Fender: The Inside Story Review

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Fender: The Inside Story ReviewThis book will be an interesting and educational read for anyone who wants to learn more about the life of Leo Fender and his many innovations in the field of electric musical instruments. The author, Forrest White, traces Fender's career from his early years running a radio repair shop, through his initial struggles to launch his guitar and amplifier business, the later years of dramatic growth and success, the CBS takeover, and Leo Fender's subsequent launch of both Music Man and G&L. Leo Fender is revealed as a risktaker, a tireless innovator, and someone whose products were vastly improved by the fact he listened intently to his musician customers for new ideas. White's book is also chocked full of technical details such as the dates when various products were developed and marketed, specifications of various amps and pickups, and so on.
White is in a good position to tell this story because he spent fourteen years as General Manager of the Fender Electrical Instrument Company, and was Leo Fender's associate for many years thereafter. In fact, in many respects, this book is more about White than it is about Fender. White describes, for example, how he used his organizational skills to bring order to the chaos of Fender's early manufacturing operations. After the CBS takeover of Fender, White tells of how he refused to approve the new company's plans to manufacture solid state amplifiers that, in his view, fell far short of quality standards and were not be worthy of the Fender name (he was right).
While White certainly has many impressive accomplishments to his credit but, as he writes this book, he often seems to overreach to repeat numerous compliments that were paid to him during his career, some of which aren't relevant to the Fender story. The book also includes some venomous barbs for industry people who White felt treated him unfairly or whose work he did not respect. At some points in the book, White is painfully petty, such as when he blames Fender's second wife and others for the fact that Fender did not invite to join with George Fullerton in creating the new G&L guitar company. White writes: "Do you suppose it had anything to with Leo's second marriage?.... Was it because of old resentments from the early Fender years, when I was George [Fullerton]'s boss and struggled with him over manufacturing problems?" That kind of stuff detracts from the book.
I was also somewhat disgusted by White's gratuitous speculation about Fender's physical condition shortly before his death: "He acted like he was under very heavy sedation -- absolutely lethargic," writes White. "I sure hoped that he was not taking more medication than was necessary, because Leo was a proud man, and it must have been very embarrassing for him when he could not carry on an intelligible conversation with his friends." Is it possible that White, who claims to have been one of Fender's closest friends, did not know the man was suffering from Parkinson's Disease, which has exactly the type of devastating neurological symptoms he described?
All of that said, I'm glad Forrest White wrote this book and that I've had an opportunity to read it. In terms of the factual narrative, the book is a time capsule of sorts, taking us back to the Southern California of the late 1940s and early `50s, when rock 'n' roll was young, and there was lots of open space, clean air, and a radio repairman like Leo Fender (who loved Hawaiian music) could branch out to making Hawaiian guitars on the side and amplifiers. In those days, the phone number for Fender's Radio Repair shop was #6 -- that's all, just 6. White tells us of the colorful group of colleagues, coworkers and musicians that surrounded Fender during those early days, including Doc Kaufman, Freddy Tavares, George Fullerton, Dale Hyatt, and so on. There are lots of poignant and funny anecdotes that any lover of Fender instruments will appreciate. White's description of the changes at Fender after the CBS takeover is both savage and witty.
Leo Fender is now seen by many as the Henry Ford of modern electric stringed instruments. He literally invented the modern, fretted electric bass guitar. His amplifiers were rugged, practical, and dependable and some, like the '59 Bassman, have attained almost mythical status for their tone and quality, and are prized by collectors and players alike. Fender's Telecaster and Stratocaster guitars were major design breakthroughs for their time and are probably some of the most copied guitars of all time. They are as popular today as they were almost half a century ago when they were first designed. As Fender's fame grew, some people were apparently taking liberties with company's history, so White decided to write this book and comply with Leo Fender's request to "tell it just like it happened." If you can put up with White's occasionally self-serving narrative and petty barbs, that's just what you'll find.Fender: The Inside Story Overview

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