Born near Anaheim, California in 1909, Leo Fender is the inventor of the first solid-body electric guitar to be mass-produced. Leo was an electronics man. He would constantly work on radios and other such devices in his shop. This work repairing radios would lead to his eventual entry into the world of guitar design. Many of Leo Fender’s customers that played guitar constantly brought their external pickups into the shop for repair. This helped trigger Leo to design his own guitar, the Broadcaster. This guitar was the first successful design of a guitar with a solid-body and would later go on to be known as the Fender Telecaster.
Other creations of Leo Fender include the Precision bass, or P-bass for short, in 1951 and the Fender Stratocaster in 1954. Both of these instruments would revolutionize rock and R&B for years to come. It is perhaps because of the dramatic influence Fender’s instruments had on the music world that he would later be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.