It is gutsy of him, but when the two met, Freddie told Leo that his amplifiers were junk. A proud man would have gotten mad and written the guy off, but remember, Leo was not conventional. Many CEOs surround themselves with yes-men who always vote unanimously for everything the leader proposes. Leo was different, and he always liked people that told him the truth.
Leo quietly asked Freddie what was wrong with his amplifiers, and Freddie immediately turned the amp around and started showing Leo various design issues. Leo was impressed with Freddie’s insights, and he hired Freddie on the spot. Leo connected with authentic people—people who told it how it really is, had a feel for the business and got the job done.
Freddie had the vibe Leo liked. In fact, Freddie was a Hawaiian version of Leo. Quiet, mellow, and calm, Freddie was also intensely in love with music and musical instruments. While Freddie looked Hawaiian, he was a mix of Portuguese, Hawaiian, Chinese, English, Tahitian, and Samoan. Freddie would sometimes say, “The Portuguese makes me stubborn; Chinese makes me smart; English makes me high-class; Hawaiian gives me the music; Tahitian gives me the beat—I couldn’t ask for more!”
On his first day on the job in 1953, Freddie took out some paper and drew a design for Leo. Leo loved it, and together the two of them collaborated to invent the Stratocaster. Freddie not only worked for Leo in the Pre-CBS days, but stayed with the Fender company even during the CBS period as a designer and engineer within the research and development department. While his contributions were huge, Freddie was always very mild and humble. He once said, “All of the guitars were essentially Leo’s design.”
Leo and I were both quite fond of Freddie and his wife, Tamar. Freddie was the one who played the instruments, and had a knack for truly feeling the instrument as he and his wife sang together. If Freddie liked it, Leo knew it was a winner, and that when the invention hit the streets the world would never be the same.
I sometimes think about the rare brain—compared to my blonde brain—who could make all of this happen in such a short amount of time. I believe that the secret came from Leo’s background, which encompassed so many talents. He was conservative to the core, exact with his expectations of himself and others, while at the same time remarkably innovative and free-thinking.
Leo knew how to use a drafting table, design and solder electronic circuitry, do woodworking, metalworking, build a facility, file a patent, invite feedback from the customers, design a mass-production manufacturing line, attract and hire good people, and quickly get rid of anyone who was lazy! Leo would laugh at the notion of doing only one thing, and he was the first in the plant to put out a fire and fix a machine with his own hands. He had to do it himself—because he invented many of those machines.
One day, tragedy struck. A bunch of employees were fixing an amplifier. Of course, Leo was right in there with them. At one point, Leo climbed down on the ground and stuck his head into the speaker cabinet to check on the wiring. Without warning, one of the men flipped the “on” switch of the amplifier, and the speakers burst out with a deafeningly loud squealing sound. Both of Leo’s eardrums were shattered. He told me that he could feel them just melt away. In an instant, Leo lost most of his hearing. It was a devastating loss for a man who already was going through life with one glass eye. Besides, he loved music, he loved musicians, and he loved his role in making instruments. Suddenly, Leo’s world was nearly silenced.
Leo invented this first solid body electric guitar
Later, Leo would get hearing aids, which greatly helped. Remarkably, even with these physical limitations, Leo never complained or made any kind of fuss about any of it. He simply did what Leo always did—he calmly went forward with a slight smile. His disabilities went virtually unnoticed by all the people around him.
Few would guess that Leo was a team player. At one point, he employed over a thousand people. His core team included not only Freddie Tavares, but also George Fullerton (no relation to the City of Fullerton) and Dale Hyatt.
Born in Arkansas, George Fullerton moved to Southern California in 1940 to work as a machinist. Leo hired George in 1948, and George worked with him until the day Leo passed away.
Dale Hyatt was a charismatic guy who oversaw the sales at Fender and was a longtime associate of Leo and George. Dale had been a tail gunner on a B-17 bomber who flew twenty-five missions and was once shot down over France. Dale began working for Leo in 1946. He left Fender Musical Instruments when Leo sold the business to CBS in 1965.
While never an official employee of Fender, Bob Perline was also a close friend of Leo’s. Bob developed a popular advertising campaign that really grabbed people’s attention. Bob said that when he drove from his home in Laguna Beach up to the Fender plant in Fullerton, he saw Freddie Tavares taking a break and hitting a tennis ball against the side of the building. The two chatted, and then Freddie said, “Well, let me introduce you to Leo.”
Leo was keenly observant and could size people up rather quickly. Leo liked Bob and Bob liked Leo. They instantly hit it off, and Leo really loved the “You won’t part with yours either” ad campaigns that Bob created because they were clever, really grabbed attention, and did not cost a lot of money! These were all winning qualities to Leo. Bob went around looking for people engaged in everyday activities, gave people a Fender guitar, and snapped pictures. He then cropped the photo and added the slogan. It was simple, yet powerful.
Bob was a classically trained, offbeat Laguna Beach artist, Mormon bishop, and beach bum, all wrapped into one. He took pictures of surfers playing a G-cord, (recruited on the spot near the Huntington Beach pier), beautiful girls in bikinis with surfboards (friends of his daughters from Laguna Beach High School), smiling parachutists (hired on the spot before skydiving in Riverside), and a scuba diver (just some guy down at Crystal Cove) walking into the ocean, with a Fender guitar on his back. The whole thing was brilliant.
Leo loved these concepts, especially the ones with cute girls! I often teased Leo that the only thing that took his attention off guitars was a cute girl in tight jeans walking by!
While Leo was a quiet and subdued guy who often wore the same basic outfits, his head was always spinning with innovative ideas. His instruments were truly Southern California. Before Leo, there were no mint green or candy apple red musical instruments. Leo made them, along with glittery gold, turquoise blue, and shiny silver guitars. Fender guitars were fitting for jazz, country, and rock and roll. They were outrageous, but at the same time, they were solid, high-quality instruments, with a distinctive sound that everybody loved.
The most common question I get asked about Leo is, “What was he really like?” The truth is, no matter where he was or what he was doing, he was really thinking about musical instruments and amps. You could be talking with him for five minutes, and then in mid-conversation, he would get an idea and would just walk away. He would not say “excuse me” or “goodbye.” He would just leave.
Because Leo was never in it for money or personal fame, he was an easy person to get behind and support, and his team greatly admired him. With Leo ever at the captain’s wheel, this core team of Freddie, George, Dale, and Bob kept designing, inventing, producing, selling and promoting. The Telecaster, Stratocaster, and amplifiers grew and grew in popularity and eventually spread across the world.
Later, Leo got the idea to invent the electric bass guitar. The Fender bass turned music upside down, as up until then bass guitars were huge, fretless upright instruments. With Leo’s invention, the bass player could run around the stage like everyone else. Without Leo, everyone from Gene Simmons to Sting would be plunking one of those huge, wooden basses on stage!
During this time Guitar Player magazine said,
Fender tube amps were enormously popular and set standards still followed by the industry; the competitors envied both their design and sales records. They sounded great, and they