Wednesday, March 21, 2007
This Day in American Invention History
On this day in 1991, Leo Fender died at age 82. He was an inventor and manufacturer of electronic musical instruments, including the first solid-body electric guitar to be mass-produced: the Fender Broadcaster (1948). It was renamed the Telecaster two years later. It remains a favorite among Country and Western guitarists. He was an electronics enthusiast and radio repairman who got involved with guitar design after guitar-playing customers kept bringing him their external pickups for repair. Before Fender came along, guitarists met their amplification needs by attaching pickups to the surface of their hollow-bodied instruments. The Stratocaster (1954), had a flashier, contoured, double-cutaway body, with three (as opposed to two) single-coil pickups and a revolutionary string-bending unit, known as the tremolo or twang bar. It became a much favored model of rock guitarists.
(h/t Today in Science History)
(h/t Today in Science History)
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 6:46 AM 
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It should also be noted that, very few actual changes have been made to the original telecaster and stratocaster designs.
Aside from neck shapes and variances in pickups and what not, Leo absolutely nailed it right the first go round.
Triva, david Gilmour of Pink Floyd, owns Fender Stratocaster Serial Number 001.....not the first strat...just the first one serialized.
Aside from neck shapes and variances in pickups and what not, Leo absolutely nailed it right the first go round.
Triva, david Gilmour of Pink Floyd, owns Fender Stratocaster Serial Number 001.....not the first strat...just the first one serialized.
Very interesting. I knew you'd know about this. I like Gilmour--when is he going to make more music?
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