WEBVTT - Les Paul & Leo Fender Part II 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.880 Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast everybody. I'm Josh, 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:17.520 and there's Chuck and Jerry's out there running around somewhere. Uh. 0:00:17.520 --> 0:00:21.759 And this is stuff you should know about Fender and 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:27.920 less Paul Heart Do Should we recap real quick? Yeah? 0:00:27.960 --> 0:00:31.360 I think so. It seems appropriate, all right. Well, where 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:35.919 we left off with part one was Leo Fender, lifelong engineer, 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:41.320 tinker and non musician, has made a career making amps 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:44.640 and trying to figure out the problem with electric guitar feedback. 0:00:45.479 --> 0:00:50.240 Les Paul was a budding superstar guitar player and session player, 0:00:50.960 --> 0:00:54.560 also tinkerer, trying to figure out this problem of amplifying 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:58.720 the electric guitar without feedback, and they were introduced in 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:03.840 trying to figure this out together. And then enters a 0:01:03.960 --> 0:01:07.399 third gentleman who may have had more to do with 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:09.920 the invention of the solid body electric guitars we know it, 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:12.679 than either one of them. For real. This is where 0:01:12.800 --> 0:01:16.240 things get a little bit shady, little murky, when Carrie 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:22.959 Grant enters what's the guy's name, Paul? His name is 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:26.160 Paul Biggsby, and I've heard of the last name I've 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:28.760 I've seen those guitars before. Is it still are the 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:32.280 is the company is still around? Yeah, So here's the deal. 0:01:32.520 --> 0:01:36.640 Biggsby is now most well known for what's called the 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:39.759 Biggsby tail piece, which is he's the guy who kind 0:01:39.760 --> 0:01:43.560 of invented the wammy bar. If you know nothing about guitars, 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:46.640 but you've ever seen like Eddie Van Halen play. Not 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:49.240 all guitarists use these things. But if you hit a 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:51.280 note and then you reach below the guitar and grab 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:53.680 that little steel bar and make it go wow, why wow, 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:57.760 wow wow, that's a whammy bar. Bigsby invented that, and 0:01:57.800 --> 0:01:59.920 he is still most well known. Like you can get 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:02.960 Biggsby tail piece put onto a Less Paul or an 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:06.200 s G or uh. You can't do a two Fenders 0:02:06.200 --> 0:02:07.640 because they have their own I guess you could with 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:11.000 a telecaster, but um, any guitar without a wammy bar 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:13.880 you could put on a Biggsby tail piece. They're beautiful, 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:16.400 they look great, and that's what they're kind of most 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:19.959 well known for today. Okay, gotcha. But at the time 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:23.840 Bigsby was he was the oldest of so Leo Fender. 0:02:23.840 --> 0:02:26.600 If you didn't realize was older than Less Paul, and 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:30.640 Paul Bigsby was older than Leo, and he had started 0:02:30.680 --> 0:02:33.400 out his career as a motorcycle racer and then went 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:36.680 on to start to make up motorcycle parts, I believe, 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:40.720 and then moved on to instruments. And he Um was 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:44.440 known to Leo Fender and that they were competitors because 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:48.240 Um Biggsby also made electric steel guitars at the time. 0:02:48.960 --> 0:02:52.720 I don't know if they were friendly necessarily, but I 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:57.280 do know that they definitely worked together in Fenders workshop. 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:02.160 UM kind of working on electric instruments together, so I 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:04.360 would guess you'd have to be somewhat friendly. It wasn't 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:07.359 like you know, Macy's and gimbals or anything like that. 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:13.920 You know, Yeah, I think I think that's about right. Okay, 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:18.120 So they definitely worked together at some point in time, 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:20.520 and they were friendly enough to to do that, and 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:25.440 there they were dedicated to creating that big electric sound 0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:29.600 out of a guitar. Um and Bigsby, if you ever 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:32.760 have seen those guitars that he made, they were beautiful. 