Top 5 Companies Owned by Fender

Recognized primarily for being one of many world’s high guitar makers, Fender Musical Devices Company (FMIC) is a privately-owned firm, with headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona. Leo Fender based the corporate in Fullerton, California in 1946. Andy Mooney has been the chief government officer (CEO) of Fender since 2015.

Mooney was the previous chair of Disney Shopper Merchandise. Along with the favored guitar fashions produced below the Fender model, such because the Stratocaster, Telecaster, and Precision Bass, the corporate additionally produces all kinds of guitars, musical devices, and musical tools by way of the opposite firms that it has acquired, together with EVH Guitars, Charvel Guitars, Jackson Guitars, and Squier.

1. EVH Guitars

Fender’s EVH model is famous rock guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s private product line of electrical guitars, amps, and equipment. Each mannequin and piece of apparatus produced below the EVH label is supposed to breed Van Halen’s distinctive sound. With unique art work designed by Van Halen, the EVH Striped Collection is designed to imitate the look and sound of the guitars that he performed in the course of the Eighties. Van Halen was recognized for tinkering along with his amplifiers, and EVH amps are designed to provide the identical sound that Van Halen spent years making an attempt to attain. EVH tools is manufactured at Fender’s facility in Corona, California.

2. Charvel Guitars

Wayne Charvel labored at Fender for 3 years within the early Seventies and began Charvel’s Guitar Restore in 1974. His customized finishes, repairs, and upgrades earned his store in Southern California a strong fame amongst musicians, and he started constructing full electrical guitars. He finally offered the corporate to Grover Jackson in 1978.

Beneath Jackson, the Charvel model rose to prominence. Jackson satisfied lots of the hottest rock guitarists of the Eighties–reminiscent of Van Halen, Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi and Vinnie Vincent of Kiss–to play Charvel guitars. On the top of the corporate’s success, Jackson offered Charvel to a Japanese producer in 1989, and Fender bought Charvel in 2002.

3. Jackson Guitars

Jackson guitars, additionally created by Grover Jackson, are thought-about the wilder, high-performance options to its extra conventional cousins offered below the Charvel model. That includes daring, vibrant designs, Jackson guitars turned the devices of selection for a lot of Eighties heavy metallic guitarists, reminiscent of Phil Collen of Def Leppard, Phil Demmel of Machine Head, and David Ellefson and Chris Broderick of Megadeth. Jackson guitars have advanced over time. The corporate has claimed that it’s the longest-operating true customized guitar store in america, with lots of its unique employees nonetheless producing high-quality devices. Fender acquired the Jackson model together with its 2002 buy of Charvel.

4. Squier

Produced and marketed to be cheap guitars for newbie gamers, Squier guitars signify the decrease finish of Fender’s huge array of devices. Whereas Fender’s different manufacturers have electrical guitars that value properly into the hundreds of {dollars}, many Squier fashions could be discovered for below $200. Beneath the Squier model, Fender makes inexpensive variations of its in style Stratocaster and Telecaster fashions, amongst others. Initially a string manufacturing firm for violins, banjos, and guitars, Fender acquired Squier in 1965 and commenced producing Squier guitars in 1982.

5. Bigsby Electrical Guitar Firm

Bigsby Electrical Guitar Firm started within the ’40s, in the course of the early days of the fashionable electrical guitar. In 1965, Gibson guitars bought the corporate, and in 1999, the Gretsch Firm bought Bigsby. Twenty years later, Bigsby was offered to Fender Musical Devices Corp on January 8, 2019. Bigsby vibrato tailpieces are in style with guitarists and are featured on a variety of devices, along with its guitars. Bigsby runs as a standalone enterprise below FMIC’s Specialty Manufacturers, in keeping with Fender’s web site.

Fender Acquisitions and Partnerships

Along with the 5 aforementioned firms, Fender has additionally acquired quite a few different manufacturers, together with Guild Guitar Firm, Sunn Amplifier Firm, SWR Sound Company, Tacoma Guitars, and Kaman Music Company, amongst others. Most not too long ago, in January 2019, Fender acquired the Bigsby Electrical Guitar Firm.

In January 2020, after a decade of joint possession, Servco Pacific Co. acquired TPG Development’s shares in Fender, and after a sale and buy settlement, Servco turned the brand new majority proprietor of the corporate.