Fender Lead Series

The Fender Lead Series was produced by the Fender/Rogers/Rhodes Division of CBS Musical Instruments. This series went through Lead I, Lead II and Lead III models.

General features

* Manufactured Fall 1979 through 1982.
* Vintage style “Soft C” profile neck with a 7¼" (184 mm) radius.
* Neck width at nut 1.625" (41.2 mm), plus applied finish thickness.
* Truss rod adjustment at the heel of the neck.
* 2 vintage style string trees.
* 21 medium jumbo frets.
* "F" tuners (American made, by an outside supplier in Fullerton CA), and "F" 4 bolt neck plate.
* 3 Ply BWB through 1981 and WBW through 1982 pickguard with foil backing.
* White plastic nut.
* 25½" (648 mm) scale length.
* Bridge uses a string spacing of 0.404" (10 mm).
* Hardtail bodythrough mounted strings.
* The saddle screws used lock nuts, not springs.
* Comes with a tolex or moulded plastic case.

History

Manufactured between 1979 and 1982 by the Fender Musical Equipment Co. under the direction of Gregg Wilson and Freddie Tavares. Wilson was succeeded by John Page, who eventually headed the Fender Custom Shop.The Lead Series have elements of the Stratocaster and Telecaster in their design with a body that is slightly smaller and with a slightly different shape than the Stratocaster, a Stratocaster like neck (and headstock), and hardtail bridge with Telecaster-like string ferrules at the back of the body.

The Lead Series were one of the first USA Fender models to return to the original Leo Fender small headstock design.The Stratocaster models at the time of the Lead Series release in late 1979 were still using the larger headstock design until the introduction of the Dan Smith Stratocaster in 1981.Although they are not Stratocasters the Lead Series played a pivotal design role between the large headstock Stratocaster models and the return to the original small headstock Stratocaster models in 1981.

The Lead Series were manufactured at Fender's Fullerton, California plant and priced below the Stratocaster models of the time (approx. $495.00).They were eventually replaced in Fender's line up by the Fender Japan Squier JV model in 1982 as Fender expanded it's operations by starting Fender Japan.Notable guitar players include Eric Clapton, Elliot Easton ("Touch and Go" guitar solo from the Panorama album by The Cars), Roger Miller and Steve Morse ("Punk Sandwich" track from the "Night of the Living Dregs" by the Dixie Dregs) In addition Bono Vox of U2 brandished a Fender Lead Series on the band's "War" Tour in 1983 and can be seen playing a black model in the live "Under a Blood Red Sky" video.

Models

* Lead I, 1979-1982: A single specially designed bridge position split humbucker (Seth Lover designed). 3 position coil selector switch (single coil, both coils, single coil), 2 position humbucker series-parallel select switch which operates only when both coils are selected (middle position). Master Volume and Tone Control.

* Lead II, 1979-1982: Two specially designed X-1 single coil pickups, one at the neck, and the other at the bridge. The X-1 pickup was also used in the bridge position on the "Strat" and the "Dan Smith Stratocaster" models. 3 position pickup selector switch (neck, neck and bridge, bridge), 2 position phase shift switch (in phase, out of phase) which operates only when both pickups are selected (middle position). Master Volume and Tone Control. It was a Lead II, once wielded by Eric Clapton, which started the now famous Hard Rock Café guitar collection.

* Lead III, 1982: Two specially designed humbuckers (Seth Lover designed), one at the neck, the other at the bridge. 3 position pickup selector switch (neck, neck and bridge, bridge), 3 position coil selector switch (neck single coil, both coils neck or bridge, bridge single coil) which determines if a single coil or both coils of each pickup will be selected. Master Volume and Tone Control.

Technical information

Fender Lead I/III Humbucker Pickup Specifications

The DC resistance of the Lead I/III humbucker pickup is approximately 13 kΩ.The Lead I/III humbucker pickups have 12 adjustable pole pieces and use a single ceramic bar magnet.

Fender Lead II Single Coil Pickup Specifications

The DC resistance of the Lead II X-1 single coil pickup is approximately 7.5 kΩ (9600 coil winds).Lead II single coil pickups have flat polepieces that are not staggered and have Alnico V magnets. Early Lead II single coil pickups have bobbins formed of green/grey fibreboard and later Lead II single coil pickups have plastic moulded bobbins that are the same as that used on current Stratocasters.

Fender Lead Series General Specifications

The Lead Series use 250 kΩ volume and tone potentiometers and use 0.05 µF tone capacitors.The body is usually a 3 piece body and the neck and body wood types are either Ash or Alder with Ash being used for the transparent finish models ie Wine Red.The pickup body routing is the same for the Lead I and the Lead II models (humbucker bridge and single coil neck routing).Later year Fender Lead models have a more contoured body and there are two subtle variations in headstock shape, one of which (softer contour) using tooling dating back to the 1950's Stratocaster (as with the Dan Smith Stratocaster). Neck profile and headstock thickness varied slightly throughout the production run for all Fender Lead models of different years.Many instruments used a polyurethane finish which is brittle, chips easily, and develops spider cracks if exposed to extremes of heat or cold. The finish is also prone to clouding.

erial Numbers

The Fender Lead Series use the usual Fender USA serial number format where S = seventies and E = eighties, and the first digit of the serial number represents the year.

For example S9XXXXX = 1979, E1XXXXX = 1981.

Sources

Fender Lead I, Fender Lead II, Fender Lead III manuals.

External links

* [http://www.fender.com/support/manuals/instr_owners.php?title=Main Mr Gearhead] Fender Lead Series Manuals.