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:34.840 They were It was a lot like Gibson. They were artisan. 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:40.960 UM just just crafted works of art basically UM one 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:43.320 at a time, kind of things exactly, and so he 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:45.960 already had Um, Paul Bigsby already had a name for 0:03:46.040 --> 0:03:48.560 himself in that respect. And he was hanging out at 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:51.320 a radio station as guitar makers do in l a 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:55.680 um k x l A, which featured country music played 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:58.040 live kind of like Grand Old Opry stuff, I guess, 0:03:58.760 --> 0:04:02.560 and uh, country mus sition named Merle Travis Um was there, 0:04:02.600 --> 0:04:06.200 I believe, playing, and Merle Travis knew Paul Biggsby at 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:08.839 least by reputation, and said, Hey, you know I heard 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:12.280 you can build anybody whatever, whatever they're looking for. If 0:04:12.320 --> 0:04:14.560 I draw you a picture of a guitar, can you 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:17.680 make it for me? And I guess Paul Bigsby said 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:22.839 challenge accepted, good sir, and um, we should probably fast 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:26.080 forward about a month or two. Huh yeah. And I 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:28.400 just again, I want to stress the fact that at 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:33.320 one point in Les, Paul Leo Fender and Paul Bigsby 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:37.440 are all together in a garage and county in southern California. 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:42.040 And this is like, I mean, it makes my mind 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:45.440 explode to think about those three men in a room 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:48.800 together like working on something. I'm like, I'm trying to 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:53.040 think of another industry where like three separate top brains 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:55.039 got together like this, and I can't even think of 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:57.880 a of anything to compare it to. It'd be like 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:03.320 if um, Steve Jobs, Build Gates and Paul Giamatti all 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:09.960 got to I couldn't. Yes. Yeah, uh So anyway, a 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:14.160 very just special moment in history. So yeah, he comes 0:05:14.200 --> 0:05:17.520 back a few months later, uh, with this guitar. Leo 0:05:17.600 --> 0:05:20.880 Fender is backstage at a show and Merle Travis is 0:05:20.880 --> 0:05:24.839 there playing, and he pulls out this thing that Paul 0:05:24.839 --> 0:05:28.640 Bigsby made And if you look up Merl Travis Bigsby guitar, 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:33.160 this thing is beautiful. It is a gorgeous guitar and 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:37.880 looks like and is a real deal solid body electric guitar. Yeah, 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:40.000 and he pulls it out in front of Leo Fender 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:43.520 no Less, who said, hey, Merel, that's a pretty neat 0:05:43.520 --> 0:05:47.039 looking guitar there. Uh, you mind if I get my 0:05:47.120 --> 0:05:49.080 hands on that for a little bit and just check 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:50.520 it out. I want to see what it's all about. 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:54.720 You know, this little prototype out of the way right, uh, 0:05:54.720 --> 0:05:57.360 And Merle Travis was kind enough to let Leo Fender 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:00.760 borrow it, and Leo Fender and so should we should 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:04.840 caveat this? Supposedly, Leo Fender, where he alive today, would 0:06:04.839 --> 0:06:08.320 be like, no, no, that's not true. No, this is 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:14.440 not correct. But supposedly there are informed people who say 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:19.920 that Merle Travis let um that let Leo Fender take 0:06:20.240 --> 0:06:23.320 his guitar that Paul Bigsby had made for him back 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:28.840 to Leo Fender's workshop and basically have a reverse engineer 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:31.760 session all over it. Yeah, this is where it gets 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:34.640 a little hinky, because Leo Fender was a great man 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:37.880 and a great inventor of things. Um, but what he 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:41.400 was really really good at was improving things. He was 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:46.240 like the Japanese, Yeah, and um, they make some pretty 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:48.280 good guitars to it, think right, but there, well, the 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:50.960 Japanese are well known for taking something that's pretty cool 0:06:51.000 --> 0:06:52.640 and then just improving the heck out of it, and 