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THE TRUTH ABOUT: Leo fender | History Defined

“It’s a one-string instrument with a handle on it, and I hit it with a stick”: Les Claypool’s bonkers one-string leads the biggest (and strangest) bass releases of the month

May saw the reissue of Fender's best-selling bass, a custom Rickenbacker for Geddy Lee, and a supersized version of the daddy of all fuzz

Guitar World

6 reasons why Fender won’t win its Stratocaster legal campaign – according to the lawyer who beat them before

Ron Bienstock, the attorney who defeated Fender's previous attempt to trademark the Strat, has been hired to defend a firm hit by recent cease-and-desist letters – and Guitar World has seen a redacted response

Guitar World

“This threatens not only our business, but also the future of S-style guitars for builders and players across the European Union”: Is this the beginning of the end for the S-style? Fender issues cease and desist letter to US builder

We are now seeing the downstream effects of Fender's legal victory in Germany as Strat EU legal protections bring lawyers' letters to the doors of US guitar makers

MusicRadar

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14 ways to improve your Telecaster: tried and tested methods to get more out of Fender’s original mod platform

Players were already modifying their Telecasters in the 1950s, and a thriving aftermarket parts industry provides countless ways to enhance playability, reliability and tone

Guitar World

“This case could set a precedent, impacting countless other builders and musicians”: Fender escalates legal campaign against S-style guitars, issues first cease and desist to US builder

Family-run LsL Instruments is seeking to raise funds for its legal battle against Fender, which has instructed the firm to stop making its S-style guitars

Guitar World

“What began as a niche guitar developed for Californian country has become a musical universal wrench: from metal to jazz, from pop to grindcore”: The evolution of the Fender Telecaster – the original solid-body electric guitar that started it all

As the Telecaster turns 75, we chart its history – hardware, parts, and all – from the Nocaster days to the Wide Range era

Guitar World

“This city didn't just embrace the Telecaster, it helped define it”: Fender’s Telecaster 75th anniversary show might be the greatest assemblage of Tele talent ever

Held at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, the Tele Town concert was highlighted by perhaps the most electrifying Telecaster jam of all time – featuring, to name a few participants, Jack White, Brad Paisley, Tommy Emmanuel, and John Osborne

Guitar World

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“One is the archetypal vintage workhorse, the other aims to be a hot-rodded example that any custom builder might devise”: Fender 75th Anniversary Vintera Road Worn 1951 Telecaster & American Professional Classic Cabronita Telecaster review

To mark the company’s diamond anniversary, Fender has released a slew of celebratory models. Here’s a pair of polar opposite but equally alluring Telecasters

MusicRadar

“He says to me, ‘You’re a legend.’ I said, ‘Are you kidding? You’re a legend. You’re the new Leo Fender. You’re the new Les Paul. You’re the new Orville Gibson’”: Randy Bachman on the guitar builder who’s up there with the greats of the industry

And Bachman says this builder is working on an electric guitar that will weigh less than 4lbs.

Guitar World

“I put it in the freezer overnight and took a blowtorch to it”: Joe Perry put his “desert island guitar” through hell but it’s still his number one

Perry’s Fender/Warmoth “Burned Strat” aka the “Rat Strat” was the main guitar on Aerosmith’s recent collab with Yungblud

Guitar World

“A high-octane character that’s occasionally stubborn, but it stands out from the crowd”: Fender 75th Anniversary American Professional Classic Cabronita Telecaster review

The Telecaster’s “asshole cousin” trades traditional twang for a boutique growl that looks as sharp as it sounds

Guitar World

“I’m not an amp snob. I’m gonna give everything a try. Some of the oddest guitars and amps I have are ones I’ve used on my favorite songs”: Joe Perry gives us a decade-by-decade guide to the amps behind his Aerosmith tone

Is Joe Perry a Marshall guy, Fender guy, boutique guy, pedal amp guy? Answer: he’s all of the above

