Modern guitar history cannot be understood without Leo Fender and the Fender electric guitars. Clarence Leonidas Fender was born in Anaheim, California in 1909. He developed interest in radio electronics already as a teenager, and he became a qualified electronics technician.

The Beginnings: Fender’s Radio Service

He opened a repair shop under the name Fender’s Radio Service in late 1938 in Fullerton, California. In addition to repairing radios, he learned how to deal with phonographs, home and professional audio systems, and musical instrument amplifiers. His business included selling records and renting his self-developed PA systems.

His customers were players from the first generation of electric guitarists. They used hollow-body guitars with attached pickups, which were already available since the early 1930s. The electric tone character of their instruments was not yet a primary motivation to go electric, and they musicians mainly regarded electric amplification just as a means to achieve more volume.

At this time, most systems were based on a few simple vacuum tube circuit designs made public by the Western Electric company. Fender soon began to introduce improvements to the existing amplifier designs.

The Transition: K&F Manufacturing Corporation

In the early 1940s, Leo Fender decided to go into the electric instrument and amplifier business. Together with another local electronics expert, Clayton Orr -Doc- Kauffman, they formed the K&F Manufacturing Corporation.

In 1943, Leo and Doc built a simple solid-wood guitar, just to use it a pick test rig in their repair shop. Surprisingly, local musicians showed interest in it, and even asked to borrow it for their performances.

They soon patented a crude electric Hawaiian-style solid-body in 1944 and offered their first instruments -sets composed of Hawaiian lap steel guitar and amplifier- in 1945.

Fender perceived the musical instrument industry was definitely a more promising field than his repair shop. World War II had put out many musical instrument companies, and he felt this was the right time to go for it. Kauffman didn’t see it the same way, and both dissolved K&F in friendly terms in early 1946.

The Foundation: Fender Electric Instrument Company

The company was then renamed to Fender Electric Instrument Company. Fender let a formal factory be constructed for the company in Fullerton.

The first Fender electric guitars (steel guitars) and amplifiers were launched in 1947. The repair shop remained open until 1951, although Leo Fender himself was fully focused on the new company’s activity from 1946 on.

Soon, the new Fender electric guitars would revolutionize the whole musical instrument industry.