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:55.240 like he say, you should do it? Yeah exactly. Uh 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:58.320 so Yeah, I mean definitely a point in history sort 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:01.640 of a crossroads where some people are like Leo Fender 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:05.760 stole this from Paul Bigsby and was able to mass 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:08.799 produce it, whereas Bigsby was intent on making these artists 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:11.320 and pieces one by one and just got left in 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:14.720 the dust. Um, there may be something to that. If 0:07:14.760 --> 0:07:18.640 you look at the headstock for that original Bigsby guitar, 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:21.080 and you look at the head stock and the head 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:23.360 stock is at the the very end of the neck 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:25.440 where the strings end up and where the little tuning 0:07:25.480 --> 0:07:29.960 pegs are, it looks a lot like the Stratocaster headstock, 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:34.320 almost exactly like it. And he denied kind of even 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:38.960 ganking that, but in meetings at Fender later on, there 0:07:38.960 --> 0:07:41.040 were higher ups at Fender that said, go out and 0:07:41.080 --> 0:07:44.800 make us something like that Biggsby, Like they literally said that. 0:07:44.920 --> 0:07:48.240 So it's kind of undeniable at this point. Um. He 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:50.520 was even sued. There was a lawsuit that Bigsby sent 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:54.000 about the head stock and they basically said, you know, 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:57.360 they were there were too many just sort of similar 0:07:57.440 --> 0:08:00.520 kinds of things before this, so it's not gonna hold water. Well, 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:04.360 not only that, Um, there there is some there are 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:09.640 other similarities to like you talked about that little wammy bar. Um, 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:13.280 the biggs By had one. It's called the biggs By 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:17.960 pure vibrato, where basically you're you're you're pushing pushing down 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:21.720 on a bar that's actually manipula I don't understand. Actually, Chuck, 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:24.040 what is manipulation? Maybe you should take this part. All 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:26.200 I know is that it affects the sound like wa 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:29.720 wa wa wah like that, But I don't know the 0:08:30.320 --> 0:08:33.040 mechanism by which it does the wa wah wah wah. 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:36.560 It's really easy because it's purely mechanical. It's the guitar 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:39.720 bridge is the part where you're, if you're right handed players, 0:08:39.760 --> 0:08:42.479 where the right hand is, and that's where the strings 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:46.280 are rooted. So what the wammy bar and what the 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:50.400 Bigsby tailpiece did is it lifts up the back of 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:53.840 the bridge and it literally manually loosens the guitar strings 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:57.160 until you release it, and then it snaps them back. 0:08:57.320 --> 0:08:59.960 So if you press on it, it just it's literally 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:02.400 losing the guitar string enough to make it go wait 0:09:02.440 --> 0:09:06.920 wait waiting. And you remember when you do this around 0:09:06.960 --> 0:09:11.160 the pickup the metal strings and steel strings affect the 0:09:11.160 --> 0:09:14.319 the electrical signal that's produced. So if you're messing with 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:16.760 the strings, you're messing with the electrical signal and hence 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:20.040 the sound. Right. Uh. The other thing we should point 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:24.080 out that Leo Fender probably kind of stole was the 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:28.040 all the tuning pegs on the headstock are all on 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:30.679 top and in one line. So if you look at 0:09:30.720 --> 0:09:33.920 telecasters and strato casters, and that's sort of the Fender thing, 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:36.280 they're all in a row because it's just really easy 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:40.160 to access them as a player, whereas uh Gibson models 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:43.400 were based on acoustic or Spanish guitars, where there's three 0:09:43.400 --> 0:09:45.440 on one side and three on the other. And in 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:47.680 order to turn to tune those lower strings or I 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:50.880 guess the higher strings, you have to reach under and around. 