Leo Fender. Phyllis Fender

September 1928, Leo graduated from Fullerton Union High School on Chapman Avenue in Fullerton. He did not go far for college. In fact, he just crossed the street and enrolled at Fullerton Junior College as an accounting major. Today, the same campus is simply called Fullerton College. While studying accounting, Leo continued to spend his spare time tinkering with radios and anything electric. Remarkably, the creator of the world’s first electric guitar never enrolled in an electronics class!

      Leo was fascinated with designing, inventing, and building. Next to the old Fullerton College campus, construction started on Plumber Auditorium, which is a beautiful building that still stands to this day. The project immediately caught Leo’s attention, and he would sit and do his homework on the lawn while watching the construction. The young man’s presence became so predictable that the workers noticed Leo and invited him to come onto the site and watch the construction up close. Leo was a mild-mannered, friendly kid and the workers liked him. He studied every phase of construction, from breaking ground and grading the site to laying the foundation and framing. He intently studied the installation of the electrical system and the roofing. Leo was like a sponge soaking in knowledge, and he asked lots of questions. It became a daily part of his practical learning that supplemented his formal college studies.

      After two years, Leo graduated from Fullerton Junior College with an associate’s degree in accounting. In those days, very few went to college, so that was a big deal. Leo got a job as a delivery man for Consolidated Ice and Cold Storage Company in Anaheim, but that was not his thing. However, the company saw Leo’s real strengths, and he was hired as their bookkeeper.

      During this same time, the word was spreading in Fullerton that Leo was good with electronics. A local band asked Leo if he would make a public-address system to use at dances up in Hollywood, and he agreed. Leo ended up building six of these PA systems, which was his very first business venture.

      With a college degree and the beginnings of an entrepreneurial flare, Leo was a good catch, and one lady took notice. In 1933, Leo met Esther Klotzly, and they were married in 1934. Leo got another job working as an accountant for the California Highway Department up the coast in San Luis Obispo. During the Depression, Leo was laid off, but he was hired again, this time as an accountant for a tire company. After only about six months, all the accountants, including Leo, were laid off. By this time, Leo realized that accounting was not for him, he wanted to do something else.

      Buddy Holly

      Despite the Depression and the repeated layoffs, Leo still had drive. In fact, he had lots of drive. The farm upbringing taught him a strong work ethic, selling vegetables at the market taught him some people skills, making tools in the barn taught him woodworking and metalwork, and the accounting work taught him the dollars and cents of business. Studying the daily construction of Plumber Auditorium showed him how to build a facility, his tinkering with radios schooled him in electronics, dissecting alarm clocks showed him the world of mechanical engineering, and building and successfully selling PA systems gave Leo a spark of the entrepreneurial life. Leo knew how to create value and cut costs. He was a practical, hands-on guy. Leo’s motto was always, “I’ll buy it used, or I’ll make it myself.”

      Jimmy Page

      Conventional wisdom says to specialize in one thing. Yet no job was beneath Leo, and no job was too big. Leo did not know it at the time, but his unconventional spectrum of skills provided him with exactly the skills he needed to do something epic!

      In 1938, with a young wife to take care of and tired of being laid off, Leo got bold. He borrowed $600 and returned to Fullerton, the hometown he loved. Leo started his own radio repair shop, Fender Radio Service, at 107 S. Harbor Boulevard. Despite a tough childhood just a few blocks to the south, Leo did not want to get away from the town. In fact, he stayed right by the old Fender Farm site. It was part of who he was, and he was okay with it.

      Leo worked hard in his new shop, building and repairing radios and record players and doing anything else that leaned toward his interests in music. Soon, musicians heard about Leo and asked him to build more public-address systems. He built, repaired, rented, and sold them. Guitarists also came into Leo’s shop to get amplification for their lap guitars and Hawaiian steel guitars, which were coming onto the Southern California music scene.

      Leo was happy. He had established a small shop in the town he loved. Music was now a part of his daily work routine. Business was good and getting better. Word was spreading that Leo was the guy for all things electric.

      Leo and Esther’s first home, just a few blocks from his first shop in Fullerton

      CHAPTER 3

       The Magic Moment

      The moment when Leo Fender got the idea about the electric guitar says a lot about what made him tick.

      Germany invaded Poland in 1939, just a year after Leo got married. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, millions of men jumped at the chance to serve their country, but Leo was left at home. The Army did not want him because he had a glass eye. This did not sit well with Leo, who knew he could contribute and was always eager to help.

      Leo never once complained about his situation, he just quietly kept moving forward. He loved his country, and he wanted to do his part to serve. This meant that he needed to invent a way to do it. That was okay because Leo was an inventor at heart.

      In the 1940s, it was common to have war bond dances where the town would come out, sing, dance and hopefully buy some war bonds and stamps to support the troops. One warm summer night, at a park in Fullerton near his high school, Leo figured out how he could help. He was the guy who would set up the dances. He was good with electronics, so he would lay the cables to bring in the electricity, string the lights from tree to tree, set up the microphones and amplifiers for the singers, set up chairs, and quietly get the whole event set up.

      Leo typically worked alone, a nondescript, quiet man who was attentive and pleasant and made the place come alive. Content with being in the background, Leo silently enjoyed the setting he created.

      When the sun went down, and scores of people flowed into the dance, Leo remained on the sidelines. Leo was always calm, and keenly observant. He stood by in case anything broke or needed his attention. Not being much of a dancer himself, he just enjoyed the simple things, like seeing everyone enjoying themselves, watching the sales of bonds and stamps, and knowing that he was doing his part to support his country.

      One warm, Fullerton summer night, everything was going smoothly, so Leo just sat near the band enjoying the music. At the war bond dance, they were mostly playing big band music, and Leo always admired musical talent. While Leo had played the piano and saxophone in high school and college, he no longer played any instruments. Leo knew music took both a special gift and a lot of time. He never really got good himself, but he appreciated those who did. He watched the brass section, tapped his foot to the beat of the drums, and soaked in the beautiful singing.

      Then something caught Leo’s eye. Leo noticed the guitar players. That was the moment that changed the world forever.

      While the guitarists played their wooden, acoustic guitars with all their might, nobody could hear them. They were playing their hearts out, but they were basically invisible! Leo felt bad for them. The guitarists had to be heard! Leo got an idea. He was determined to help these talented musicians be heard, just like the rest of the band.

      The whole idea of the electric guitar was sparked by Leo Fender’s deep, never-ending desire to help other people. The birth of the electric guitar is a profound story, and it reveals so much about Leo. It was never about Leo, and it would never be about Leo. He simply wanted the underdog