The Guitar From Fullerton Rules Again

A fresh-faced Buddy Holly was a couple of years out of high school when he landed his first record contract. He borrowed $1,000 from his brother for a suit and a 1955 Fender Stratocaster with a sunburst pattern.

During a 1 1/2-year career that ended with his death in a plane crash in 1959, Holly vaulted into the limelight and inadvertently took the then-little known guitar with him. Since then, Stratocasters have been picked by the Beach Boys, strummed by Eric Clapton and burned by Jimi Hendrix.

But things haven’t always been upbeat for the Scottsdale-based guitar maker. Its glory days were cut short by the decline in quality that eventually followed its sale to CBS Corp. in 1965.

Only since its purchase by private investors in 1985 has the company begun to restore its image and its product quality, say industry experts.

“By the sheer numbers, they are back,” said Matt Blackett, assistant editor at Guitar Player magazine.

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Leo Fender launched what became the most copied guitar body style of all time from his radio shop in Fullerton.

He started making amplifiers in 1946, but he wanted to make the first viable Spanish electric guitar, said Fender spokesman Morgan Ringwald.

His first guitar, dubbed the Broadcaster, was designed for jazz musicians, but most weren’t interested. Teens and upcoming rock ‘n’ roll musicians were, however.

Fender had to give up the Broadcaster name, because a German company was making drums under that name. The Telecaster and Stratocaster guitar lines would follow.

Rock ‘n’ roll and a whole series of surf bands made Fender popular, but Leo Fender, fearing he was old and dying, decided to sell the company to CBS for $13 million.

Keith Brawley, a Fender spokesman, said the founder hung around the company for five years as a consultant. But by 1970 “the bean counters had begun to work their black magic,” he said.

For the next 15 years, the company’s image and guitar quality suffered, Ringwald said--until Bill Schultz arrived.

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Schultz, a self-described worn-out saxophone and clarinet player, was originally brought in by CBS to rehabilitate the company after guitar sales began to sag.

CBS lost interest after a few years, Schultz said, and he decided to get some investors together to buy the company.

What Schultz’s investors got in 1985 for their $12 million was the Fender name, the patents and enough machinery to make just a dozen guitars a day.

Today the company churns out 1,000 guitars a day in Mexico and Corona, Calif. Under Fender and two other brands it owns, Sunn and Guild, the company is taking in about $200 million worldwide, said Schultz, the 75-year-old chief executive.

It’s making guitars and amplifiers for everyone from high school garage band musicians to collectors who want custom-made guitars that look like Fender’s 1950s classics, said Brawley. Guitars start at about $150 and go up from there.

“Our roots were always in making a guitar that’s accessible. It was never ‘Can we build the world’s best guitar, price be damned.’ There’s no trick to that,” Brawley said.

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Blackett, the assistant editor of Guitar Player, said Fender has succeeded.

“They are a very solid, very deep company. . . . More than any other company, they have all the price points covered,” he said.

Grier Cook, who has been playing guitar since the 1960s, said there’s a lot of excitement surrounding the Fender name again.

“It’s a working man’s guitar. Musicians don’t make the most money in the world, and they can still afford [a Fender] and play it for 20 years,” said Cook, who works at Guitar Center, a store in Phoenix.

And its rock ‘n’ roll image hasn’t hurt, Blackett said. “Their Stratocaster is just the guitar.”