Clarence Leonidas Fender was born in Anaheim California on August 10th, 1909. From the beginning, Fender has always tinkered with electronics. At age 13, he started working on radios with his uncle who owned an automotive-electric repair shop. In 1938, Leo started his own radio repair shop, called "Fender Radio Service." He started to build, rent, and sell PA systems and amplification for bands. During World War II, Leo Fender met Doc Kauffman, an inventor and lap steel player who had been building and selling lap steel guitars for a good ten years before. They started the "K & F Manufacturing Corporation" together, designing and building electric lap steel guitars and amplifiers. By 1944, Leo Fender had patented an electric pickup that was …show more content…
In 1951, Leo Fender released the Precision Bass, named because of it’s fretted neck that allowed bassists to play with 'precision'. Fender introduced a bass amplifier called the Bassman, which used 45-watts of power into four 10 inch speakers. In 1960, Fender released the Jazz Bass, a two pickup bass with a sleeker, offset body shape. It’s more aggressive tone instantly made it popular and it is still the bass of choice for many around the world. In the late 1950s, Leo Fender contracted a terrible sinus infection that lead him to the point where he wound up his business affairs, and he sold the Fender company to CBS in 1965. Shortly after selling the company, he started seeing a different doctor who cured his illness. In 1971, Forrest White and Tom Walker formed the Tri-Sonix company and went to Leo to help finance it. Leo Fender renamed the company ‘Music Man’ and in 1975, became its president. One of Music Man’s first instruments was the StingRay bass. The Music Man StingRay is largely considered the first production bass with humbucking pickups and powered, or active,