Forums: Fender Pro Junior

George Fullerton, a longtime associate of Leo Fender who played a crucial role in the electric-guitar innovator's extraordinary success through his broad-based skills as a musician, artist and technician, has died. He was 86. Fullerton died Saturday of congestive heart failure at St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, said his son Geoff. While Fender tinkered away, coming up with improvements in guitar design that led to the creation of his revolutionary Telecaster and Stratocaster electric guitars, Fullerton was charged with making those innovations practical for mass production in their Orange County factory that opened in the late 1940s. Nearly 1,000...

I'd like to hear from all the FReeper guitarists out there!

An attempt by Fender to trademark the body shapes of its Stratocaster, Telecaster and Precision models has been rejected. As reported by MusicRadar.com, in denying Fender's application, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board of the United States Patent and Trademark Office wrote: "The applicant has not established acquired distinctiveness such that these two-dimensional outlines of guitar bodies, standing alone, serve to indicate source. The evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that these configurations are so common in the industry that they cannot identify source." In a 75-page document, the Appeal Board went on to say "it does not appear that … third parties...

Bob Weir, Founding Member of the Grateful Dead Both my natural and adopted fathers were military men. My adopted dad attended Annapolis for seven years and came out with the military equivalent of a doctorate in Engineering. When they gave him his first commission and put him out to sea he was seasick from the time he left port to the time he got back. It was so bad they had to put him in the hospital. Then he tried it again right at the beginning of World War II. He wanted nothing more than to serve his country but...

My wife made a mistake. For my birthday in February, she bought me a calendar from the Fender Custom Shop. I hung it on the wall directly behind my desk, right in my range of vision, and I have been gazing longingly ever since at beautiful guitars. My longing stayed within reason until I turned the page to April, and saw the Engraved Thinline Telecaster in flame maple. The clumsy copy below the calendar proper says "both nice to look at and a dream to play." "A dream to play" has been ringing in my head ever since, the way...

Shameless vanity that ask the musical question: What guitar did you get?

Guitar gods and demi-gods I need freeper advice. A small to medium sized amp is needed to allow proper practice of a vintage tele and new Gibson LP. I have a budget of $1000 'cause the wife says so. So I am soliciting advice. Tube or SS? Modelling or bare bones (I have stomp boxes)? New or vintage? Thanks, doodad