After CBS broadcast the Beatles' first American TV appearance at the Ed Sullivan Show, on February 9, 1964, all the American kids, suddenly, wanted an electric guitar. The demands increased so much that the musical instrument companies had difficulties in keeping up with the orders and the market was invaded by many foreign brands, especially from the East.
At that time Leo was suffering from a persistent streptococcal infection and he started thinking he was no longer able to manage the expanding business. So, at first, he proposed to Don Randall that he purchase his share for 1.5 million dollars, but his partner was firmly convinced that it would be more advantageous for both to sell the company to an external buyer.
In the mid-1960s, the Fender was the guitar brand with the highest sale and it was contacted by the Cincinnati based Baldwin Piano Company. They, however, did not want to buy the acoustic guitars and fretboards Rhodes brand; so the negotiation failed. At a later time, as Leo and Don were planning to convert the Fender into a joint stock company, CBS entered the picture.
On January 5, 1965, after a series of secret talks that began as early as the summer of '64, Leo Fender and Don Randall sold Fender Musical Instruments and Fender Sales to Goddard Lieberson’s powerful CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) for $13 million – CBS was already the owner of about forty different companies, including the radio-television giant Columbia Records and the New York Yankees baseball team, and it had introduced the 33⅓ rpm record format.
Donald Randall was confirmed as vice president, while Leo was offered only a position as an external consultant. Obviously, CBS included a contractual clause temporarily preventing Leo from opening a new musical instrument company. Forrest White remained in office until 6 December 1966 – then, bored by CBS policy that favored profit over quality, he left the company. Don Randall left CBS in April 1969, Leo Fender terminated his 5-year contract and then quit, as did George Fullerton.
After the acquisition, new plants were built, for a total of nine buildings, where the entire production was moved, right next to the old factories, which became a simple warehouse for repair, development and storage.
Thus began the CBS era of Fender, a dark period during which, due to the shift to mass production, the new management sought above all to optimize and speed up production instead of focusing on the quality of the instruments, gradually transforming the company from a refined guitars producer to a sort of assembly line interested only in profit and the capability to produce, solely, instruments that were the shadow of those realized a few years earlier, as later declared by Freddie Tavares: “We had turned into a big fancy corporation all of a sudden, where all the different departments had got their say in everything and then that was budgets, quotas and so on. They [CBS] would try to put out the stuff as fast as they could!”
By a strange twist of fate, a similar syndrome struck Gibson, after McCarty's departure in 1966, and Gretsch, after Baldwin take-over in 1967.
Later, in response to Tom Wheeler’s question regarding whether he regretted the sale, Leo Fender replied he didn’t because he couldn’t keep up with the request. Rather, he said jokingly, since the Fender had grown so much, there were so many doors to close in the evening that George Fullerton could only take care of this!
Antonio Calvosa
At that time Leo was suffering from a persistent streptococcal infection and he started thinking he was no longer able to manage the expanding business. So, at first, he proposed to Don Randall that he purchase his share for 1.5 million dollars, but his partner was firmly convinced that it would be more advantageous for both to sell the company to an external buyer.
In the mid-1960s, the Fender was the guitar brand with the highest sale and it was contacted by the Cincinnati based Baldwin Piano Company. They, however, did not want to buy the acoustic guitars and fretboards Rhodes brand; so the negotiation failed. At a later time, as Leo and Don were planning to convert the Fender into a joint stock company, CBS entered the picture.
On January 5, 1965, after a series of secret talks that began as early as the summer of '64, Leo Fender and Don Randall sold Fender Musical Instruments and Fender Sales to Goddard Lieberson’s powerful CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) for $13 million – CBS was already the owner of about forty different companies, including the radio-television giant Columbia Records and the New York Yankees baseball team, and it had introduced the 33⅓ rpm record format.
Donald Randall was confirmed as vice president, while Leo was offered only a position as an external consultant. Obviously, CBS included a contractual clause temporarily preventing Leo from opening a new musical instrument company. Forrest White remained in office until 6 December 1966 – then, bored by CBS policy that favored profit over quality, he left the company. Don Randall left CBS in April 1969, Leo Fender terminated his 5-year contract and then quit, as did George Fullerton.
After the acquisition, new plants were built, for a total of nine buildings, where the entire production was moved, right next to the old factories, which became a simple warehouse for repair, development and storage.
Thus began the CBS era of Fender, a dark period during which, due to the shift to mass production, the new management sought above all to optimize and speed up production instead of focusing on the quality of the instruments, gradually transforming the company from a refined guitars producer to a sort of assembly line interested only in profit and the capability to produce, solely, instruments that were the shadow of those realized a few years earlier, as later declared by Freddie Tavares: “We had turned into a big fancy corporation all of a sudden, where all the different departments had got their say in everything and then that was budgets, quotas and so on. They [CBS] would try to put out the stuff as fast as they could!”
By a strange twist of fate, a similar syndrome struck Gibson, after McCarty's departure in 1966, and Gretsch, after Baldwin take-over in 1967.
Later, in response to Tom Wheeler’s question regarding whether he regretted the sale, Leo Fender replied he didn’t because he couldn’t keep up with the request. Rather, he said jokingly, since the Fender had grown so much, there were so many doors to close in the evening that George Fullerton could only take care of this!
Antonio Calvosa
