G&L Guitars are the best Fender guitars you’ve never heard of. Or were. Sometimes still are. But not all of them. Let me explain. Ok, it is too much. Let me sum up:
G&L Guitars was started in 1980 by Leo Fender and George Fullerton. Hence, the “G” and the “L.” Yes, that Leo Fender. In January of 1965, due to illness, Leo Fender, the father of rock and roll instruments, had to sell Fender Guitars to CBS Corporation. When he recovered, he tried to buy his company back, but CBS refused. So by 1980, with his good friend and old employee George Fullerton by his side, frustrated by the downfall in quality of the guitar company that bore his name, and full of 15 years worth of new ideas, Leo Fender once again started building guitars, this time under the moniker of “G&L.” Leo passed in March of 1991, so interestingly enough, if you want a Fender guitar that Leo Fender actually had a hand in producing, you have to get either a 1950-1964 Fender, or a 1980-1991 G&L. And let me tell you, I have been collecting guitars for twenty years, and collecting G&L guitars for fifteen years, and the closest thing you can get to a $30,000 pre-1965 Fender is a 1980-1991 G&L. The feel, the same. The sound, the same if not better. The playability, better. And the longevity? Light years better. 80’s era G&L’s are the best guitars I have played. Leo’s genius, George’s production standards and quality control as a former working musician, and Dale Hyatt’s refusal to market anything not perfect. G&L’s are the real ones.
G&L Guitars Timeline (coming soon)
Full Leo Fender, Fender Guitars, Music Man Guitars, and G&L Guitars History & Timeline (coming soon)
Once upon a time in a little land called Fullerton, California, a young lad was born in a barn. His parents would ask him to chew with his mouth closed, was he born in a barn? And he could say, “Yes.” That lad’s name was Leo Fender. And that lad would change the entire landscape of music for generations. What follows is the story. Abridged. (Kind of.)
The Fender Years
Leo Fender started Fender Guitars, called Fender Electric Instrument Company, in 1947, after fixing tube radios for years and tinkering with designs both amateurishly and professionally since 1938, with a short-lived company partnership called “K&F” with Clayton “Doc” Kauffman of Rickenbacker, from 1944-1946. (If you can find a K&F lap steel guitar or amp, call me. Seriously.) At the time, only big arch body guitars, Hawaiian steel guitars, and lap steel guitars existed in the electric guitar market. Leo recognized that a new wave of music, one that existed as an identity and a cultural movement rather than just something to passively listen to, was coming. He saw the need for a new type of guitar and amplifier that could fill a dance hall sonically, could be repaired and have parts replaced on it easily for the working musician making the dance hall circuit rounds and throwing their instruments in the back of a pickup, that could withstand the rigors of the road, and most importantly, that didn’t give ungodly amounts of feedback when turned up to hear over these new “drum sets.” And thus Fender Guitars became the pioneer of this new “electric guitar”, introducing the Fender Esquire in 1950, the Fender Telecaster in 1951 (originally the Broadcaster…Leo loved that name and eventually gave the most collectable G&L Guitar the same moniker), and the Fender Stratocaster in 1956, complete with a spring-loaded cavity in the back connected to the bridge for a vibrato that actually stayed in tune. Fender Guitars, from a little radio shop in the farmland of Fullerton, were birthing rock and roll.
The production increased exponentially each year. Leo had to move his operations down the street and build guitars full time, selling his radio and music store to Dale Hyatt in 1947, and in 1958 he moved to a full warehouse production facility a few blocks over from both. Rock and roll was taking the world like riders on a storm, and everyone wanted the guitar that seemed to embody the soul of their music. Seemingly nothing could stop Leo Fender, now the bespectacled old man who still seemed more concerned with his newest back garage experiment to increase bridge sustain than he did with giving interviews or being a cultural icon. Until he developed a streptococcal sinus infection, possibly due to the fumes of the guitar finishes back in that day, and became very ill. He was sick enough to the point of actually getting his affairs in order. So in January of 1965, he sold Fender Guitars to CBS Corporation. CBS was to keep him on as a consultant until 1970, and after that he had a non-compete clause until 1975. This was fine with Leo as he expected to pass within a short time period anyway.
