Free Republic

Fender’s CFO Matt Janopaul has revealed that in 2022 the electric guitar giant had to deal with almost $100 million worth of canceled orders. Most players know by now that one of the few upsides of the pandemic was a boom in guitar sales. Indeed, after some years on the wane, guitar sales returned to their highest figures since the ’60s Beatlemania boom. Of course, what goes up, must go down, and a decline has subsequently followed. Now we have some concrete figures from the world’s biggest guitar brand, Fender. Speaking to business publication Pyments as part of its Tough...

If you want to get under Andy Mooney’s skin, tell him that electric guitars are dead. A 2017 Washington Post article making that claim still gets him exercised even as he’s seen a renaissance in guitar sales at the company he leads, Fender Musical Instruments. That boom has been fueled partly by an increasingly diverse player base, as more women and people of color embrace an instrument long associated with white male fans of classic rock. Many have continued to proclaim the death of the guitar since that article’s publication, Mooney says with exasperation. “It was like in the days...

"Wasted Days and Wasted Nights" is an American country and pop song originally recorded by Freddy Fender in 1959, and re-recorded by him in 1975. It is considered by many to belong to the swamp pop idiom of south Louisiana and southeast Texas that had such a major musical impact on Fender."Wasted Days and Wasted Nights" was certified gold for sales of one million units by the Recording Industry Association of America. The song was a major hit in New Zealand. In 1975, it spent a total of 12 weeks in the number one position in the New Zealand...

The minds of a lot of Dads, worldwide, must be boggling right about now. Not only is there a new record for the most expensive guitar ever sold at auction, it’s A. An item deeply connected to the legacy of Pink Floyd, and B. contributing almost $4 million to charity in the process. Regardless of your opinion of a media mogul like Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Isray, the guitar’s new owner, that is still one heck of an impressive figure. And David Gilmour’s legendary “Black Strat” wasn’t even the only item that Isray picked up at the Thursday auction from...

Jimmy Page's announcement of new signature Telecasters comes almost exactly 30 years since Fender released its very first signature models, although even then the idea of a signature or artist model was hardly a new one. Way back in the 1920s, it was Gibson who jumped on the popularity of Nick Lucas, the first American to become a big star through guitar-and-vocal hits. Nick's bestsellers included "I'm Looking Over A Four Leaf Clover" (1927) and "Tip-Toe Thru The Tulips With Me" (1929), and he also cut some fine guitar-centric stuff like "Pickin' The Guitar" and "Teasin' The Frets." Gibson's Nick...

I interviewed Don Randall in 1992, when I was researching my first book about Fender. In the beginning, Don had worked for Fender's distributor, Radio-Tel, but in the early '50s he joined Fender as the head of sales, staying there until a few years after CBS' takeover in 1965. I met Don at his office in Tustin, California, and spent a couple of enjoyable hours chatting about the old days, necessarily concentrating on his view from the business side of Fender—and, in particular, discussing the controversial CBS purchase. Sitting in his wood-paneled office, he looked to me a little like...

An Ovation guitar factory in the western Connecticut hills that produced instruments for music legends from Paul Simon to Cat Stevens to Glen Campbell will be closing in June after 47 years and production of the Ovation line in the United States will stop, the manufacturer’s parent company told the shop’s 46 workers this week. One former factory worker called it “the end of an iconic American brand.” Fender Musical Instruments Corp., based in Scottsdale, Ariz., and maker of the iconic Stratocaster electric guitar, said in an announcement Tuesday that it was ceasing domestic production of Ovation guitars and closing...

The top 10 1. Van Halen, Van Halen (1978) 2. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Are You Experienced (1967) 3. Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin IV (1971) 4. Derek and the Dominos, Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (1970) 5. Guns N’ Roses, Appetite for Destruction (1987) 6. Led Zeppelin, Led Zeppelin II (1969) 7. The Allman Brothers Band, At Fillmore East (1971) 8. Cream, Disraeli Gears (1967) 9. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Electric Ladyland (1968) 10. AC/DC, Back in Black (1980)

George Fullerton, a longtime associate of Leo Fender who played a crucial role in the electric-guitar innovator's extraordinary success through his broad-based skills as a musician, artist and technician, has died. He was 86. Fullerton died Saturday of congestive heart failure at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, said his son Geoff. While Fender tinkered away, coming up with improvements in guitar design that led to the creation of his revolutionary Telecaster and Stratocaster electric guitars, Fullerton was charged with making those innovations practical for mass production in their Orange County factory that opened in the late 1940s. Nearly 1,000...

I'd like to hear from all the FReeper guitarists out there!

An attempt by Fender to trademark the body shapes of its Stratocaster, Telecaster and Precision models has been rejected. As reported by MusicRadar.com, in denying Fender's application, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the United States Patent and Trademark Office wrote: "The applicant has not established acquired distinctiveness such that these two-dimensional outlines of guitar bodies, standing alone, serve to indicate source. The evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that these configurations are so common in the industry that they cannot identify source." In a 75-page document, the Appeal Board went on to say "it does not appear that … third parties...

Bob Weir, Founding Member of the Grateful Dead Both my natural and adopted fathers were military men. My adopted dad attended Annapolis for seven years and came out with the military equivalent of a doctorate in Engineering. When they gave him his first commission and put him out to sea he was seasick from the time he left port to the time he got back. It was so bad they had to put him in the hospital. Then he tried it again right at the beginning of World War II. He wanted nothing more than to serve his country but...

My wife made a mistake. For my birthday in February, she bought me a calendar from the Fender Custom Shop. I hung it on the wall directly behind my desk, right in my range of vision, and I have been gazing longingly ever since at beautiful guitars. My longing stayed within reason until I turned the page to April, and saw the Engraved Thinline Telecaster in flame maple. The clumsy copy below the calendar proper says "both nice to look at and a dream to play." "A dream to play" has been ringing in my head ever since, the way...

Shameless vanity that ask the musical question: What guitar did you get?

Guitar gods and demi-gods I need freeper advice. A small to medium sized amp is needed to allow proper practice of a vintage tele and new Gibson LP. I have a budget of $1000 'cause the wife says so. So I am soliciting advice. Tube or SS? Modelling or bare bones (I have stomp boxes)? New or vintage? Thanks, doodad

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fender Musical Instruments, which has made guitars for generations of rock legends, denied media reports on Wednesday that it had hired financial advisors to find a buyer for the company.   The Financial Times, citing people familiar with the situation, said on Wednesday that Goldman Sachs has been hired to sell the legendary guitar company, which could draw bids of up to $500 million. Reuters later ran a similar story, citing a source close to the situation. But Fender Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Schultz, who participated in a buyout of the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company by...

A massive 32 foot long, fully functional electric guitar has been made by a team of builders including legendary pickup guru Seymour W. Duncan, luthier Matty Baratto, and the "best-of-the-best" craftsmen from the television series Monster House and Monster Garage. The guitar was built for the Discovery Channel Network television series BIG! and will air June 15, 2004. The BIG! series shows how things are made and work by building the objects over-sized. "The BIG! Guitar is the third episode in the BIG! series," said Jeff Kuntz, series producer. "Each episode brings together builders from the Monster House and Monster...

<p>SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- The year 1954 was full of pop culture benchmarks. Elvis Presley recorded his first single, the Miss America pageant was televised for the first time, Ernest Hemingway won the Nobel Prize for The Old Man and the Sea.</p>