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:54.080 And Leo Fender was I guess he saw this design 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:56.000 was like, hey, that's kind of brilliant. Actually to put 0:09:56.040 --> 0:10:01.120 them all on one side, that's superior. Frankly. Yeah, so yeah, 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:03.520 it's really tough to get around. Like if you put 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:06.320 the there's plenty of pictures out there. If you put 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:09.880 that first Bigsby Merle Travis guitar next to the first 0:10:09.880 --> 0:10:13.400 guitar that Fender ever mass produced, it's pretty much the 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:18.320 same thing in a lot of ways. Um, And so yeah, 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:20.160 I don't know. It was tough to swallow it. But 0:10:20.240 --> 0:10:25.160 like you said, the idea UM, the idea of impugning 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:29.720 um Leo Fender's character, it just doesn't it doesn't quite 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:31.880 make sense because he was a great guy and he 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:34.880 did do a lot um for the industry, and he 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:38.679 founded Fender, which just that alone is pretty amazing too. 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:41.920 But one of the things that he doesn't necessarily get 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:46.880 credit for UM at least outside of like musicians circles 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:52.800 I'm guessing, but UM is the basse that he created, right, Yeah, 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:57.160 the Precision basse um. Before the electric bass guitar. The 0:10:57.160 --> 0:11:00.520 basses were all the big standard upright basses, and they 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:03.480 were a problem because they were huge. You either had 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:05.280 to drop it to the strap it to the top 0:11:05.320 --> 0:11:08.480 of your car, uh and you know, potentially have it 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:11.080 get beat up by weather, or you had to ride 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:13.600 separately from the rest of the band because that thing 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:16.319 filled up the entire back seat. They were just big 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:19.760 and bulky and hard to transport. So uh leo. Fender 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:23.800 again was not the first UM. A guy named Paul 0:11:23.840 --> 0:11:28.480 tut Mark who worked on He was a big lap 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:31.920 steel maker and he founded the Audiobox company, which is 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:35.560 still around fifteen years before the Fender p base. The 0:11:35.600 --> 0:11:39.160 Precision base. He invented what's generally known as the first 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:43.000 electric solid body bass guitar. It just didn't take off 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:46.040 like the precision. And again the p bass is called 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:49.080 a precision because the upright basse doesn't have frets. So 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:50.640 if you knew how to play it, you know how 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:52.200 to play it, but you couldn't be like go to 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:55.040 the fourth fret. You would just sort of not guess, 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:57.560 but you would generally know where it falls. The electric 0:11:57.559 --> 0:11:59.920 bass guitar, the p bass had frets, so they say 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:01.880 it had more precisions, so that's why they called it that. 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:05.040 But that's another thing that's easy to overlook too, is 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:08.720 like you know, the electric guitar, it's it's pretty different 0:12:08.760 --> 0:12:13.480 from like the electric Spanish guitar, but it's still in 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:17.360 the same general it's like a progression from that. The 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:22.000 electric bass was like hull cloth and a new invention basically, 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:24.640 and it changed everything too. I mean, like I was 0:12:24.679 --> 0:12:26.960 reading an article I think, yeah that you sent from 0:12:27.040 --> 0:12:30.960 maybe Pitchfork UM where I was talking about like just 0:12:31.040 --> 0:12:33.600 how much that changed things having that around like basically 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:37.120 Motown and then later on Funk like like none of 0:12:37.160 --> 0:12:40.720 that would have existed without the electric bass, and like um, 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:44.720 like another one bites the Dust and like Pink Floyd's 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:47.800 Dark Side of the Moon and like you know, Parliament, 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:51.800 like all these like bands were predicated on the fact 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:56.920 that there was like a nice slappy electric bass that, um, 0:12:57.080 --> 0:12:58.840 you just couldn't get around, You couldn't ignore it. It It 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:01.600 became like a part of the band rather than just 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:05.720 