A Fender Telecaster.

Fender/Contributed

When someone steps on stage to play country music, the first notes often come from a Fender Telecaster.

From tales of heartache told with a few twangy chords to dancehall tunes backed by a flat-pickin’ lick, chapters of country music history have been written by players gripping the fretboard of a Telecaster. The guitar can be heard on songs spanning decades of the genre, including the rowdy honky-tonk tunes that defined the so-called Bakersfield sound in the 1950s to the rebellious outlaw movement of the ‘70s and the torch-bearing troubadours of today.

And this month, Fender kicked off a 75th anniversary celebration of the Telecaster in a town synonymous with country music — Nashville, Tennessee. Dubbed “Tele Town,” Fender hosted a one-night show where some of the most formidable players in country, rock, blues and beyond shared songs at the famed Ryman Auditorium.

The event comes as the brand continues to stake its claim in Music City, where Fender’s operation includes a by-appointment showroom for artists and a research-and-development lab for creating one-of-a-kind guitars.

“Without Nashville embracing this guitar back in the day — country players — and helping define it with Fender, I’m not sure the Telecaster would be where it is today,” Edward “Bud” Cole, CEO of Fender, told Forbes. “We owe a lot to Nashville for embracing it the way they did back in the day. They were the early adopters.”

Fender’s Nashville Showroom

In Nashville, Fender continues to grow the legacy of the Telecaster at its two-story showroom and guitar-making shop, where a seven-person team works with the creative community. Located in East Nashville, a hub for songwriters and session players, the 9,000-square-foot space opened in 2024.

The room features floor-to-ceiling electric guitar walls, lines of ready-to-use amplifiers and eye-level displays of other instruments, including bass and acoustic guitars. In one corner of the room, artwork that gives a nod to the brand’s mid-century roots fills a wall, while another corner boasts a camera-ready backdrop for filming branded content.

On the day after the “Tele Town” concert, Telecasters on display included:

• the Buck Owens signature model, a red, blue and silver model that sparkles under the spotlight;
• a version of the instrument developed in partnership with standout country player John Osborne that includes a B-Bender for steely riffs;
• and Jack White’s Triplecaster, a buzzyworthy instrument created by Fender’s Nashville team alongside the newly-inducted Rock and Roll Hall of Famer.

The shop offers a space for Fender players to share individual needs with guitar-makers who can turn ideas into reality. The Nashville office joins a larger Fender operation in the U.S. that includes a corporate headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona, and a manufacturing plant in Corona, California.

Despite being headquartered 1,500 miles west of Tennessee, Fender wants a foothold in Nashville because “of the importance of this market,” Cole said. Cole became Fender CEO in February; he previously served as the head of the company’s Asia-Pacific region. Prior to that, Cole logged years in leadership roles at Ralph Lauren and QVC, among others.

“We thought it was important not just to have the showroom but to have the capacity for artists to come in, to talk about their needs and to work with us to help them design the tools they need to best express themselves,” Cole said.

‘Tele Town’ Concert

Company founder Leo Fender and his group of California guitar-makers debuted the Telecaster in 1951 as a durable workingman’s guitar. It endured initial pushback to become a go-to for artists wanting a reliable, diverse instrument.

While artists like country-rock pioneer Clarence White and outlaw legend Waylon Jennings propelled the instrument to popularity in honky-tonk bars, George Harrison played the Telecaster on famed Beatles recordings and Keith Richards wrote timeless Rolling Stones riffs on his Fender guitar.

In Nashville, players like Jack White, Brad Paisley and Zach Top often take the stage with a Telecaster in hand — which was the case last week, when each performed at the “Tele Town” concert. Alongside the aforementioned artists, the show included appearances from formative Telecaster player James Burton, ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, Brothers Osborne, John Oates, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, Larkin Poe, Ricky Skaggs … and the list goes on.

“There’s all these artists, and although they’re all different styles, they’re all there for the Telecaster,” Cole said. “From the moment it started, there was this increasing momentum. As the night went on, you knew it was going to be … a night that will go down in history.”

As for why the Telecaster continues to endure? Some can point to the durability, flexibility or tonality of the guitar. But it’s about the possibility of what can happen when the instrument gets put in the hands of a player ready to share a six-string story with the world.

“For any musician who’s got both the capability to play and the inkling to be able to create, it presents a white canvas,” Cole said. “Anything you can think in your heart and in your head, you can create on the Fender Telecaster. It’s the most versatile guitar ever made.”