to be higher because it’s about lasting quality, serviceability,
just the one guy doing the and change for improvement only.
whole thing. When you build He had a maverick approach,
thirty of something like the without being careless.
Founders Project guitars, you
can do the components in All of that, in my mind, comes
production runs. You can do from the original Fender ethos.
all the bodies and all of the Having those values intrinsic to
necks at one time. So, the our heritage doesn’t mean that we
price seemed perfect to us just do old stuff. Leo Fender would
for the level of complexity of have never stopped at the Strat,
the build. or the Jaguar, or the Jazzmaster.
He would have continued to
[CG] What is it like to carry create new, complete designs.
on the legacy of something That’s another beautiful thing
that started in the late 1940’s? about Fender guitars, is that they
are complete designs. Every part
[Mike] What I feel was most works together with every other
important to Leo was building part. Our instruments aren’t just
the best possible tools for the same thing with different
musicians. He always relied pickups, or a different bridge. It’s
on the artists for feedback, not like two pickups, four knobs,
and to and a switch with 10 different
make a better performing body shapes. Each instrument
instrument. He never made is its own complete design and
a change to a design unless they’re beautiful.
he
truly
wanted
it made it better, made it
last longer, or made it more
photo: Henry Diltz
serviceable. Look at some
[CG] If Leo Fender were still
alive, what would you say to him?
more screws to hold it down.
of the changes that were made over the
years on the Stratocaster for example. It went When he was asked to come up with a guitar [Gene] Sir, you were a visionary far beyond
from a one-piece maple neck to a rosewood with a vibrato tailpiece, instead of just copying your time. If you could only see how you
fingerboard – why? What happens to a maple what was out there at the time and having changed the face of guitars moving forward.
neck after you play it for a few years? It gets something with big, heavy, external hardware. I’m extremely proud to have been a part of
worn out, or the finish comes off, or it starts He invented this device that was hidden inside Fender.
to look dirty. Before the rosewood fingerboard the body, with a curvy arm that mysteriously there was nothing you could do about that. We disappears into the guitar body. It was also switched from a single-ply pickguard to completely different and new. He was a great a triple-ply – why? What happens to a single- innovator, not to mention the ply pickguard after a number of years? It has great inventions that Leo a tendency to sometimes warp a little. So, we came up with, like the went to the triple-ply pickguard and added Fender bass. He cared
[Mike] Thank you!
photos couresty of Fender
pictured above, Gene Baker
42
Mar Apr 2017
CollectibleGuitar.com