some background thing that was more visual than than audio 0:13:06.200 --> 0:13:09.840 or wait oral, Yeah, because the upright basse kind of 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:12.120 ended up having the same problem as the acoustic guitar, 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:15.360 and that once they had electric guitars, that upright bass 0:13:15.360 --> 0:13:19.400 wouldn't really cut through live, and so you had, you know, 0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:22.640 the a song is driven by the rhythm section that 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:25.160 the bass player and the drummer. That's when you ever 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:27.520 hear about the rhythm section. They drive the heart of 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:31.200 the song. Everyone follows them. Like as much as you 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:34.520 think is the guitars out front, it's not leading the band. 0:13:34.600 --> 0:13:37.800 The low end is what's actually leading the song, and 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:39.560 everyone else kind of falls in line with that because 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:41.559 they're setting that beat with the bass and the drums. 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:45.280 But he's he's working on this and again not to 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:46.880 get in the weeds with the amps, but this whole 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:52.600 time he's making leaps and bounds on amplification that works 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:55.400 at really high volume with these Fender amps. Yeah, and 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:57.760 then one of the other things that made Fender really 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:06.239 innovative was he um aided the he created like instruments 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:10.360 for everyday people. That was the big innovation for him. 0:14:10.400 --> 0:14:13.360 Like his company set out to create to bring this 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:17.240 stuff to the masses so that you know, teenage kids 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:19.840 could save up from like there after school job and 0:14:19.920 --> 0:14:22.360 like buy one of these things and buy an amp 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:24.520 and start a band and maybe actually get kind of 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:26.600 good and it like I mean, I hate to use 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:28.200 this word because it's so over used these days, but 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:32.120 he kind of democratized starting a band. Whereas before you 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:34.680 had to you know, you're you had like a twenty 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:36.560 piece band, and you had to know all these people, 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:38.120 and you had to do dance halls and everything. And 0:14:38.120 --> 0:14:41.960 now you could you could because everything was amplified and electrified. 0:14:42.000 --> 0:14:43.720 You could get away with just you know, three or 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:47.320 four pieces and um everybody could hear you, and they 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:49.360 could hear you louder than they could hear the big 0:14:49.400 --> 0:14:52.680 bands from before um because it was amplified, but it 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:56.720 was affordable. And he also made him really durable too. Yeah, 0:14:57.000 --> 0:14:58.840 And it was because he introduced kind of like a 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:02.200 factory process to it. Whereas over at Gibson and Rick 0:15:02.280 --> 0:15:04.360 and Bucker and Bigsby, they were all still making these 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:06.520 hands kind of not one at a time, but they 0:15:06.520 --> 0:15:10.480 were making them by hand, very slowly. Uh. One of 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:13.520 the big reasons he was able to factory I is 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:17.560 it was he started he was basically the only company 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:21.080 using a bolt on neck. Um. So in other words, 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:24.280 you take the neck and you literally screw it into 0:15:24.280 --> 0:15:26.760 the body of the guitar on the back. And that's 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:28.920 why anytime you see a Fender guitar on the back, 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:32.000 they have this little silver square plate where the neck 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:36.200 meets the body and under that it's where it's bolted together. Um. 