Electric guitar design name. In 1954, Fender introduced the Fender Stratocaster, or "Strat". It was positioned as a deluxe model and offered various product improvements and innovations over the Telecaster. These innovations included an ash or alder double-cutaway body design for badge assembly with an integrated vibrato mechanism (called a "synchronized tremolo" by Fender, thus beginning a confusion of the terms that still continues), three single-coil pickups, and body comfort contours. Leo Fender is also credited with developing the first commercially successful electric bass called the Fender Precision Bass, introduced in 1951. Gibson, like many guitar manufacturers, had long offered semi-acoustic guitars with
Fender Jazzmaster Jazzmaster's characteristics is its string resonance, appearing at several fret positions. Fender intended the Jazzmaster to represent a solid body alternative to the hollow body archtop guitars that were then ubiquitous among jazz guitarists. As the Telecaster and Stratocaster had done in other popular musical genres, Fender hoped to initiate a revolution in jazz guitar, at the expense of competitor Gibson. While the Jazzmaster never caught on among its intended audience, Jazzmasters were most successful in the burgeoning Southern California-based surf music and instrumental rock scene of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Fender headquarters were located in Southern California,