Guitar World

“Most photographers don’t need better gear, they need better taste,” but investing in camera kit can still be a good thing

A Redditor has said something that I know an awful lot of people agree with –myself included –but I think the argument against gear acquisition is slightly more nuanced

Digital Camera World

“The Telecaster is like the heart and soul of rock and roll music”: Fender celebrates 75 years of the electric guitar that started it all with limited edition collection

The 75th Anniversary Telecaster Collection features five stunning takes on the first mass-produced solidbody electric

MusicRadar

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Guitar World

"We let John take this out and beat it up for a while. This is about as robust a unit as we can make – because it needed to be”: Inside Fender’s B-Bender revival – and the making of its very first in-house design

Fender’s Chief Engineer Tim Shaw lifts the lid on the making of the John Osborne Telecaster, the challenges around creating a B-Bender for a heavy-handed player, and the freedom that comes with designing hardware in-house

Guitar World

“It’s about time this unsung guitar great received the recognition he deserves”: All the guitar gear that has caught my eye this week – including a firm-first from my favorite pedal brand

New drops from Gibson, Ernie Ball Music Man, JHS Pedals and more

Guitar World

“It was like, ‘Congratulations, you just bought Leo Fender’s company. Now you gotta learn how to make guitars’”: The origins of Ernie Ball Music Man – and how it all started with a bass

The StingRay was worked on by Sterling Ball, Leo Fender and others, initially under the Music Man brand name

Guitar World

NAMM 2026: The best new things in bass from the biggest music instrument event of the year

From Aguilar to Ashdown and beyond, here’s a look at the new gear that had bassists abuzz at this year’s NAMM show

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Guitar World

“The Stratocaster has been around for 70 years and it’s perfect. Now we come along and say, ‘You’re wrong!’ They don’t like it”: True Temperament wants to disrupt an industry built on heritage, but do its necks actually fix the guitar’s biggest flaw?

Crooked frets, designed to solve the instrument’s biggest intonation issues, have won over some big-name players (even if they’re keeping quiet about it). Is it a revolution or just a fad?

Guitar World

“The brief I gave the team was simple, but extraordinarily difficult: make an acoustic guitar the way that Leo would have made it”: Ex-Fender CEO Andy Mooney on the birth of the Acoustasonic – and the happy accident that made it a reality

When the first Fender Acoustasonic launched in 2019, it ushered in a new era – not only for the legacy brand, but for the acoustic space at large

MusicRadar

Rave culture meets the first mass-produced electric guitar – Fender teams up with Palace Skateboards for limited edition Telecaster with “high-energy” graphic

The Big F and the cult skate and streetwear brand also unveil guitar picks and strap

Guitar World

“G&L is no longer – and we still have a lot of unanswered questions”: Former G&L employee speaks out following quiet closure of company – as Fender purchases the 'Leo Fender' trademark

Steve Araujo, who worked with G&L for nearly a decade, has shed light on the fate of the company following weeks of speculation

Guitar World

“When I went to England in 1965 with this Strat, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page said, ‘Man, I didn’t know that kind of guitar could play the blues’”: Buddy Guy on showmanship, Sinners– and why he has unfinished business with the blues

Is Buddy Guy our greatest living blues guitarist? As his 10th decade approaches, we meet the master for a frank talk about passing the torch, the importance of a sip of cognac and his advice for Hendrix

Guitar World

“It may be a cliché, but let’s say it anyway: Jimi Hendrix didn’t do too badly with CBS Fenders”: Fender’s CBS era is often associated with the company losing its reputation for quality – but is that view still justified?

Fender’s CBS era is often boiled down to an equation of ‘corporate drive for profit and quantity = lowering of build standards,’ but like many things in life, it's not so simple

Guitar World

“One of the most visionary and influential bassists in the history of our instrument”: Anthony Jackson, low-end legend who pioneered the concept of the modern six-string bass, dies aged 73

Al Di Meola has led the tributes to a session icon who took the instrument to new frontiers

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