Going public provides an exit opportunity for private equity firm Weston Presidio, which currently owns 42.92% of the company. The Boston-based firm acquired for an undisclosed price a minority interest in Fender in 2002, as did the electronic keyboard manufacturer Roland Corp., which eventually divested its stake.

Yamano Music Co. Ltd. is the second-largest Fender shareholder, holding about 14% of the company, followed by Kanda Shokai Corp., which owns about 13%. Both are Japanese distributors of Fender products.

In its filing, the company said it plans to use $100 million of the proceeds to pay off a portion of its $239.6 million in long-term debt.

For the fiscal year ended Jan. 1, Fender reported revenue of $700.5 million, a 13% jump over the year earlier. More importantly, the company regained profitability, netting $3.2 million this past fiscal year after losing $17.3 million the year before.

Fender, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., is the largest fretted instrument company in the United States, last year selling approximately $420 million worth of guitars, basses and the occasional banjo. Nashville-based Gibson Guitar Corp. is second. While Gibson pickers may object, Fender is almost universally considered synonymous with rock 'n' roll. Rock legends including Eric Clapton, Joe Walsh, Jeff Beck and Stevie Ray Vaughn all performed on vintage Fenders. Paul Allen, the Microsoft Corp. co-founder, paid $2 million for a 1968 Stratocaster that Jimi Hendrix played at Woodstock. Limited-edition instruments routinely go for tens of thousands of dollars.

Aspiring young musicians, their parents and older players with midlife issues provide new business fodder. However, this isn't exactly an industry whose products are flying off the shelves, especially during tough economic times. Fender acknowledged the industry's continued consolidation and said it wanted to be on the buying end, with strategic acquisitions, license agreements and distribution arrangements forming part of the company's future growth strategy.

Its last big acquisition came in 2007, when Fender acquired Kaman Music Corp., maker of the Ovation guitar, for $117 million.

In addition to the Fender and Ovation brands, the company also owns Squier, Jackson, Guild and Latin Percussion, and it licenses Gretsch, EVH (Eddie Van Halen) and Takamine. The company makes amplifiers and accessories as well.

J.P Morgan Chase & Co. and William Blair & Co. LLC are lead underwriters on the IPO, with Robert W. Baird & Co., Stifel Nicolaus Weisel and Wells Fargo Securities co-managing.

Alison Ressler and John Savva of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP are Fender's outside counsel, while Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP's Kevin Kennedy advised the underwriters.

The company's shares are set to trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol FNDR.

Leo Fender founded the company in 1946; he first made amplifiers. Fender revolutionized guitar playing (and music for that matter) 60 years ago, when he produced the Stratocaster, the first solid-body electric guitar to be mass-produced.

Columbia Broadcasting System Inc. acquired Fender in 1965, when CBS was on a music-related buying spree (it bought Steinway pianos as well). CBS's interest didn't last. It let quality slide so badly that Fender almost died in the early 1980s, a time when its patents expired and knock-offs proliferated. The broadcaster eventually decided to get out of instrument manufacturing altogether. CBS sold Fender in 1985 in a leveraged buyout led by William Schultz, a former Yamaha Corp. executive, and Bill Mendello, a longtime Fender financial manager. The two are widely credited with reviving the brand and the manufacturing quality. The Schultz estate and Mendello own a 10.58% stake in the company.