Leo Fender's Birthday

[Tobra]

Is today

1909 to 3/21/91

How many of you have some of his gear, a lot I bet

Musical genius
just the guitars, blows my mind.
Then there is the rest

Seriously though, all the different instruments, and amplifiers. I know nothing about it, my older brother is the musical one. I have had him explain and rationalize why he had a Strat and a Tele, but needed to get a Jazzmaster or another bass, because this one does not have frets, something.

I looked for a steel guitar for him in Texas, but they were too pricey or too ratty, so I got him a bigger tank for his Sportster. The one they had in stock was the right color and everything.

This place, bet you search Stratocaster you get a hundred threads

[unclebilly]

This forum resulted in me buying a strat a month or so ago… I’m trying to get lessons from my daughter and I to do together.

[ramonesfreak]

i have a johnny marr jaguar, 64 tele reissue and a 10 year old american strat all are modified with various upgrades -bridge-pickups-switches-and had/ have numerous fender amps and other strats and teles over the years.

happy birthday leo and thanks

[ramonesfreak]

[Superman]

No, he was not a musical genius. At least, in the sense of being a musician. But he knew how to develop VERY functional musical equipment and to bring those products to market with great performance and efficient manufacturing techniques. The single most popular electric bass guitar over the past sixty years is the Fender Precision. It has the tone you hear in your head if you think of a bass guitar sound. What is incredible to me is that he got it perfect the first time. For example, if you move the pickup 10mm closer to the bridge or further away, then the tone will be just 'wrong.' I have seven electric bass guitars and four of them are Fender Precisions. I rarely play the other three.

The story of electric six-string guitars is similar. The sound of a Fender Telecaster through a Fender Twin Reverb amp is burned into your consciousness, even if you don't know it. Leo Fender got these products right the first time, which is why Fender is by far the most successful electric guitar/bass manufacturer. Then and now.

[Superman]

[Tobra]

Yes he was a musical genius, you insufferably pedantic jackass, in that he had a genius for creating musical instruments and the accoutrements to go with them.


I would ask, WTF is wrong with you but that is pretty obvioua

[Superman]

Nasty personal insults do not make you look smart. PARF may fit your personality better than PPOT.

Paul McCartney is a musical genius. Leo Fender was a manufacturing genius whose ability to play music was famously inept.

[ramonesfreak]

part of what made leo great was his willingness to listen to what musicians were asking for. best example of that i can think of was his working with Dick Dale to produce the dual showman amp which paved the way for what we think of as loud amplification. i got to meet Dale shortly before he died. man what a character he was and still playing that gold sparkle strung upside down strat through his dual showmans

[ckissick]

I have a red '62 strat re-issue, made in 1984.

[Dantilla]

Here's my entire collection of musical instruments:



I really enjoyed reading "The Birth of Loud", the history of the early days of Fender & Gibson electric guitars.
Leo Fender did not know how to play guitar. Masterful electrical engineer.

[ramonesfreak]

and extremely frugal which lead to some cool ideas

it’s interesting to think that he actually thought people would just use a guitar until the neck was worn and then dispose of the neck and replace only the neck or that people would just send the neck only back for a relaquer or refret. so many quirks

[Superman]

Originally Posted by ramonesfreak

and extremely frugal which lead to some cool ideas

it’s interesting to think that he actually thought people would just use a guitar until the neck was worn and then dispose of the neck and replace only the neck or that people would just send the neck only back for a relaquer or refret. so many quirks

That's right. Necks are interchangeable. The Fender Precision bass was basically the first fretted bass. The player did not need to intonate every note on a smooth fretless fingerboard. The frets played each note in perfect pitch easily, which is why it was called the "Precision." Simple electronics with a capacitor and tone knob so that treble could be dialed into or out of the tone. Designed to be easily mass-produced. He did it right the first time which is why that exact same bass guitar is made and sold by the thousands today.