by Ian Port
Crosby had helped persuade: Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 151–53, and Shaughnessy, Les Paul, 123.
unending stream of visitors: Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 161.
sharply turned him down: Shaughnessy, Les Paul, 151.
out to see his trio perform: Les name-drops a number of Hollywood stars in Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 169. Some of them are confirmed in Shaughnessy, Les Paul, 152–53.
as Les recalled: Les told this story, and many other stories, several different ways, though the basic details in Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 174, remained consistent.
CHAPTER 4
back in 1943: Smith, Fender, 18; “Leo Fender: One of a Kind,” Guitar Player, May 1978.
only how to build steel guitars: Research by Richard Smith, Lynn Wheelwright, and Deke Dickerson has shown that Fender and Kauffman collaborated on a line of very early steel guitars and amps during the war, which they named Vibro.
eager to trade: Leo had been seeking ideas for products to manufacture for many years, according to author interviews with Richard Smith.
precipice of ruin: Author interview with Geoff Fullerton, March 21, 2017; “Pro’s Reply: Leo Fender.”
years of sacrifice: Details on Esther’s career, attitude, and marriage to Leo come from author interviews with Gary Gray, Alan Gray, Richard Smith, Geoff Fullerton, and Phyllis Fender, as well as Smith, Fender, 8–9, and the National Register of Historic Places registration form for Fender’s Radio Service, 107 South Harbor Boulevard, Fullerton.
corrugated steel sheds: The infamous working conditions of the original Fender factory sheds are recounted in George Fullerton’s two books, Guitar Legends: The Evolution of the Guitar from Fender to G&L (Fullerton, CA: Centerstream Publishing, 1993), 10–15, and Guitars from George & Leo: How Leo Fender and I Built G&L Guitars (Milwaukee: Hal Leonard, 2005), 16–24; White, Fender, 32; and Smith, Fender, 30–32.
so terrified: White, Fender, 13.
into his groin: Smith, Fender, 34.
upright businessman: Author interviews with John Hall (August 13, 2015) and Don Randall Jr. (January 2, 2016, and September 7, 2016), and Smith, Fender, 26.
infested with termites: Smith, Fender, 31.
termite came boring: Different versions of this story abound. White tells one in Fender, 17–18.
rush to the bank: Author interview with Geoff Fullerton, March 21, 2017.
“He could sell you a set of false teeth”: NAMM Oral History interview with Dale Hyatt, March 20, 2007.
a schmoozer and a prankster: Author interview with Don Randall Jr.
kept an apartment: Author interview with Don Randall Jr. and Kathy Randall, September 7, 2016.
a request Charlie Hayes made to Leo: Smith, Fender, 63.
whole new sound: Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 176–78.
Les shook hands: Andy Babiuk, The Story of Paul Bigsby: Father of the Modern Electric Solidbody Guitar (Savannah, GA: FG Publishing, 2008), 32.
“He talks a lot”: Author interviews with Richard Smith.
“Leo was a person [who] learned what to do”: Jim O’Donnell, Les Paul: The Lost Interviews (North Charleston: CenterStage Media, 2013), 114.
“ ‘I’m gonna do something about it’ ”: Ibid., 71.
CHAPTER 5
who brought him over: Babiuk, Story of Paul Bigsby, 32.
a decade older and perhaps half a foot taller: Merle Travis, “Paul A. Bigsby: Merle Travis Remembers . . . the Man Who Could Make Any Damn Thing,” Guitar World, September 1980; and Tom Wheeler, “Paul Bigsby, Part III,” “Rare Bird” column, Guitar Player, December 1980.
not to be reminded: White, Fender, 34.
wayward youth: Babiuk, Story of Paul Bigsby, 9–18.
“any damn thing”: Travis, “Paul A. Bigsby,” 56.
grown indignant: Babiuk, Story of Paul Bigsby, 19.
a group of country-western sidemen: Author interview with Andy Babiuk, June 9, 2016; Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 162–63.
listened carefully: Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 162–63; Babiuk, Story of Paul Bigsby, 32–33; O’Donnell, Les Paul, 71, 112–13; Jon Sievert, “Les Paul,” Guitar Player, December 1977, 50; Fullerton, Guitar Legends, 18; and author interviews with Richard Smith and Phyllis Fender.
teetotaling Leo: Leo Fender did not drink alcohol. It appears not to have been a religious conviction, but being around so many well-lubricated musicians certainly acquainted him with drinking’s ill effects.
installed it on one of his main guitars: Babiuk, Story of Paul Bigsby, 33–35; Deke Dickerson, BigsbyFiles.com.
