okay here we are in Leo Fenders laboratory this is where he would spend
typically six days a week sometimes more this is the place that as he told us
kept him alive and in 1987 when he began to get the Parkinson's disease you know
the brain is still working well but can't control other things so forth he
insisted on coming to work every day and he was still quite productive doing
pickup design and other things even even if I was that bad I probably wouldn't
come to work but he was this is what kept him alive in the story of of his
last day really is there was a prototype baritone guitar which is now in the
Fullerton Museum we loaned it to them for their leo fender exhibit that
baritone guitar was sitting here very much like this guitar is now and Liat
they brought the baritone guitar to him leo fenders prototype they put it down
here for Leo to inspect and they leave him with it and Leo would be sitting in
the chair here and then some time passed and it was it was now time for them to
take him home because he couldn't drive anymore so they come to get him but Leo
won't get out of the chair he's looking at this instrument this is his prototype
so they finally get a couple more people they pick him up and they bring him out
to the car and they put him inside the passenger's seat in the front and the
wood shop foreman who was here then edy he said yeah it was weird he looked like
he was hanging on like a cap like you imagine him sitting there his arms are
outstretched like not talking to anyone everything so they bring him home and
then he won't get out of the car and then his they go to the door and they
get his wife Phyllis and to come out and she said come on leo
she gets him out of the car and then he would usually take a little nap when he
got home so she puts him into the bed and as she turned to leave him he
grabbed her arm and he pulled her close and it was
difficult for him to speak but he told her I've given all I can to the
musicians it's time to go now and she was probably startled and was
saying oh don't be silly but she comes back later and he's gone so what we
think is there was a prototype that was in development there was something that
he was waiting for from the shop floor they had been working on and once it was
here he didn't want to go home he wanted to he wanted as I say the curtains come
down he won that the last thing he's looking at his latest development in the
place that kept him alive so he he resisted going home because he knew it
was time to go and he was gonna be going any moment her hour and he wanted to do
it here so that tells you how passionate this man was about what he did he truly
loved it he believed it and he loved musicians more than anything because he
thought they're sort of like angels bringing joy joy to people and that his
somehow he he had this gift to bring the tools that let the Angels perform to
bring happiness so it was like his little part and he wanted to do that
until the very last day so even our even the calendar on the wall still shows
March of 1990 Wow
okay this is not ball story we did I don't think I've ever actually told
anybody in the presses even better and I learned this from my brother Johnny
who's really ours are Leo his story in here as I mentioned out in our woodshop
if you look at these benches and tables they're all constructed the same way
this guy Ronnie beers made them for Leo back at the old fender days and he made
them here for this factory but when Leo left fender once he once he was no
longer gonna be working on the premises he took his work benches his toolbox
everything his office all of that left with him and all of that is here so
these benches people recognize they're constructed like the other ones but why
are they this weird color well back well yeah I know you this is clearly not 70s
but back then George Fullerton used to go to a a paint
supplier automotive paint suppliers so a lot of the fender custom colors they
just were derived from car colors so there was a color that was we call it
bel-air green here today but it's basically like if you imagine that like
a 57 1957 Chevy Belair that two-tone you know you got that green color and the
white or a Corvette the same thing he took that GM color and the idea was to
make it softer by adding white to it which is what led to the surf green and
sometimes they would you know get some gallons of this stuff and it's not right
in this case Leo did someone didn't like the color maybe it was George whoever
but Leo didn't want to waste things Leo hated wasting things so you got the idea
that so well just take that and paint my benches so we have almost surf green
benches
Wow oh right when this place was first built it was before G you know so Leo
fender founded another business called CLF research Clarence Leo fender
research in 1966 his contract with CBS you know he's so offended too it was
over in 1970 so there was a period that he was still doing design work and
engineering support for fender but he did that from CLF research sorry he was
if he remained in the fender building I believe until 1966 that's when he
started CLF and moved all his stuff out but by the early 70s it was that was
over that's when he was investing in a music man with Tommy Walker forest light
and they started making amplifiers but once Leo fenders non-compete term of 10
years was over that's when the music van instruments were launched but he
designed those and manufactured them here so this place first was the CLF
Research Factory which made music man instruments and sold them to the
customer company Music Man which Leo also invested in so this place all the
circles closed it's been continuously making instruments since 1976 so it's
just headstocks changed well thanks a lot for the tour absolutely interesting
and I wish you all the best and now we'll see each other probably in a day
or something in them fantastic I look forward to it thank you very much thank
you thank you guys and I hope to enjoy it and now please subscribe please share
with us what your opinion is and then if you have any questions you know we'll
answer it so cheers guys see you later thanks again bye-bye
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