Beneath is a general history of Fender
guitars and below that is a current listing of any
auctions of Fender guitars on ebay that are not finalized.
When you click on any of the auction links you will find
the ebay site opens in a new window. So you can continue
to browse this page of Fender guitars on ebay while you
look for more detail on the Fender guitars on eBay's
site.
Fender is best known for solid-body electric guitars,
including the Stratocaster and the Telecaster. The company was
founded in Fullerton, California, by Clarence Leonidas Fender
in 1946. As a qualified electronics technician, Leo
Fender became intrigued by design flaws in current
musical instrument amplifiers, and he began
custom-building amplifiers based on his own designs or by
modifying designs.
He partnered with Clayton Kauffman, and formed a company
named K & F Manufacturing Corp. to design, manufacture and
sell electric instruments and amplifiers. Production began in
1945 with Hawaiian lap steel guitars, incorporating a patented
pickup, and amplifiers, which were sold as sets. Kauffman and
Fender had amicably parted ways by early 1946. At that point
Leo renamed the company the Fender Electric Instrument
Company.
The first big series of amplifiers were built in 1948 and
varied in output from 3 watts to 75 watts. This period was one
of innovation and changes. While nearly all other
electric guitars then were either hollow-body guitars or more
specialized instruments such as Rickenbacker's solid-body
Hawaiian guitars, Fender had created versatile solid-body
electric guitars.
Fender offered the first mass-produced solid-body
Spanish-style electric guitar, the Stratocaster (originally
named the Broadcaster while Esquire is a single pickup version
), the first mass-produced electric bass, the Precision Bass
(P-Bass); and the popular Telecaster (Tele) guitar, the
economically mass produceable offspring of Fender's unique
solid body Broadcaster guitar.
Fender owed its early success to marketing genius Don
Randall. In Fender guitar literature of the 1960s,
attractive, guitar-toting teens were posed with
surfboards at local beachside settings,
firmly implanting Fender into the surfin’ culture of
Southern California.
In early 1965, Leo Fender sold his companies to CBS which
led to gradual reduction of production quality. Although CBS
did introduce some new instrument and amplifier designs, the
new designs were mostly regarded as cost cutting rather than
improvement. However the Fender Starcaster was unusual because
of its semi-hollow body design and completely different
headstock while retaining the Fender bolt-on neck. The
Starcaster also incorporated a new Humbucking pickup designed
by Seth Lover which gave rise to 3 new incarnations of the
classic Telecaster.
Squier was a string manufacturer acquired by Fender.
The Squier brand has been used by Fender since 1982 to market
inexpensive variants of Fender guitars intended to compete with
the rise of Stratocaster copies. Squier guitars have been
manufactured in Japan, Korea, India, Indonesia and China. The
Squier name brands many inexpensive guitars based on
Fender designs but with generally cheaper hardware, bridges and
electronics.
In 1985, the Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing
Company employees purchased the company from CBS and renamed it
the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. The company has
retained Fender's older models along with implementing newer
designs and concepts.
In recent years, Fender branched out into making and
selling steel-string acoustic guitars, and has purchased a
number of other instrument firms, including the Guild Guitar
Company, the Sunn Amplifier Company, and SWR Sound
Corporation. In 2003, Fender made a deal with Gretsch and
began manufacturing and distributing new Gretsch guitars. In
2007, Fender purchased Kaman Music Corporation (owners of Hamer
Gutars, Ovation Guitars, Genz Benz amplifiers, Gibraltar
Hardware, and Takamine Acoustic Guitars.) Fender also owns:
Jackson, Charvel, Olympia, Orpheum, Tacoma Guitars, Squier and
Brand X amps.
Other Fender brands include Squier (entry level/budget),
Guild (acoustic and electric guitars and amplifiers), Rodriguez
(classical guitars), Benedetto (jazz guitars), SWR (bass
amplification), Tacoma, Jackson and Charvel Guitars, X Brand
(bass amplifiers) and collaborated with Eddie Van Halen to make
the EVH guitars and amplifiers. Other Fender instruments
include the Mustang, Jazzmaster, Jaguar, Starcaster, Duo-sonic,
and Bronco guitars; basses such as the Jazz Bass, the
'Telecaster Bass' reissue of the original 1950s Precision Bass;
a line of lap steels; three models of electric violin, and the
Fender Rhodes electric piano.
While more recent use by Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead has
raised the Starcaster's profile, CBS-era instruments are
generally much less coveted or collectable than the "pre-CBS"
models created by Leo Fender before selling the Fender
companies to CBS in 1965. The older and American built Fender
guitars are generally the most favoured guitars, but pre-1990
Fender Japan guitars are now highly regarded as well.
Following is a listing of current auctions of fender
guitars on ebay
