Anyone who has ever turned 14 and had that inkling for music will definitely know the name Fender. These are the type of guitars you'd want to keep glancing at as it sits comfortably behind the shop's transparent walls and would die for just to touch and play this magnificent piece of instrument. In retrospect, Leo Fender did not begin producing guitars until 1946 and in 1950 the historic solid-body electric guitar known as the Telecaster swept everybody of their feet. Fender was mostly into electronics and technical repair, particularly of amplifiers and radios. His dissatisfaction on the type of audio quality produced in those days urged him to build and produce his own products, and for this instance, instrument amplifiers and electric guitars that will soon transform how musicians look at music. Professional musicians today would agree with Leo Fender on the matter of trying to find the right sound.
Even today's genre reveres him for actually creating a multitude of tones especially in 1954 when Leo makes possible the magic produced by playing the uber-famous Stratocaster via its 5-way selector switch that introduces varied and unique guitar sounds, which are also available in other Fender electric guitars, by mixing and matching the right pickup combinations and adding the revolutionary synchronized tremolo (the mother of the more renowned Floyd Rose tremolo system) to suit the tastes and styles of modern jazz, rock and blues players. Aside from the Stratocaster, Fender also introduced budget guitars for the beginning guitarist, the Fender Squire and the equally famed Fender Jaguar and Jazz Master for the more serious players. But like all companies, Fender also underwent dark times in 1981 when ownership was transferred to CBS affecting operations and deteriorating the quality of the renowned Fender guitar lineup. In order to save the Fender legacy, William Schultz had to buy the company back from CBS and let the dedicated Fender pioneers to continue building the world's most influential guitars.
The legendary Fender Company, now known as the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation was back on track and intends to stay on top this time around. Fender guitars are now commonly known to either be manufactured in Mexico or in the USA with the cheaper variants coming from the former and the more expensive ones from the latter. Although some guitarists will contend that the differences in sound vary slightly from one another with the American made guitars sounding a bit brighter compared to Mexican made Fenders. Fender guitar's biggest rival, whose sound equals or surpasses the classic Fender sound, would be Gibson.