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- While Les Paul and the Gibson Guitar Company readied an electric guitar for mass production, Leo Fender and the Fender Electric Instruments Company beat them to the punch, marketing the first mass-produced solid-body electric guitar, the Fender Broadcaster (later renamed Telecaster), in 1948.
www.britannica.com/biography/Leo-FenderLeo Fender | Biography, Electric Guitars, & Facts | Britannica
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Two noteworthy Telecaster technical developments also marked 1967. First, Fender (sold by Leo Fender in 1965 and now under the corporate banner of CBS) reconfigured the guitar’s controls so that the three-way switch delivered neck pickup/both pickups/bridge pickup operation.
- Jeff Owens
- The Archtop Era
- Enter Leo Fender
- The Esquire
- The Broadcaster
- Tele Tweaks
- The Player's Perspective
- The Tele Legacy
As twilight fell on the Big Band era toward the end of World War II, small combos playing boogie-woogie, rhythm and blues, western swing, and honky-tonk formed throughout the United States. Many of these outfits embraced the electric guitarbecause it could give a few players the power of an entire horn section. Pickup-equipped archtops had reigned ...
Fender recognized the vast potential for an electric guitar that was easy to hold, easy to tune, and easy to play. He also recognized that players needed guitars that would not feed back at dance hall volumes like the typical archtop. (Many guitarists had to stuff rags into their elegantly crafted guitars to stop the howling.) In addition, Fender s...
Don Randall, who managed Fender's distributor, the Radio & Television Equipment Company, recognized the commercial possibilities of the new design and made plans to introduce the instrument as the Esquire Model. (Although Randall – the company's de facto namesmith – gave the Esquire its moniker, Fender supported the name, saying that it "sounded re...
The factory finally went into full production in late October or early November 1950, and the name Randall chose for the dual-pickup guitar was "Broadcaster." Musical Merchandisemagazine carried the first announcement for the Broadcaster in February 1951 with a full-page insert that described it in detail. The guitar had what Randall called a "Mode...
In 1952, Fender replaced the Telecaster's blend control circuit with a conventional tone control. Now the switch's rear position selected the lead pickup, the middle position selected the rhythm pickup, and the front position delivered the "deep rhythm" sound. Teles were equipped this way until the mid-'60s, when the modern switch setup was introdu...
In the early 1950s, a broad spectrum of Tele players established themselves in combos – even young blues guitarlegend-to-be B.B. King spanked the plank. With its versatile sound, ease of playing, and reasonable cost, what better guitar to yellow with perspiration and cigarette smoke? Most serious students could afford the $189.50 price, ensuring a ...
By the late '60s, it was clear the Telecaster had shaken the foundations of the music industry. The Tele – and the host of solidbody models introduced as a result of its success – changed the way the world heard, played, and composed music. Ironically, Leo Fender, who worked incessantly after '51 developing new models such as the Strat, Jazzmaster,...
Jan 7, 2019 · Crucially, Les also decided that he didn't really like Leo's Telecaster very much. The sound of it was too bright and sharp for him. The design was too plain, too straightforward, too unlovely. The Fender was a common man's guitar, and Les had always viewed himself as exceptional.
Back when it first appeared in the early 50s, it was, quite simply, a revolutionary instrument. This oral history about the birth of the Telecaster comes from interviews I’ve done over the years for my various books about Fender. Bob Perine’s famous portrait of Leo Fender at the drawing board.
Jun 11, 2021 · Leo Fender’s Telecaster was the bolt-on from the blue that changed the world with a tone that could fight its way through any mix
- Jonathan Horsley
Sep 23, 2022 · Even the name of this jet-age instrument was a kind of prototype back in ’49. Leo planned to call it the Esquire, but - as we shall see - the guitar would gain a pickup and change names twice before it assumed the historic moniker that became famous for the next seven decades: Telecaster.
Nov 15, 2022 · Fender simply installed one of Lover’s Fender Wide Range humbucking pickups in the neck position on a solid-body Telecaster, added a new pickguard design, an upper bout pickup toggle switch, and a new four-knob control scheme, and there it was—the Telecaster Custom, unveiled in 1972.