Merle Travis asked Bigsby about it: Dickerson’s website quotes Les Paul in an interview with Andy Babiuk: “Merle Travis asked about the pickup, which he called ‘the big guy in the back.’ ”
Chet Atkins . . . requested one, too: Country Music Foundation Oral History Project, interview with Chet Atkins, interviewer Douglas B. Green, July 5, 1977.
grabbed a roll of KXLA script paper and sketched out his design: Travis, “Paul A. Bigsby” and “Recollections of Merle Travis, 1944–1955, Part 2,” John Edwards Memorial Foundation Quarterly 15, no. 55 (Fall 1979); NAMM Oral History interview with Bigsby friend and protégé R. C. Allen.
CHAPTER 6
“clunkers,” as Les called them: Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 117–22.
“headless monster”: Shaughnessy quotes Les calling it this in Les Paul, 134; in Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 172–75, Les refers to it simply as “the headless guitar.”
“It was like something from Mars”: Les’s friend Vic Schoen, quoted in Shaughnessy, Les Paul, 134.
“undisputed finest, clearest tone quality”: Country Music Foundation Oral History Project, interview with Jim Atkins, interviewer Bill Ivey, March 1975.
The room was filled: Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 180–81; Shaughnessy, Les Paul, 141.
“All hell broke loose”: Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 180.
wrote out the basic conditions of a contract: Ibid., 181; Shaughnessy, Les Paul, 142–43.
half living room: This description is based on photos of the bar at the time of its 1948 grand opening, on display during a visit in early 2016.
“roughneck”: Shaughnessy, Les Paul, 173.
As they headed south: Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 184–87; Shaughnessy, Les Paul, 155–56; and documents from the Les Paul Papers, box 5, folders 2–5, including “Les Paul Doing Fine, but Fear Arm Injury May Hinder Guitarist,” undated press clipping.
CHAPTER 7
The barnlike building: From photos of the American Legion post in the collection of the Placentia Library History Room, Placentia, California.
a band of western musicians convened there: This account assembled from Travis, “Paul A. Bigsby” and Travis, “Recollections of Merle Travis”; “Luck and Persistence, ‘Not Talent’—Are Key” (interview with Placentia dance promoter Cliffie Stone), Los Angeles Times, May 6, 1993; Kienzle, Southwest Shuffle, 103; Babiuk, Story of Paul Bigsby, 44–60; NAMM Oral History interview with R. C. Allen; and research by Deke Dickerson posted at BigsbyFiles.com.
a flowing, avian shape: The guitar was first built with no cutaway and with an almost beaklike headstock shape (visible in a picture at BigsbyFiles.com), and then modified within a few months after Leo first saw it to the shape it has today.
“newfangled guitar”: Travis, “Paul A. Bigsby.”
mostly solid-wood body: Though it had no sound holes, the Bigsby-Travis guitar was not a true solid-body—its back was hollow and covered over.
Fender couldn’t have missed this last detail, but he was too fascinated to be polite: Travis, “Recollections of Merle Travis.” Leo certainly would have recognized the Bigsby name on the headstock.
although he would deny these events: Tom Wheeler, in “Merle Travis and Paul Bigsby,” wrote that “Mr. F
ender disagrees with the story in all significant respects.” Leo Fender always denied that these events occurred but was well-known to have a selective memory. Given the many conflicting accounts and physical signs of Bigsby’s influence, his denials are simply impossible to believe.
all kinds of attention: Smith, Fender, 95.
had to be cajoled into coming on board: Author interview with George’s son Geoff Fullerton, March 21, 2017. This account conflicts with what George Fullerton wrote in his two books, but Geoff heard this story from his father, and, as he put it, “My dad is a Southern gentleman, and what he says and what happened is two different things.”
Leo shared with George his nascent vision for a new electric standard guitar: Author interview with Geoff Fullerton; Fullerton, Guitar Legends, 8; Fullerton, Guitars from George & Leo, 19.
To answer these questions: Fullerton, Guitars from George & Leo, 20–21; Fullerton, Guitar Legends, 10–11; Smith, Fender, 66–68.
instead of him, depriving him of any formal education in engineering or electronics: White, Fender, 5.
