks of hard American rock maple, finished the playing surface and inlayed the frets directly into the finished neck. This eliminated the added labor a separate fingerboard would entail. He fitted this neck into a pre-routed neck pocket in the body, using a neck plate and four screws. This was an idea he derived from the many Rickenbacker guitars he had seen. The peghead design, synonymous with all Fender instruments, was a return to a 1820 Viennese design reminiscent of Johann Stauffer and Christian Frederick Martin. With all six tuners mounted on the bass side, they were easily accessible to the player. The resulting shape was once again contemporary after 130 years.
Understanding the need for players to access the whole range of the fingerboard, Fender, with the help of George Fullerton, designed a body shape that incorporated a full cutaway on the treble side and added a less extreme cut on the bass side. The resulting shape was uncannily modern for 1949 and would be modified visually with each successive model. Even more than the design, it was the sound of Fender instruments that guitarists and audiences immediately appreciated.
Fender first used one simple single-coil pickup. He later expanded this to include two pickups and added a third on the Stratocaster model introduced in 1954. Fender applied his years of experience in electronics to design and produce these pickups. They would prove to produce a balanced, clear and bell like tone that was easily controllable across a full spectrum of tones even when pushed to their decibel limit. It was this sound and power that guitarists and audiences craved, and which gave the voice to Rock-a-Billy, Rhythm and Blues and ultimately Rock and Roll.