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An Interesting Fender & Les Paul Story
An Interesting Fender & Les Paul Story
Les Paul began developing a prototype solid body electric guitar in the late 1930’s.
Joaquin Murphy brought Leo Fender and Paul Bigsby to Les Paul’s home in Southern California where they saw Les playing the prototype that he called the “Log”. This gets Fender interested in building guitars and Bigsby interested in building vibratos, among a few other good things.
During the early 1940‘s, Les takes the guitar to Gibson and they showed him the door. They called it the “broomstick with a pickup on it.”
Late 1940’s, Leo Fender gives Les Paul the first Fender prototype. It was unnamed and simply says “Fender” on it. (That one, and others are at the house in Mahwah, New Jersey in mint condition.) Fender asks Les to go into business with him (yes...we could all be playing a Fender Les Paul if he’d said yes). Les declines, determined to get Gibson to sign him.
In 1948 Fender forms the Fender Electric Instrument Company and launches the Broadcaster in 1950.
Suddenly, after years of hounding Gibson and getting turned down, Les Paul gets a call from Gibson. Their company president had issued an order to “ find that weirdo with the broomstick with pickups on it and sign him up!”
Quote from Les; “The Gibson people came to me and got me to sign with them to make the first Les Paul guitar and it was all because of Leo Fender. Leo did me a favor. I couldn’t move Gibson with an atomic bomb. It took Leo Fender to wake Gibson up.”
Joaquin Murphy brought Leo Fender and Paul Bigsby to Les Paul’s home in Southern California where they saw Les playing the prototype that he called the “Log”. This gets Fender interested in building guitars and Bigsby interested in building vibratos, among a few other good things.
During the early 1940‘s, Les takes the guitar to Gibson and they showed him the door. They called it the “broomstick with a pickup on it.”
Late 1940’s, Leo Fender gives Les Paul the first Fender prototype. It was unnamed and simply says “Fender” on it. (That one, and others are at the house in Mahwah, New Jersey in mint condition.) Fender asks Les to go into business with him (yes...we could all be playing a Fender Les Paul if he’d said yes). Les declines, determined to get Gibson to sign him.
In 1948 Fender forms the Fender Electric Instrument Company and launches the Broadcaster in 1950.
Suddenly, after years of hounding Gibson and getting turned down, Les Paul gets a call from Gibson. Their company president had issued an order to “ find that weirdo with the broomstick with pickups on it and sign him up!”
Quote from Les; “The Gibson people came to me and got me to sign with them to make the first Les Paul guitar and it was all because of Leo Fender. Leo did me a favor. I couldn’t move Gibson with an atomic bomb. It took Leo Fender to wake Gibson up.”
Comment
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Comment by Steve Lucas on February 18, 2011 at 3:42pm -
leadrship role......I don't know.......do I.....?
lol.....we'll talk later!
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Comment by Mike Stokes on February 18, 2011 at 3:18pm -
Wow! Nice info. If you want a leadership role here, just say the word. Interesting content is always attractive to curious people.
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Comment by Steve Lucas on February 18, 2011 at 2:07pm
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Mike, you're welcome. There are a ton of stories. He could of shown up on a Monday night without the guitar and still packed the room, just with these tales. Did you know he developed the first headless guitar back in the 40's ? It was made out of aluminum. He used it with The Andrew Sisters, only a few times. The heat from the lights caused the aluminum to expand and contract rapidly so tuning was a nightmare. He always laughed when telling stories.
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Comment by Mike Stokes on February 18, 2011 at 1:29pm
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Thanks for that Steve. I wrote a blog here some time ago about the development of the electric guitar. I was able to do it by researching many sources, but this give me new insight. Hearing the story from someone close to the family give it a different perspective.
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