Fender Vintage: the guitar that made the history of rock
From June 16 to 24, the exhibition dedicated to the Fender guitars at Palazzo Rasponi dalle Teste
If the electric guitar is the king of the popular music instruments, then the Fender is the undisputed queen of guitars: in the occasion of the week of events celebrating the instrument which has marked the history of music over the last thunderous decades, on Friday June 15, at 6.30 pm, Ravenna Festival presents Fender Vintage. The exhibition is a not-to-be-missed journey in the history of music amid over 100 guitars with their original cases, amplifiers, catalogues, posters, documents, memorabilia, and photographs linked to the legendary Californian brand. Thanks to the generous support of Mario Boccaccini, the Fender Museum of Flavio Camorani and Michela Taioli will be at Palazzo Rasponi from June 16 to 24.
“The electric guitar, in America as well as in Italy, has given birth to a popular music open to all kinds of influences,” says Mario Boccaccini, a passionate collector himself who first suggested the idea for the exhibition, “so the electric guitar has become the perfect instrument to sing and narrate life itself. And Flavio Camorani is a friend and the best guide for those who – like me – love the glorious Fenders best of all the guitars”. The collection of the Fender Museum traces the golden age of the historic brand founded by Leo Fender, a synonym for quality, eclecticism, and craftsmanship; after all, the first electric guitar and the first electric bass guitar ever bear the Fender name.
The specimens date from 1946 to 1974, the year in which the Fender Factory was sold to another society and the decline of the brand started: “then Leo Fender and his collaborators, who had already sold most of the original factory to the CBS in 1965, completely backed out from any quality control,” Flavio Camorani explains. In 1950 Fender had been using wood which had been cut 30 years before and left to age; then every instrument was different from the next, owing to a mix of micro-variations, from the cut of the shapes to the number of turns in the microphone cables. Thus the vintage of the Fender guitars – keepers of a unique sound – is born.
From Tuesday, June 19, concerts in Ravenna, Russi, and Comacchio will compose a grand fresco of sounds, between solos and mass performances, a nostalgic touch but also new compositions – because the project We Sing the Body Electric is not a revival, but a journey into the future of the electric guitar.
Fender vintage will be at Palazzo Rasponi dalle Teste (Piazza J. F. Kennedy, 12), in the ‘Sala delle Feste’, from June 16 to 24. Open daily from 3 pm to 8 pm; on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays from 11 am to 8 pm. Free admission.