Tom Wheeler was Editor in Chief of Guitar Player and the founding Editorial Director of Bass Player until 1991. Tom has published a number of books including ‘The Soul Of Tone: Celebrating 60 years of Fender Amps’ which I reviewed back in 2009, other books include ‘The Stratocaster Chronicles’ and ‘The Dream Factory: Fender Custom Shop’.
Tom Wheeler has created another Fender themed book called ‘The Fender Archives’ which he describes as “a scrapbook of artifacts, treasures, and inside information”. The book includes handwritten letters, production totals, personal logbooks, in-house memos, Leo Fender’s drawing board sketches and financial reports.
The Fender Archives sheds new light on the inspirations for revolutionary instruments and amplifiers, their sometimes difficult births and growing pains, the environment into which they were unleashed upon the world, and the motivations and personalities of key players.