However, and this is the part of the history that always amazes me, Leo switched to a new doctor, who prescribed a different treatment, and he made a full recovery. Just like that. He went back to CBS and asked to buy his company back, and they refused. They were making record profits by that point, and were worth more than Leo could pay. So he quietly finished out his five years as a consultant, and then from 1970-1974, worked at his home at all the new guitar ideas that were playing out in his mind. Incidentally, Leo’s involvement with Fender Guitars is a direct correlation on their vintage market value. Anything 1964 and earlier, is considered “Leo era”, and is worth the most. 1965-1969, his consultant years, are generally considered very high quality Fender instruments, though not worth quite as much as the 1964 and earlier models. 1970-1975 are considered declining years but the majority of the instruments still have some quality. 1976-1979 are considered much poorer quality, and only worth their vintage market price due to their age. 1980-1995, the overseas years, just don’t bother with Fender instruments. Almost none were made domestically, and recently the market has come out with “Dan Smith era” markings on the 1982’s and 1983’s. Don’t buy into that. Play each instrument, and if you like it, great. Buy it and make beautiful music. But as a general starting point, if Leo had a hand in it, the quality will be much higher. Play them and you can feel it.
The Music Man Years
So in 1975, his contractual non-compete clause with CBS Fender Corporation over, Leo wanted to once again put that quality into guitars, and get them into the hands of musicians. And he started Music Man from 1975-1979. He would eventually have a falling out with his two business partners there, and leave the company to them in 1979. The company would then change to Ernie Ball Music Man, and eventually, just Ernie Ball. But once again, the vintage market value on the Music Man era instruments, Leo’s era from 1975-1979, are the highest vintage valued guitars and basses of that brand.
G&L Guitars (Leo Era, 1980-1991)
Still brimming with ideas, in the twilight years of his life, Leo turned to his one-time employee from way back in 1948, and long-time friend, George Fullerton. And in 1980, they started G&L, the best guitars that have ever been made. They are Leo Fender’s through and through, but with fifteen extra years of knowledge, experiments, and innovation packed into them. I’ve played a lot of guitars, and a lot of vintage guitars, and a lot of pre-1965 Fender’s, and Leo Era (1980-1991) G&L’s meet or exceed them all. Just my opinion. Even though it’s a correct one.
The Leo Era G&L’s incorporated the highest innovation possible from the man who write literally wrote the book on electric guitars. Leo settled for nothing less than the highest quality, no matter the cost. He was a rare bird who actually saw innovation, quality, creativity, and musical ability as more valuable than profits. George Fullerton, as a former touring guitarist, was able to know exactly what guitarists would want, and worked hand in hand with Leo on which innovations were necessary and which innovations were plausible on the production line. I have never run across a guitar brand era where the quality is so universal across the board. There are no good ones or bad ones, just real ones. And finally Dale Hyatt, in charge of marketing and sales, helped George Fullerton in making sure that everything marketed was the quality he wouldn’t market if it weren’t. Old school values with the highest innovation guitars.
The Leo Era G&L’s boasted the three-bolt neckplate, with an additional hole for minor action adjustments, especially on the higher frets, without changing the truss rod. They had new Leo invented two-point vibrato’s and saddle lock bridges for the highest possible sustain without the need for the strings to touch the wood. Perhaps the most astounding innovation was the MFD pickups (magnetic field design). These pickups were larger than the traditional alnico’s Leo had perfected in the 40’s, and they had the strangest effect. They sounded like the traditional pickup, just bigger and fuller. The Stratocaster (S500, Nighthawk, and Skyhawk in G&l models) sounded like a strat. Just bigger. The Telecaster (Broadcaster, ASAT in G&L models) sounded like a tele. Just bigger. And as unpopular is it may be, I find that the humbucker guitars (F100, F150, F200, Cavalier in G&L models) sound just as big as a Les Paul. Just sweeter.
It is also imperative to mention that on Leo Era G&L guitars, the knobs actually work. The volume knob allows the guitar to still sound like itself at all volumes, which is ridiculously rare in the guitar world. And the tone knobs are usable at all positions. Leo also developed his PTB (passive treble bass) tonal wiring system for many of the G&L guitar models, especially the more strat-like ones. Instead of a tone knob for the neck and middle pickups, and another tone knob for the bridge pickup, the PTB system has a master treble cut knob and a master bass cut knob. I have never understood why more guitar companies don’t do this. It offers so many usable sounds, and allows you to go from big full G&L sounds, to lesser Fender sounds, to subtle Rickenbacker sounds. Truly something special.
