While he was not a guitarist, he developed the first commercially available solid-body electric guitar with the Broadcaster, which later became the Telecaster. Videos by American SongwriterIn the late 1930s, he and his wife opened Fender Radio Service in Fullerton, California. Fender also began building amplifiers for the lap steel guitars and electrified acoustic guitars that were showing up in greater numbers across the Southern California music scene. Leo Fender’s First GuitarsBefore Leo Fender started building electric guitars, he worked with Doc Kauffman, a pedal steel player, to build electric steel guitars in his radio show. The Rickenbacker Electro Stringed Instrument Company had made two successful electric guitars in the 1930s.