Leo Fender, the founder of the Fender Musical Instruments Corp., brought to life the Telecaster, the first commercially successful solid-body electric guitar. It would help make Fender an iconic brand for the rock 'n' roll movement and bring the guitar brand into the pop culture mainstream.

Now Fender is aiming for the U.S. market mainstream via a stock IPO.

The company just announced plans to go public, with JPMorgan (JPM) as the lead underwriter and "FNDR" as the proposed ticker. Fender plans to list on the Nasdaq.

Leo Fender started his company in Fullerton, Calif., in 1946 and created the Telecaster a few years later. But in the mid-1960s, Fender sold his company to Columbia Broadcasting System. Then in 1985, Fender was spun off to a group of managers.

Last year, Fender held the No. 1 position in terms of revenue for electric, acoustic and bass guitars in the U.S. The company has a wide assortment of brands other than Fender, such as Squier, Jackson, Guild, Ovation and Latin Percussion. It also has license rights to Gretsch, EVH (Eddie Van Halen) and Takamine. Not to mention its guitars have been used by some of the world’s greatest artists, including Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and David Gilmour.

Still, Fender continues to focus investments on innovative product development. For example, in January the company launched its Fender Select line, which is a premium, hand-crafted production guitar. The Select line should help boost margins and lead to a spike in upgrades.

And Fender is more than just about guitars. In 2007, the company purchased Kaman Music Corp., which is one of the largest independent distributors of musical instrument accessories.

The result is that Fender is now a sizable business. In 2011, revenue came to about $700 million, up from $618 a year earlier, and adjusted EBITDA was around $53 million.

A key growth driver has been international markets, which account for 46.7% of net sales.

Fender believes it still has plenty of potential to enter more countries. It's also getting more aggressive with licensing its brands. In fact, the company might get traction beyond music, such as for apparel, consumer electronics, mobile and bags. Fender has already put together co-branding deals with Apple (AAPL) and Hard Rock Cafe International.

So in light of its global brands -- as well as growth opportunities -- Fender should continue to be a top-notch player in the music business. Expect investors to line up for the IPO when it hits the market within a couple of months.

For more on high-profile IPOs, read about how a Dutch auction may work for Facebook's IPO or how Pandora's public stock offering was a debacle.

Tom Taulli runs the InvestorPlace blog IPO Playbook, a site dedicated to the hottest news and rumors about initial public offerings. Follow him on Twitter at @ttaulli or reach him via email. As of this writing, he did not own a position in any of the aforementioned securities.

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