#9
Name: Leo Fender
Profession: All Around Music Baddass Inventor
Life: August 10, 1909 – March 21, 1991
If you enjoy listening to amplified music, which in 2012 is pretty much everyone ever, then you have this man to thank. For those who didnt now the Telecaster was the first solid body electric guitar ever produced on any type of substantial scale. The design was radical and created amplified music as we know it today. These solid guitars could handle volume/distortion like nothing previously could, as well as being by far the most easily customizable and easy to make guitars to date. He created many variations of the original Fender including Strats/Jags/P and JBasses and not to mention Fender Amplifiers.
Over 50 years later this mans inventions are still the most sought after and prized possessions of nearly every musician out there including myself. The beauty of plugging a Fender into a Fender is an experience the one must have at some point before being able to die happy. Below is a cool video with George Fullerton talking about Leo and his office at G and L which was the company he started after fender was bought out.