G&L Guitars (George & Dale Era, 1992-1997)
After Leo’s death in March of 1991, Fender once again sued G&L for the use of Leo Fender’s own name on the guitars. Unable to bear the burden of the lawsuit, and without his namesake partner, George Fullerton and Leo Fender’s wife Phyllis Fender decided to sell G&L Guitars to BBE Sound Corporation in 1992. George stayed on as a consultant, Dale stayed on as head of marketing, and I call the 1992-July of 1997 the “George & Dale Era.” The guitars of this era are still extremely high quality and sound fantastic, but there is a bit of a downward trend in quality the closer you get to 1997. The quality control was not quite as good as it had been as the company scrambled for identity a bit without Leo and his constant inspiration and innovation, and you’ll find more good ones and bad ones in this era, especially 1994-1997. In July of 1997, the backplate changed from 3-bolt to 4-bolt, and although George technically consulted until sometime in 1998, I mark this change in backplates as the point in time when it was truly BBE taking over.
G&L Guitars (Buffalo Brothers Era, 1998-2004)
However, this marked the advent of the “Buffalo Brothers Era.” Buffalo Brothers was a Southern California guitar sales shop, and they took a huge liking to G&L and the story of Leo Fender. They saw marketing there. So from about 1998-2004, G&L became mostly a custom shop guitar, coinciding with the rising popularity of the boutique guitar market. Everyone wanted custom pedals, custom guitars, and custom amps. Boutique, unique-looking things you couldn’t buy at just any music store. So while the sound quality in my opinion was still not quite as good as Leo Era or George and Dale Era, the Buffalo Brothers Era did produce some of the most beautiful G&L guitars in the company’s history. F-holes, semi hollow’s, custom colors, flame tops, any color in a burst, and my personal favorite and what hooked me into G&L guitars in my personal story, the highly figured Birdseye Maple gun-oil tinted fretboards. They may not sound as good as rosewood or ebony, but sweet mercy do they look amazing. And at the time, no one else was doing that. And they were beautiful.
G&L Guitars (BBE Era, 2005-present)
And then G&L shot themselves in the foot. Or made the best, most musically-minded, anti-capitalist occupy-wall-street decision in guitar history. Depending on who you ask. In 2000 they started making the Tribute line, the first non-USA-made G&L’s. They were lower quality wood, more mass-produced craftsmanship, but they maintained the same USA-made pickups and electronics, and were made in Korea mostly (there are a very few Japanese Tribute models, from 2000-2002…production ramped up much more in 2003 when it shifted to Korea). And history has shown us that the early 2000’s were a golden age of any instruments made in Korea. (See: Brawley.) But then in 2004, they shifted production to Indonesia, and quality slipped even further. What G&L didn’t do, either a catastrophic decision or a robin-hood-esque-it-worked-in-blazing-saddles decision, was that they didn’t rebrand their lower quality Tribute line. Most guitar companies have a lower quality, more affordable, overseas-made brand, and most consumers are very happy to have a more affordable option. But what the consumers of the more quality, USA-made line don’t like, is looking like they didn’t purchase a quality instrument. So Fender named their affordable brand Squier. Gibson named theirs Epiphone. Martin has Sigma. Takamine has Jasmine. And so forth. And in the eyes on consumers, it cheapened the brand that had just worked for 6 years to make themselves into the customized boutique brand.
However, it did keep the instruments fairly affordable for us, the ones who appreciate the Real Ones, the Leo Fender built G&L’s. In recent years, the quality has dropped further, and in order to achieve even 2000’s levels of quality, you need to order from the G&L custom shop. They’re still very good instruments and I would say certainly rival current production Fenders and Gibsons. But the Leo Fender genius truly lives on in the 1980-1991 G&L’s, as well as the vast majority of 1992-1997’s, and in many of the 1998-2004’s. As a fan, a musician, and admittedly a lover of history and just about anything old including the lamp posts outside of Leo’s old storefront buildings of which I have photographed multiple times, I would implore you to try to pick up and play a three-bolt backplate G&L. It may be life-changing. And if it’s not, bring it to me, and I’ll fix it right up and then it’ll change your life. 😉