In 1917: Phyllis Fender with Randall Bell, Leo Fender: The Quiet Giant Heard Around the World (Leadership Institute Press, 2018), 11; Smith, Fender, 6–7; author interviews with Phyllis Fender, August 4, 2015, and December 9, 2015.
To earn extra money: Author interview with Geoff Fullerton, March 21, 2017.
high perch of the farm wagon: Phyllis Fender in Leo Fender, 29, writes that it was a truck Leo fell off, but it seems unlikely that the Fender family owned a truck in 1917, when Leo was only seven or eight. Their wagon is shown in Fullerton, Guitar Legends, 29.
sketched outlines of a body: Smith, Fender, 65.
hooked up a gas hose to a steel drum: Fullerton, Guitar Legends, 11.
CHAPTER 8
close to death: Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 186–89; Shaughnessy, Les Paul, 156–65; and various documents in the Les Paul Papers, box 5, folder 2.
wouldn’t survive: Referenced in Shaughnessy, Les Paul, 165.
“Paul goes one-man guitar band”: Both reviews from Billboard, February 21, 1948, 31.
“Iris Watson”: Undated United Press news clipping in Les Paul Papers, box 5, folder 2.
lingering fever: Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 190.
Les heard two doctors arguing about it: Les Paul, “The Best Advice I Ever Had,” Reader’s Digest, June 1957, 212.
“so I can play”: Quoted in Shaughnessy, Les Paul, 167.
“I finally got so ornery”: Letter from Les on his personal letterhead, undated, in Les Paul Papers, box 2, folder 25.
“When my trio and I would come out”: Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 195.
“lightweight”: Shaughnessy, Les Paul, 170.
Paul Bigsby came over with something: Evidence strongly dates the small Les Paul–Bigsby guitar to the period of Les’s recovery, as Dickerson explains at BigsbyFiles.com.
Babiuk confronted Les: Dickerson, BigsbyFiles.com.
“I let myself be talked into it”: Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 220.
“Four weeks later”: Shaughnessy, Les Paul, 168.
CHAPTER 9
In the summer of 1949: Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 195–98; Shaughnessy, Les Paul, 171–73.
should also be his costar: Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 197.
$150 per weekly, fifteen-minute episode: Ibid., 199. The show was originally called Les Paul at Home, but the name changed shortly to include Mary Ford.
Ampex Model 300: Ibid., 203–7.
almost as soon as he’d heard about it: Les often claimed credit for introducing Crosby to the idea of magnetic tape recording (Ibid., 200–201), but independent sources tell a different story. (See “History of the Early Days of the Ampex Corporation,” as recalled by John Leslie and Ross Snyder, published by the Audio Engineering Society Historical Committee at AES.org.)
“all but stunned”: “Paul’s Comeback,” Newsweek, September 5, 1949, 64.
married, with two friends as witnesses: Shaughnessy, Les Paul, 178. The witnesses were Dr. George and Bertha Miller—Milwaukee friends and the parents of future rock star Steve Miller, who would be Les Paul’s godson.
CHAPTER 10
Little Jimmy Dickens: Jim Washburn, “Leo Fender: His Contribution Struck a Chord Around the World,” Los Angeles Times, March 23, 1991.
were waiting for the band to take a break: Fullerton, Guitar Legends, 15; Fullerton, Guitars by George & Leo, 23; Kienzle, Southwest Shuffle, 193–204, and liner notes to Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant, Flamin’ Guitars, CD box set (Bear Family Records, 1997); and author interview with Kienzle, March 8, 2017.
“Well, could I try it?”: Fullerton, Guitar Legends, 15.
“money green”: Kienzle, Flamin’ Guitars liner notes.
had a section of the body cut away: The Bigsby-Travis guitar did not have this shape originally, but it had this shape well before any Fender prototypes appeared.
“I designed the Fender guitar”: “Merle Travis: The Man,” Guitar Player, September 1976, 20.
hours shaping by hand: Author interview with Deke Dickerson, March 15, 2016.
two blocks of pine: Smith writes in Fender, 66, that the first Fender prototype was not a solid-body, but consisted of two pine pieces with a closed-off resonating cavity in the middle.
ordered by none other than Jimmy Bryant: Babiuk, Story of Paul Bigsby, 70–77.
