Pictures, description and soundclips from a 1973 Fender Musicmaster bass. The Musicmaster bass changed very little between it's introduction in 1970, and it's deletion in the early 1980s. Although often regarded as a student bass, the Musicmaster was of high enough quality, both in terms of components and build, to sell to student guitarists and more advanced players looking for an affordable shortscale bass.

1964 1965 Fender catalogue

Entitled Fine Electric Instruments, the 1964 1965 Fender catalogue was circulated from mid 1964, and despite being just eight pages long, contained a large number of guitars, amplifiers and other instruments. This was the first catalogue to show the new Fender Mustang guitar, which was available in normal or 3/4 scale at that time. This catalogue was included in the 1964 annual guitar issue of Down Beat magazine (July), massively increasing the potential readership, both in America and worldwide.

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Vintage Fender
Guitars, basses and amps made by Fender

Vintage Fender guitars for sale in a vintage guitar store
Vintage Fender guitars

Fender, or the Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, as it was properly known was started in 1946, in Fullerton, California, by Leo Fender.

Along with Gibson, Fender is probably the best known guitar manufacturer in the world. Both companies were right at the forefront of the guitar boom of the 1950s and 60s, and have managed to maintain leading positions ever since.

Categories:
Fender amplifiers
Fender bass guitars
Fender guitar catalogues
Fender electric guitars
Vintage Fender adverts

However, these two companies were not always in as direct competition as might be assumed; yes they both made guitars, basses and amplifiers, but both tended to play to their strengths; Gibson's expertise was it's luthierie; they stuck to high end electric-acoustics, semi-acoustics and skillfully made solid bodies, whilst Fender excelled at electronics; they made amplifiers and easily built solid body basses and guitars.

Fender guitars

1953 Fender advertisement for the Telecaster guitar, Precision bass, Twin and Bassman amplifiers. See more vintage Fender adverts
Gibson did not take Fender too seriously at first; Fender were just an amplifier company that made a few guitars. They didn't regard the solid-body Broadcaster launched in 1950 as a serious musical instrument, lacking the depth of tone of a Gibson electric-acoustic. But music was changing, guitarists wanted different sounds, and music was getting louder. Fenders instruments proved to be more appropriate for the emerging musical scenes. Over the next decade Fender created a number of solid-body guitars that defined genres. Guitars like the Fender Stratocaster, Fender Telecaster and Fender Precision bass proved to be exceptionally popular and have stayed in production ever since.

You could argue that it was the Stratocaster weilding Jimi Hendrix that was the biggest advertisement for Fender guitars; legions of guitarists, including Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton, suddenly got strats.

Fender bass guitars

Fender invented the solid body electric bass, and have made a variety of different models. Like the guitars they were exceptionally simple; typically an ash body, with a bolt-on maple neck and single coil pickups. Simple, but very well-done simple. Read more about Fender bass guitars here.

Fender amplifiers

Older Fender amplifiers still have a lot of users today. Vintage Fender valve amps like the Fender Bassman, Fender Deluxe and Fender Twin Reverb have great reputations as guitar amplifiers, offering rich vintage tones that modern amps can't easily replicate.