Fretless Bass Guitars

Fender Fretless Bass Guitars

Leo Fender came into this world as Clarence Leonidas Fender on August 10, 1909. An inventor who founded Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, now known as Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, Leo later founded Music Man and G&L Musical Products .

The name Fender, to most who hear it, means solid body guitars and basses.
The Fender history into the world of fretless basses starts with a ground breaking introduction to musicians who wanted more than the double bass stand ups that were being offered in the first half of the 20th Century.

And it goes further as you will see as Leo Fender, who along with Les Paul, is renowned as one of the most influential pioneers in the world of electric instruments, but in 3 or more different incarnations. All based on one original idea: To produce well made electric instruments and amplifiers that musicians would find versatile, fun and essential to own.

1946... Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, was founded in Fullerton, California, by Leo Fender. The company was later named The Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. It actually began as Fender's Radio Service in 1938. Leo Fender an electronics technician was asked to repair radios, phonographs, public address systems and musical instrument amplifiers. The business also carried records for sale and rented out proprietary PA systems. At that time Leo also began custom-building a few amplifiers based on his own designs and in modifying original designs. In most cases designs of this nature were simplified vacuum tube system designs that were in public domain.

By the early 1940s, he had partnered with Clayton Orr "Doc" Kauffman, another local electronics pioneer and together they formed the K & F Manufacturing Corp. Its purpose: manufacturing, designing and selling electronic instruments and amplifiers. Their 1st line started as the Second World War ended, in 1945, with Hawaiian lap steel guitars and amplifiers.

By the end of 1945 Fender was sure that manufacturing would be more profitable than repair, and he wanted to concentrate on that business. Kauffman who held to” repairs “as being a good moneymaker, parted ways with Fender by early 1946. At that point Leo renamed the company the Fender Electric Instrument Company. It was at this time that Leo Fender had an idea for an instrument that would prove to play a vital part in the next phase of popular music.

Before Leo Fender, most bassists were relegated to playing the Double Bass or Stand-Up Bass. Although fretless, they were at most acoustic and as bands and orchestras got larger, bassists found themselves always fighting for volume as they were typically drowned out by instruments that by design had the “volume edge”. Along with their “sound handicap” double basses are big, heavy and just plain bulky when transporting to a gig. Leo Fender addressed both of these issues with his invention the Precision Bass (or "P-Bass") first sold in 1951. Unlike double basses, the guitar-like Precision Bass was small and portable. It was designed with solid body construction and four magnet, single coil electronic pickups that allowed the P-Bass to be amplified to high volumes. Additionally the internal pick ups did not cause degenerative feedback issues that plagued acoustic instruments when amplified by a “Mic”.

Along with the Precision Bass, Fender introduced a bass amplifier, the Fender Bassman; a 45 watt amplifier with four 10" speakers.

In 1960 Fender released the Jazz Bass. It played faster and sleeker than the Precision, and it was built with a slimmer neck. The Jazz Bass was also equipped with two single coil pickups, unlike the split-humbuckers that were designed for its older sister. But like its elder sibling the Jazz Bass (or simply "J-Bass") was an instant success and is popular to this day with players and collectors alike.

Fender Standard Jazz Fretless Bass

In early 1965, Leo Fender sold his companies to CBS. That move brought the Columbia Broadcasting system into the world of musical instruments. Now CBS had ownership of the Fender companies which included Fender Electric Instrument Company, Inc., Fender Acoustic Instrument Company, Inc., Fender-Rhodes keyboards, and V.C. Squier Company), as well as Leslie speakers, Rogers drums, and Steinway pianos. This had far-reaching implications. Under the management of "cost-cutting" CBS, several instrument cosmetic changes occurred after 1966. Larger headstock shape on certain guitars, bound necks and block shaped position markers . On the guitars alone the usual four-bolt neck joint was changed to one using only three bolts.

In 1971, Forrest White and Tom Walker, Fender employees disgruntled with the way CBS was managing the company, left Fender to head out on their own. By 1974 under the name of Music Man, Walker and White produced a hybrid tube-solid state amplifier with the help of Leo Fender, who was acting as a silent partner until the “no compete" clause he signed with CBS expired a year later. Then Leo was free to be voted in as the President of Music Man, Inc.

Under Fender’s supervision the StingRay bass was unveiled in 1976. It looked a lot like the Fender Precision Bass, but was an innovation in design. The Sting Ray had a "soapbar" humbucking pickup and active electronics powered by a 9-volt battery. Early models were designed with 2-band Equalizers. Later the would use 3 band EQ making it possible to boost all frequency ranges as well as low and high, something which had not been possible on basses without active preamps. Other improvements employed on the StingRay included a heavy satin finish on the back of the neck to allow players' hands to slide effortlessly up and down while playing.
Innovations are what lead Leo to create imaginative fretted and fretless bass guitars, like:

-The Fender Standard Jazz Bass. With a fretless maple neck, 20 inlaid white fretline markers and 2 redesigned Standard Jazz Bass single-coil pickups.
-The Tony Franklin Fretless Precision Bass with Ebony Fingerboard, 4-Ply Brown Shell Pickguard. , American Series Precision Bass neck pickup and a Tony Franklin signature Jazz Bass bridge pickup with hex screw lugs and bar ceramic magnets.
-The Music Man 5-String HSS Lined Fretless Electric Bass Guitar with its lightweight body, and state-of-the-art electronics not found on any other bass. This bass guitar offers a wide array of distinctive sounds. Using a cutting-edge push-button system, you can combine pickups in active, passive, series, and parallel modes, creating endless tonal combinations as never before.

People who knew Leo Fender best say that he was a friendly, modest and unassuming man. He died in 1991 from complications of Parkinson's disease. What he left on this earth will capture the musical imaginations of bassists and guitarists for generations.