If you were asked to picture the shape of an electric guitar, chances are that you would be thinking of the classic Fender design. The fact that just one company and one style would come to dominate the whole marketplace is similar to what Hoover and Dyson managed to achieve in the vacuum cleaner market. While guitar aficionados will talk about the relative merits of Gibson, Gretsch or Rickenbacker and different bands will favour different manufacturers, a combination of marketing, timing and production has allowed Fender to stay dominant in an industry that has evolved greatly over the last 50 years.
Leo Fender first produced an electric version of the guitar in 1946. The main advantage of his design was that he improved on the hollow-body instruments of the day, using an innovative and rather simple solid-body electric guitar design. He also realised that he could streamline the building process using mass production techniques.
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