Fender Lead Series

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Fender Lead I

Manufacturer	Fender
Period	1979—1982
Construction
Body type	Solid
Neck joint	Bolt-on
Woods
Body	Ash or Alder
Neck	Maple
Fretboard	Rosewood or Maple
Hardware
Bridge	Hardtail, strings through body
Pickup(s)	Variable, see models
Colors available
1979—1981: Black and Wine (transparent red). 1981—1982: Black, Wine, Arctic White, Morocco Red, Maui Blue, Monaco Yellow, Capri Orange, Sahara Taupe, Cathay Ebony (the same color as the black), Cherry Sunburst and Sienna Sunburst. 1982: Black, Arctic White, Cherry Sunburst and Sienna Sunburst.

Fender Lead Series electric guitars were produced by Fender and included the Lead I, Lead II and Lead III models.

1 General features
2 Models
3 History
4 Technical Information
5 Sources
6 External links

[edit] General features

Vintage style “Soft V or C” profile neck with a 7 1/4" radius.
Neck width at nut 1.650".
Truss rod adjustment at the heel of the neck.
2 vintage style string trees.
21 medium jumbo frets.
"F" tuners (Schaller), and "F" 4 bolt neck plate.
3 Ply WBW, or BWB pickguard.
White plastic nut.
25 1/2" scale length.
Bridge uses a string spacing of 0.39".
Hardtail bodythrough mounted strings.
The saddle screws used lock nuts, not springs.
Comes with a tolex or moulded plastic case.

[edit] 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 coils, one at the neck, the other at the bridge. This pickup model was also mounted in the bridge position on the "Strat" model. 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.

[edit] History

Manufactured from 1979 to 1982 by Fender under the direction of Greg Wilson, and John Page. Original selling price was around $399. Some guitar players that have played the Fender Lead Series at various times 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).

[edit] Technical Information

The Lead I/III humbucker pickups have 12 adjustable pole pieces and use an Alnico V magnet. DC resistance of the Lead I/III humbucker pickup is approximately 13 K ohms. Lead II single coil pickups have flat polepieces (not staggered). Early ones have bobbins formed of green/grey fibreboard and the 6 Alnico 5 magnets. Later ones use the plastic moulded bobbin construction used on current Strats. DC resistance of the Lead II single coil pickup is approximately 7.5K ohms (9600 coil winds). The Lead Series use 250 K ohm volume and tone pots and use 0.05uf tone capacitors. The body is a 3 piece body - Alder and Ash and Poplar at least being used at various times. 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 a larger headstock than earlier Fender Lead models.

Many instruments use a thick polyurethane finish which is brittle, chips easily, and develops spider cracks if exposed to extremes of heat or cold. This finish is also prone to clouding.