I had no idea you could buy a bass guitar in 1936!

[chris_b]

2 hours ago, Beer of the Bass said:

Is there any suggestion that Fender was aware of Tutmarc's instruments when he developed the early Precision bass? They weren't widely adopted by musicians and it seems possible that Fender may have come up with his quite independently.

They're certainly an interesting historical footnote, but Fender's instruments were the ones that had the cultural impact.

 

As I said earlier, Paul Tutmarc advertised in trade magazines and attended trade shows. All the manufacturers, on the West Coast, would have been aware of him, but I guess most wouldn't have seen a future for making money out of a solid bass. Tutmarc was an inventor and wasn't interested in manufacturing and marketing. There were many ideas floating around, at the time, and being "borrowed". For instance, the Strat headstock was a nick from the Bigsby Merle Travis electric guitar. What Leo Fender actually invented is open to discussion. He had a team working with him who had a lot of input. A lot of the final Fender "ideas" were honed by the local musicians who used to hang out at the factory. Apparently if you could convince Leo that your idea worked, was an improvement and wouldn't cost much he could adopt it. A guy called Bill Carson complained that the hard edges of the Telecaster cut into his leg when it was played sitting down. That started the idea of the Strat and it's rounded lines. History recalls that Leo did it all. He didn't. He had a lot of help.

[asingardenof]

52 minutes ago, chris_b said:

 

For instance, the Strat headstock was a nick from the Bigsby Merle Travis electric guitar

But to be fair the Bigsby headstock design itself was inspired by headstocks used for much older stringed instruments. Alas my Google-fu has let me down and not taken me to an image I've found previously, but they're effectively a violin family instrument headstock viewed in profile.

[chris_b]

40 minutes ago, asingardenof said:

But to be fair the Bigsby headstock design itself was inspired by headstocks used for much older stringed instruments. Alas my Google-fu has let me down and not taken me to an image I've found previously, but they're effectively a violin family instrument headstock viewed in profile.

 

That's true. Renaissance designs were very similar, but Leo knew Bigsby, they were both in LA. Paul Bigsby designed solid body guitars before Leo got in on the act.

 

There is an interesting entry on Wikipedia for PauL bigsby.

[asingardenof]

12 minutes ago, chris_b said:

 

That's true. Renaissance designs were very similar, but Leo knew Bigsby, they were both in LA. Paul Bigsby designed solid body guitars before Leo got in on the act.

 

There is an interesting entry on Wikipedia for PauL bigsby.

As I say, Bigsby, Fender, Les Paul, etc. were all contemporaries, hence the "cross-pollination" comment earlier. Fender may have nicked Bigsby's design but it's arguable what claim Bigsby had to it being their original idea in the first place.

[Hellzero]

Check my mémoire, the photos and explanations are in it.

 

The Bigsby-Fender headstock came from an Austrian design of 1820.

[Lfalex v1.1]

On 23/09/2023 at 13:36, Hellzero said:

(Leo Fender)

A true genius, indeed, always going ahead.

 

 

I think it's easy for people to conflate Leo's work ethic with the stagnation that the company he sold to CBS in 1965 often displays. After all, it still bears his name. 

He was always reworking (if not refining) his designs,  but with a keen eye on cost-control and ease of mass- production (no 13° angled headstocks!)

 

I always thought it was 1938 for Tutmarc

Maybe I was thinking of the electric guitar patent granted to Adolf Rickenbacker in 1937...