When the final history of electric guitars is ultimately written, one of the most important chapters will be on developments that occurred in Southern California in the 1950s and 60s and the instruments being designed by Leo Fender. From Country & Western to Surf music and beyond, the guitars being built in Fullerton, California had an enormous impact that no one could possibly have predicted at the time.

Yet even when Mr. Fender sold the original company that bore his name in 1965 (which was, believe it or not, just the second year the Beatles were together), it’s possible that even he didn’t recognize the significance of his achievements. By 1968, electric guitars were selling like crazy. It seemed that everyone either played guitar or wanted to play guitar.  Though contracts prevented Leo from being involved in making guitars or amplifiers, or lend his name in any fashion to any competitive product from 1965 to well into the 1970s, many important events took place during this time, including the birth of the super-group. You had the British invasion, Woodstock, Eric Clapton and Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Who and on and on . . .

In about 1980, however, Leo decided to get back into the guitar business and formed a partnership with his long time friend (and co-designer of the legendary Stratocaster) George Fullerton. They decided to call the company “George & Leo”, or G&L for short. They knew the competition; Leo’s former company was a giant in the industry. So they decided to specialize in high quality guitars. They decided that there would be no manufacturing compromises.  They also decided that there would be no cheap veneers or fake flame finishes. In fact, every one of their guitars would be hand-built in the USA at Leo’s facility located on - believe it or not - Fender Avenue in Fullerton, California, a place where legends truly were born. Fact is, G&L had no choice but to make a better guitar than their main competitors. If they didn’t, there would probably be no way to sell them given the market dominance and reputation of Leo’s former company. Today, 30 years later, every single G&L guitar is still constructed of solid real wood with top quality parts, all built by hand by real people, not machines. Every single guitar and bass is hand cut and shaped from the finest woods, carefully sanded by hand and flawlessly finished. Even the pickups are hand wound.

Where the average “production line” guitar today is built in less than four hours, G&L guitars take more than a day, so you have to figure these are people who actually take pride in how “archaic” their operation actually is (there’s not a robot in sight). But a G&L guitar isn’t just carefully built to exacting standards, it’s also meticulously set up for proper string height, action and intonation. And this isn’t done by consulting a set of specs - it’s done by musicians who actually use their ears to tell them when the intonation is dead-on and the action is so perfect that a player’s fingers will literally fly over the fingerboard.

While G&L guitars are designed and built to the same high standards as those that were crafted in the 50s and 60s, they also have some features that are unmistakably '90s, like the improved performance of the pickups. Yes, you still get the silky smooth highs and velvety lows of those vintage pickups, but you also get remarkably lower noise and lightning fast transient response thanks to the many subtle (but important) changes Leo and his team made over the years. There’s also the improved truss rod stability of Leo Fender’s Bi-Cut neck construction and the simple, yet elegant Dual Fulcrum Tremolo System.

Official G&L website here

*Our inventory changes daily so please feel free to contact us by e-mail or by telephone at (210) 822-4111 for current availability*

Not responsible for typographical errors in pricing

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