Leo And The Fretless

[Telebass]

[quote name='Bassman Steve' timestamp='1393029055' post='2375536']
I'm fairly sure I read somewhere that, due to delays in producing the first basses, Fender fitted a switchable (bigger) capacitor into Teles so they could be played with much less treble and sound more bassy.
[/quote]
It wasn't due to delays in production - it was put in before he thought of the bass.

[Telebass]

[quote name='Dr.Dave' timestamp='1392812385' post='2372954']
I get your thinking but I'm less sure he would feel that way. Much of what I've read of him tells me his priority was to build useful instruments for working musicians in a changing - esp re. broadcasting - world and thinking of the US market in particular where you may be gigging/touring hundreds of miles from home and need to be able to call in a music shop one afternoon and buy replacement parts to fix your instrument yourself and be playing again that night. Someone already mentioned the great idea of an instrument that guitar players could play to get more jobs. I doubt , though , he was immune to seeing how the use of his products evolved - and Fender's re-design of the original Precision and introduction of the Jazz reflects the desire to feed that evolution with more versatile instruments. A guy like that would likely latch on to folk ripping the frets from their instruments in a desire to get a very different sound and wish to be a part of that movement , in my opinion anyway.
[/quote]
What I meant was that he'd not have have used that model with that name, because the very name meant frets. If he'd been around a while longer, i CAN imagine he'd have turned out a fretless Jazz.

[Count Bassy]

[quote name='iconic' timestamp='1392921987' post='2374295']
And Fender still aren't too market savvy....or we have surf green options on everything:)!
[/quote]

Ask people to name an electric guitar or bass manufacturer and the vast majority would say Fender: I think Leo Fender must have got something about right!