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:39.800 Gibson and basically everyone else was using uh what's called 0:15:39.800 --> 0:15:43.040 set neck which are glued on. And you might think that, 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:46.800 like many bolting sounds a lot better than glue. But 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:49.400 what glue does is that actually it hears it and 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:52.720 makes it more like that log almost like a through neck. 0:15:52.760 --> 0:15:55.920 It makes it part of the body and gives you 0:15:55.960 --> 0:15:59.200 more warmth and a little more sustain and it's just 0:15:59.280 --> 0:16:01.320 a bit of a different it sound. Whereas the both 0:16:01.360 --> 0:16:04.360 on guitar got a little more known for sort of 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:07.880 being kind of pluckier, and you know, they both have 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:10.280 their advantages. Some people swear by one or the other, 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:13.760 but uh, neither like nowadays, neither one of them is 0:16:13.800 --> 0:16:16.640 superior to the next. Really, it's just sort of two 0:16:16.640 --> 0:16:19.840 different methods. Gotcha, I got you. But I could also 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:23.720 see that Bolt almost represents that mass production to ye 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:27.960 for sure. So it took um Leo Fenders working on that, 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:33.440 um big we'll call it Biggsby inspired design. And at 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:37.440 the same time, um Les Paul is about to have 0:16:37.760 --> 0:16:43.000 a life changing experience in Oklahoma of all places. Right, Yeah, 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:46.080 So he, like I said, was not a good husband 0:16:46.160 --> 0:16:49.920 to either his first wife or his second. Really, he 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:52.680 had a long time affair with a woman her with 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:55.720 her stage name of Mary Ford. She was a singer 0:16:55.760 --> 0:17:00.720 and also a champion guitar player. Uh, they had at 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:02.920 a duo going on. It was Less Paul mary Ford, 0:17:02.920 --> 0:17:06.000 and they had tons and tons of number one hit records, 0:17:06.680 --> 0:17:09.000 and they had been together for quite a few years 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:12.439 before he even got divorced from his first wife. But 0:17:12.520 --> 0:17:16.480 in while traveling I think back to l A from Wisconsin, 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:19.600 they were in a really bad car accident on the 0:17:19.760 --> 0:17:24.359 icy roads of uh near Davenport, Oklahoma, and it was 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:27.080 a really really bad wreck that could have killed both 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:30.960 of them. Yeah. So um, they were both thrown from 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:34.200 the car along with all their equipment. UM. And from 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:37.800 what I understand, Mary's injuries weren't nearly as bad as 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:41.119 less as um his spleen was all messed up a 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:43.600 bunch of other stuff. But the big problem for less 0:17:43.640 --> 0:17:48.520 Paul was that his right elbow was shattered, and at 0:17:48.520 --> 0:17:51.399 first the doctors said, well, we're just gonna have to 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:54.280 amputate your arm, and that obviously would have been that 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:58.960 for his guitar playing days. Um. Apparently, when he was 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:00.600 faced with this news, when of the first things he 0:18:00.640 --> 0:18:05.199 started doing was um coming up with how to create 0:18:05.359 --> 0:18:10.600 um an effect where you could play guitar one handed. Um. 0:18:10.640 --> 0:18:13.760 But he luckily did never have to actually follow through 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:17.480 and invent that, because uh, some doctor was aware of 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:20.120 his status and that he played guitar and like that. 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:24.120 He just they couldn't take his arm, so he set 0:18:24.119 --> 0:18:26.640 about trying to figure out how to solve the problem 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:30.120 while keeping his arm and allowing less Paul to somehow 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:33.119 play one way or another. Yeah, I mean, he basically 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:35.040 gave less Paul the choice. He was like, you can 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:38.840 either amputate it, or we can try this procedure where 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:41.639 we kind of screw your arm back together and we 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:44.439 don't know if it'll work. And he he said, but 0:18:44.520 --> 0:18:48.320 it's gonna be permanently bent in some kind of direction. 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:51.359 And less Paul said, why don't we at least try 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:53.800 it first so we know if it works before we 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:57.000 cut the arm off, And he said, and just bend 0:18:57.000 --> 0:19:00.320 it and pointed towards my belly button and leave it there. Yeah, 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:02.560 so he could play guitar. And that's what they did, 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:05.120 and for the rest of less Paul's life. Like if 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:06.800 you ever see a picture of less Paul, that right 0:19:06.880 --> 0:19:11.320 arm is bent. Yeah, and the doctor just to put 0:19:11.359 --> 0:19:13.800 a little flourish on it, made it so that his 0:19:13.960 --> 0:19:18.520 thumb was always in the thumbs up position, so it 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:22.159 always looks like Les Paul was really happy about whatever 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:25.280 was going on when that picture was taken. Alright, So 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:27.960 that's where Les Paul is. He recovers. It literally takes 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:30.080 him about a year in the hospital to fully recover 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:34.040 from his injuries. So he's on pause when Leo Fender 0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:38.760 builds Uh the Fender Esquire guitar and debuts it at 0:19:38.760 --> 0:19:43.560 the nineteen National Association of Music Merchants Convention in Chicago. 