“I have done everything I know”: F. C. Hall, letter to Don Randall, August 8, 1949, in the Don Randall Private Collection.
exactly the same tuners: Babiuk, Story of Paul Bigsby, 51–52, 60–63.
adopting a good idea: One more smoking gun in the case of the Bigsby-Fender influence comes in a letter from Don Randall to F. C. Hall from July 1950, in which Randall writes: “Merle Travis is on the program and he is one of the country’s foremost guitar stylists. He is playing the grandaddy of our Spanish guitar, built by Bigsby—the one Leo copied.” From the Richard Smith Files.
returned from a Hawaiian vacation: Musical Merchandise, February 1952, 16.
At thirty-two: Don Randall was born in Kendrick, Idaho, on October 30, 1917.
“definitely the high moral type”: F. C. Hall, letter to Army Air Force Redistribution Station No. 4, Santa Ana Army Air Base, California, November 16, 1945, in support of a discharge for Don Randall to resume work at Radio-Tel, shared with author by Don Randall Jr.
taught himself electronics: Author interviews with Don Jr. and Kathy Randall, March 11, 2016; family documents shared with author; and documents in the Don Randall Private Collection.
“canoe paddle”: Smith, Fender, 78; “The Strat at 60,” Music Trades, October 2014.
“toilet seat with strings”: “Fender the Founder,” 61.
“That thing’ll never sell”: Tom Wheeler, The Fender Archives: A Scrapbook of Artifacts, Treasures, and Inside Information (Milwaukee: Hal Leonard, 2014), 12.
“It really looks hot”: Don Randall, letter to F. C. Hall, undated (summer 1950), in Don Randall Private Collection.
“I really believe that this should be carefully considered”: Don Randall, letter to F. C. Hall, July 13, 1950, in Don Randall Private Collection and Richard Smith Files.
“Francis,” . . . “I don’t believe you realize the gravity”: Don Randall, letter to F. C. Hall, undated (August 1950), in Richard Smith Files.
CHAPTER 11
June 28, 1950: Kienzle, Flamin’ Guitars liner notes, 16–17.
even more notice: Ibid.; Kienzle, Southwest Shuffle, 193–204; and “Jimmy Bryant: An Unsung Hero,” Guitar World, September 1980, 15–65.
based on a classic old blues: Kienzle, Southwest Shuffle, 115.
an astounding success: Joel Whitburn, Joel Whitburn Presents Hot Country Songs 1944–2008 (Menomonee Falls, WI: Record Research, 2008).
“I hope they start shipping the Spanish guitar soon”: Handwritten note from Fender salesman Dave Driver to F. C
. Hall, August 15, 1950, in Don Randall Private Collection.
Hyatt drove a truckload of Fender equipment: Tony Bacon, Six Decades of the Fender Telecaster (Milwaukee: Hal Leonard, 2005), 21; Smith, Fender, 81–82.
he appreciated elegant hollow-body guitars: Author interview with Rich Kienzle, March 8, 2017.
to try to match the sound of Gibson’s grandest hollow-body: Author interview with Buddy McPeters, February 20, 2016.
“I believe that Leo is very much concerned”: F. C. Hall, letter to Don Randall, August 16, 1950, in Don Randall Private Collection.
a channel was cut in the back of the neck: Author interview with Geoff Fullerton, March 21, 2017.
Randall decided to call it the “Broadcaster”: Smith, Fender, 84.
the difference in names and specs would confuse many: Fender salesman Mike Cole, letter to Don Randall, January 16, 1951, in Don Randall Private Collection.
received a telegram: Western Union telegram, February 20, 1951, in Richard Smith Files and Don Randall Private Collection.
“It is a shame that our efforts . . . are lost”: Don Randall, letter to all Fender salesmen, February 21, 1951, in Don Randall Private Collection.
bearing no model name at all: Smith, Fender, 88.
“This guitar can be played at extreme volume”: Fender 1950 catalog, Broadcaster entry.
CHAPTER 12
matched the success of the first: Whitburn, Pop Hits 1940–1954.
did nothing exciting: Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 193–94.
Les felt was borrowed, or stolen, from him: Ibid., 224.
confused buyers: Shaughnessy, Les Paul, 187.
dismissed as soon as she heard it: Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 224.
steadfastly refused to release it: Shaughnessy, Les Paul, 186–88; Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 229–30.
recorded it on the Ampex: Shaughnessy, Les Paul, 185–86; Les tells a more elaborate version in Paul and Cochran, Les Paul in His Own Words, 226–28.
he relented: Shaughnessy, Les Paul,188.
