Music Man Guitars at Total Guitar Buyer

The origins of Music Man guitars are closely linked to Fender. Leo Fender and two former Fender employees, Forrest White and Tom Walker, set up the company in 1972 to produce amplifiers. Four years later, when Fender's non-competition contract clause with the new owners of Fender Guitars (CBS) expired, Music Man was free to manufacture instruments. Music Man has since grown to become one of the main alternatives to Fender and Gibson guitars.

From the outset Music Man resisted the temptation to produce guitars that differed little from Leo Fender's earlier designs - instead they set out on a mission to build something different and possibly a little better. As with most aspects of life, things did not go according to plan and Leo Fender left the company in 1979. Indeed it was not until the Ernie Ball company took over Music Man in 1984 that matters started to improve.

The solidbody Silhouette brought with it a number of innovations that appealed to influential guitarists like Ronnie Woods and Keith Richards. A subsequent collaboration with Eddie Van Halen saw the introduction of the EVH (later to become the Axis) model. The Albert Lee model soon followed and gained a degree of popularity with guitarists like Paul McCartney.

Music Man has clearly survived its early difficulties and continues to remain true to its founding aims of building high quality guitars that offer true originality.