In the early days of making electric musical instruments, one person who did more to create a musical revolution was Clarence Leonidas Fender, known to the world as just Leo Fender. In the late 1930's Fender and another guitar luminary, Doc Kauffman worked together to find a solution to making a marketable electric guitar that didn't generate feedback at louder volumes. At issue were pick-ups and unwanted reverberations from the body and sound board of guitars of the time. Fender found that a solid-body guitar using wound pick-ups transferred the sound only from the strings and not the body of the guitar also. It was a perfect fit for use with amplifiers. The sound of the guitar could be clean and defined, to be enhanced by the use of vintage guitar amplifiers without unwanted feedback.
K & F Manufacturing Corporation was founded in the early 1940's to design, manufacture and sell electric instruments and amplifiers, specifically, Hawaiian lap steel guitars. In 1945 Kauffman and Fender began production using their patented electronic pick-ups on the guitars and sold the whole set, guitar and amplifier, as a set. Doc Kauffman and Leo Fender parted ways on friendly terms in early 1946. The Fender Electric Instrument Company was born.
The first electric guitar Fender made was the Esquire, styled after the Rickenbacker Bakelite with a detachable neck. In 1951, Fender invented and marketed the Broadcaster, a new solid-body guitar with Spanish styling, the first to go into commercial production. The Broadcaster was later renamed the Telecaster to avoid legal problems with Gretch and their trademarked "Broadkaster" drum kit. Bass players were soon delighted to a Fender electric bass also in 1951, allowing them to have the freedom and flexibility of sound volume and tone control at their fingertips.
A few years after the Telecaster obtained its famous reputation, Fender released its hallmark vintage electric guitar, the Stratocaster. Being a market leader began taking its toll on Leo Fender and due to declining health, sold the Fender Musical Instrument Company to CBS (the Columbia Broadcasting System). From 1965 to 1985, the brand languished because of the apparent lack of interest the parent company had for music, musicians and the reputation of Fender. Many felt CBS failed to maintain innovation and the high quality standards set by Leo Fender during their two decade ownership. As a result, loyal business partners, company employees and investors wanting to return to original standards bought the company back and reinstated Leo's original premise of making excellent musical instruments.
Although the present Fender company has come back to make extremely high quality musical instruments, the most prized Fender vintage guitars are those made up until January, 1965. Guitars made before January 5, 1965 were the original Fender masterpieces and those from that date until 1985 were a production of CBS. Master musicians and serious vintage electric guitar collectors highly desire Esquires, Telecasters and Stratocasters sporting Fender serial numbers from 1951 through 1964. Additional models like the Mustang introduced in 1964, the JazzMaster in 1958, the Jaguar, a new version of the JazzMaster introduced in 1962 are all rare finds and highly prized. In fact, the so-called "student" guitars like the Mustang, the MusicMaster and the DuoSonic of pre-1965 command high values because of their year of make and who made them.
Unfortunately, Leo Fender passed away March 21, 1991 at age 81 from complications of Parkinson's disease but did get to see the success of his foresight and innovation. Fender had once again entered the top position of master guitar building and regained its name for superior musical instruments.