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:45.440 I say we take a break here and then we 0:19:45.560 --> 0:19:47.600 come back and talk about that and keep going. How 0:19:47.600 --> 0:20:08.800 about that? It sounds great. Okay, we'll be right back 0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:23.320 and shock alright, chuck so um so. Leo Fender takes 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:30.400 his um Paul Bigsby inspired guitar and creates a prototype 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:33.600 out of it that's known as the Esquire. And I 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:36.399 think there's some differences between the Esquire and what would 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:39.960 become later known as a Telecaster, Right, it's not the 0:20:39.960 --> 0:20:43.160 exact same thing, just with a different name. Uh yeah, 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:44.600 I mean I think there was only one pick up 0:20:44.680 --> 0:20:47.440 and the Telly ended up having a couple, but it 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:49.760 was when you look at pictures of the Esquire, it's 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:53.960 the same body shape, very utilitarian. Uh, not the most 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:57.800 comfortable guitar to play. Um, which we'll see later on 0:20:57.920 --> 0:20:59.639 what's kind of a big deal in the creation of 0:20:59.640 --> 0:21:02.200 the strap a cast. But it was a real deal 0:21:02.240 --> 0:21:05.760 guitar and it was loud, it was clear it could 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:10.400 be mass produced, and everybody basically said this is the future. Yeah, 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:14.360 He's had the National Association of Music Merchants convention going, hey, 0:21:14.440 --> 0:21:17.639 you like you like it this, you like it this guitar, 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:20.840 and they all said yes very much. So he went 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:23.080 back after the convention and kind of tinkered with it 0:21:23.119 --> 0:21:27.640 a little more. Um. He had a collaborator named George Fullerton, uh, 0:21:27.680 --> 0:21:30.800 and they ended up producing from the Esquire. There are 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:34.000 a couple of problems with it, apparently from the steel 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:38.560 strings when they were tuned tightly. Um, eventually the neck 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:40.960 would start to warp a little bit. That's a big problem. 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:42.960 So they figured out how to reinforce it with the rod, 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:45.600 and they solved some other small problems and then ended 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:51.000 up coming up with the broadcaster. Right, that's right. Uh. 0:21:51.440 --> 0:21:54.680 A guy we should mention here is Um. I think 0:21:54.720 --> 0:21:57.080 Dave called him as marketing sales guy. It's true he 0:21:57.240 --> 0:22:00.119 was that Don Randall, but he was Leo Fenders d 0:22:00.240 --> 0:22:04.320 fifty partner in the Fender Music Corporation and a huge, 0:22:04.359 --> 0:22:06.920 huge part of this story that we really won't get into. 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:09.520 But Don Randall was there the whole time and and 0:22:09.600 --> 0:22:12.320 sort of was everything that Leo Fender wasn't as far 0:22:12.359 --> 0:22:15.360 as when you're looking for a good business partner, UM 0:22:15.400 --> 0:22:19.480 out there hitting the bricks selling this thing, drumming up deals, 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:23.280 and the Broadcaster. You know, the ads came out and 0:22:23.320 --> 0:22:28.000 he got that first cease and desist from Gretch. The 0:22:28.000 --> 0:22:30.480 they made drums and guitars, and there was actually a 0:22:30.600 --> 0:22:34.399 drum set called the Broadcaster with a k. It sounds 0:22:34.440 --> 0:22:37.280 like a sound you make when you burp and choke 0:22:37.320 --> 0:22:44.440 at the same time. Yeah, broadcaster, no Gretch. Oh I 0:22:44.560 --> 0:22:47.760 misread that one. Sorry, broadcaster with the case sounds evil? 0:22:47.880 --> 0:22:51.919 Remember yeah, yeah, yeah, um Gretch still makes beautiful guitars 0:22:51.920 --> 0:22:53.639 and great drums, but they had a drum set with 0:22:53.680 --> 0:22:55.960 a k. Uh. So they said, all right, we gotta 0:22:56.000 --> 0:22:59.040 think of a different name. And so TV was the 0:22:59.119 --> 0:23:01.879 latest thing, and so they literally called it the Telecaster 0:23:01.960 --> 0:23:05.159 because of that, I know, and people were like, boy, howdy, 0:23:05.200 --> 0:23:08.080 I love this. They did, so that was a big deal. 0:23:08.160 --> 0:23:12.400 The Telecaster was I guess the first mass produced, widely 0:23:12.440 --> 0:23:18.679