Fender Musical Instruments Corporation

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

What is Fender

Fender or Fender Musical Instruments Corporation is well, a Musical corporation, they make and sell stringed instruments and amplifiers.

The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, was created in 1946 by Clarence Leonidas “Leo” Fender, Hence why the company is called “Fender”.

The History of Fender

Just because Fender were not the first to manufacture electric guitars, like other companies who have been making electric guitars since the 1920’s, they certainly weren’t as commercially successful as Fender‘s.

The Company started out as Fender’s Radio Service around 1938, its name came from the actual founder, Leo Fender.

Leo being a qualified electronics technician, he had been asked to fix radios, home audio amplifiers, phonograph players, public address systems and musical instrument amplifiers. Most of the amplifiers back then were circuits of Vacuum-tubes! Leo then had an interested in some of the design flaws in the Vacuum-tube amplifiers, and he began building his amps with his own designs and modified versions of original designs.

By the 1940’s Leo Fender had partnered with a local man called, Clayton Orr “Doc” Kauffman, who was an electronic enthusiast. Doc Kauffman and Leo formed a company called K & F Manufacturing Corp to design and sell electric instruments and amplifiers.

By the end of 1945 Leo came to the conclusion that Manufacturing was a lot more profitable than repair, so he decided he would concentrate on that instead, Kauffman thought otherwise so they went their separate ways, turns out Leo was correct.  

Now that Leo Fender was on his own he changed the company’s name to what it is today, Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.

What I think of the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation

Fender has been a popular brand for a long time, there are many noticeable players and bands that use Fender today and in the past, such as: Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Doyle Holly, Bob Dylan, Mark Knopfler, David Gilmour, John Mayer,  and many, many others.

Here is a video of Jen Trani giving a demo on an acoustic Fender.

I do like Fender a lot, I do not own a Fender but I have tried several in a music store, and I must say they do sound nice, I am an acoustic man myself, I have not tried an electric.

I have read some forums and a lot of people don’t like the acoustic Fenders, people like to lean towards other brands like Yamaha, or Martin and the high end, like I said I don’t own a Fender so I couldn’t really say.

This post was written by my son, Jesse Ranson.