Leo Fender, Ace Frehley and the Guitar That Got Away
While much has been written about the work of Clarence Leonidas “Leo” Fender, precious little has been written about Leo Fender the man. In the recently-released Leo Fender: The Quiet Giant Heard Around The World by the person who knew him best – his wife Phyllis — co-authored with Dr. Randall Bell (who grew up in Fender’s neighborhood and whose father was the head of the R & D department at Fender’s company), we get to know the quiet and notso-quiet sides of the aforementioned quite giant. The book is Leo’s love story and Phyllis tells it charmingly and lovingly.
My favorite part is Phyllis telling us “Leo was not a particularly religious person but he felt that musicians were angels, sent down to make the world a better place and it was his job to help facilitate their work.”
I can imagine there aren’t as many stars in the sky as there are notes glissandoed, plucked, hammered and bent from the plethora of guitars that bear the Fender name, not to forget revolutionary amplifiers and sought after Fender Rhodes pianos as well. Every famous musician has a Fender story and I have mine, how (for better or worse) I was an integral part in the formation of KISS. Here’s the story of that ‘63 Telecaster — the guitar that got away. Must have been December because it was getting near Christmas, 1965, ˆwas fourteen, gonna be 15 Dec. 28th, sitting in what they used to call Hygiene or Health Ed., a classroom requirement usually taught be a gym teacher. This particular teacher was yukking it up with us comparing Santa Claus to the Sanity Claus and I looked over to my left and the guy next to me had a page full of guitars all drawn. I said to him do you just draw them or do you play? He said he plays and I said we could get together and rehearse. I had good equipment: a Farfisa Combo Compact organ and an Ampeg B-12 amp. A mutual friend, Mark Peritz, was our drummer and I found myself in Mark’s apartment with Paul Frehley on the guitar. Paul had a very unusual instrument: a teardrop Fender Telecaster, which he cut down himself, down to the pick guard and it looked almost as cool as he made it sound. Even then, he had the licks, starting with the Blues Magoos “Nothin’ Yet” up to the Animals “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood.”
My organ playing, I can say, was a work-in-progress and summer came and we went our separate ways. I spent most of my high school time working on the school and local paper, playing night center basketball and managing the handball team. That hundred dollars I paid the Ace for the Axe was immediately converted into the Les Paul he used to audition for Simmons and Stanley who were converting
their band “Wicked Lester” into the aforementioned cultural phenomenon. I would run into Ace kind of regularly as he would hang out with his brother who attended Bronx Community College when it was on Grand Avenue and 183rd Street. Ace would be on chick patrol, wearing a pinstriped sport jacked with a Superman button, and those now famous red and yellow Converse All Stars even as he was driving a cab and auditioning for Three Dog Night. The last time I saw him before he made it big, we sat on a stoop on the Grand Concourse and he took my acoustic guitar and ran through most of “Tommy.”
As for that sweet Telecaster, let’s just say it met an unfortunate ending at the Music Inn on Bleecker Street, too sad to recount here. I still have Matt Umanov’s appraisal as proof and the memory of rockin’ out with my band playing Elvis and Carl Perkins tunes in Fred’s studio/apartment on Belmont Avenue. Today, it is in the process of being recreated in acrylic by Mitch Meisner at Meisner Acrylic Casting in Deer Park, NY.
“If Leo had stopped after creating the Telecaster he would still hold a secure place in guitar history.” Eric Dahl, Maverick Magazine. I certainly agree with that
Back to the matter at hand: “The world occasionally produces one of those rare thinkers whose name becomes iconic. Thomas Edison lit up the world; Albert Einstein profoundly altered the study of physics; Walt Disney reimagined entertainment; and Leo Fender invented the electric guitar. He grew up in Fullerton, California, where his interest in electronics lead him to open his own radio repair shop in 1938. It wasn’t long before musicians and band leaders turned to him for help in repairing their equipment…and the rest, as they say, is history. While his name is synonymous with fist-pumping rock and roll sound, in reality, Fender was a shy, unassuming inventor who was nearly deaf and had one glass eye. In 1946 he founded Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company — the launch pad for his most iconic designs — and later on, G&L Musical Instruments. Today, Fender is a household name. But the quirky, shy inventor never lived large or flaunted his fame. He lived in a mobile home, even after selling his company for $300 million (in today’s dollars). His daily routines and obsessions made him truly fascinating, and thanks to his enduring instruments, Fender’s legacy forever lives on.” — VICTOR FORBES
