The Fender Book: A Complete History of Fender Electric Guitars [Hardcover]

Tony Bacon (Author), Paul Day (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1992

For Fender fans and collectors, guitar enthusiasts, and lovers of popular music--a complete guide to Fender electric guitars, from the 1950s to the present. This in-depth story is illustrated with large, high-quality photos of rare, outstanding and unusual Fender models, together with some choice selections of Fender memorabilia. Advertising in Guitar Player and Bass Player magazines.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A triumph...the most comprehensive and readable guide to a range of guitars we've seen." -- Making Music

"Full-color, mouth-watering photo spreads...a great book for the coffee table or the reference library." -- Guitar Player --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Backbeat Books (November 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0879302593
• ISBN-13: 978-0879302597
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,526,792 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A FUN BOOK - maybe no more, but certainly no less, March 8, 2000

By 

Tom (Pawtucket, RI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Fender Book: A Complete History of Fender Electric Guitars, 2nd Edition (Hardcover)

Even though I've only owned a couple of Fender guitars, I couldn't resist this book when I saw it at my local bookstore (I own the orginal 96 page edition). Although it may not have the most minute detail (even though I was able to find within in its pages the answers to some questions posed by a somewhat more critical customer reviewer), there is a great deal to recommend this book.

The first thing you will notice is the remarkable photography. It is absolutely top-notch, and is in keeping with other books of this "series", such as "The Ultimate Guitar Book". The detail is remarkable. Some of the photographed instruments may be fairly common, but there are also plenty of historically significant and/or rare intstruments included as well. Even commercially unsuccessful instruments are here in all their dubious glory (when was the last time anyone's seen a Montego II or Swinger?). The photographs are arranged well, and are mixed with a great selection of past advertisements and company photos. The text is well written and easy to follow. If anything, it gives a Fender a little TOO much credit for some offbeat ideas (some found the colorful Wildwood finish more ugly than "striking"). While the text may not always provide the obsessive detail that some may desire, there IS a fine reference section that includes a great deal of model-by-model information on such things as pickguard changes and neck-bolt configuration.

A look at the bibliography does two things. It shows that the author did his homework and sought out as many experts as possible and a fantastic array of intruments to photograph. It also gives the reader a list of printed resources for additional research.

I'm not sure if ANY book will please everybody. If, however, you're any kind of a fan of Fender guitars (or even just a fan of electric guitars in general), this book should please you (and as they say on TV, it makes a perfect gift!).

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Fender Guitars, August 11, 2002

By 

David S. Heier (Columbus, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Fender Book: A Complete History of Fender Electric Guitars, 2nd Edition (Hardcover)

Richly illustrated pages strewn between the tale of Leo Fender's company. At least it was his company in the beginning until it was purchased by Columbia Broadcasting System in 1965. Then in 1985, CBS offered the management of Fender to buy out the company for an amount that was just over liquidation. If that had not happened, there would have been a much shorter version of this book because Fender would have been disolved.

Fender went on to recapture its earlier successes by reissuing copies of its classic statocasters and the rest is history as they say. It was amusing to read about how Fender had to go searching for vintage Fender guitars around the country so they could purchase them and take them back to the factory to copy them. They had to buy their own manufactured guitars at steep vintage market prices so they could mass produce the copies.

The whole story is facinating and makes for interesting reading about a remarkable company that stayed in business dispite some of the mistakes of its owners and operators over the years.

This is a must read for any Fender owner or would be purchaser.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "An all and all great fender book with inside info.", February 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Fender Book: A Complete History of Fender Electric Guitars (Hardcover)

" This book has tons of cool photos, a great history of the company, and if you need to date an old Fender it gives you quite a bit of info
for that. The dating info is not just serial numbers ether. For example: it might say that
in 1978 the Jazzmaster had a black pickguard,
and if you have that one you know it's year."