Friends, Family, Musicians Pay Tribute to Electric Guitar Pioneer Fender : Memorial: They recall a humble man who revolutionized popular music with his instruments.
FULLERTON — Leo Fender, the back-yard inventor who created an electric guitar made famous by some of rock and roll’s biggest names, was remembered in a memorial service Saturday by some of the artists and music fans touched by his craft.
“Probably the best tribute we can give is the sound of his instruments,†John Jorgenson, guitarist for the country rock band Desert Rose, said about the 81-year-old inventor who died March 21 from complications of Parkinson’s disease.
On a stage bedecked with floral arrangements and vintage Fender amplifiers, Jorgenson turned up the volume on his silver metalflake G&L; Fender guitar and let fly with the bright, twangy sound Fender introduced to the world over four decades ago.
About 200 friends, family members, musicians, and music fans attended the memorial Saturday at Temple Baptist Church. Other tributes, musical and spoken, came from steel guitar legend Alvino Rey, western swing star and comedian Hank Penny, singer Eddie Dean and business associate Forrest White. They lauded Fender’s genius and influence throughout the musical world.
Fender’s widow, Phyllis, told the audience that her husband wouldn’t know what to make of the praise he received Saturday.
“Leo would probably be embarrassed today, or wonder who in the world you were talking about, because he never thought of himself in the way that you remember him,†she said. “He truly was that humble little custodian out in the garage, and he loved that.â€
Fender’s hands-on approach to his work would often leave those who visited his factories with the impression that he was an employee rather than the boss.
Fender was buried Tuesday in a small family funeral.
The memorial was held less than two miles from the small shop on Fullerton’s Harbor Boulevard, where Fender developed his solid-bodied electric guitar more than 40 years earlier. That instrument, eventually dubbed the Telecaster, revolutionized the sound of popular music.
In the intervening years Fender developed the Stratocaster guitar favored by Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan and countless other artists, as well as the now ubiquitous electric bass, amplifiers and other products.
He sold the Fender company in 1965 but continued in the last 12 years to refine his invention with another line of electric guitars--G&L--also; based in Fullerton. Fender could be found there at his workbench until the day before he died.
Though his functional yet flashy instruments were used by the most famed performers in country, rock and blues music, the memorial was informal, framed by the warm recollections of friends and by spirited performances on the guitars that bore his name.
Business associate White recalled that when he started working with Fender in management in 1954, Fender instructed him to wear old clothing “because I was going to be in the factory a lot and needed something to wipe my hands on.â€
Letters of remembrance were read from surf music pioneer Dick Dale and the Academy of Country Music.
Though a few tears were shed, most of the memories remained upbeat. Most of the speakers seemed to share the feeling of local musician and Fender friend Troy Robbins, who said, “For those of us left behind, we’ve still got Leo in every way, in his guitars and in the music you hear everywhere.â€
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