LENARD F-4G
After a wait of one year to complete the prototype of this guitar and 5 months of it being lockdown in a warehouse at an airport in China my prototype was shipped. There may be more waits but it was lost for the last 5 months.
Lot of guys love Gibson guitars especially
Les Pauls and SG's. They are even very vocal
about how they think it is the only brand to play.
In spite of that they admire and learnt how to play
from many players that play a Tele or a Strat.
All of them have from time to time wanted
the 'sound' of these Fenders for a second guitar
but not the guitar. lol
 |
| It could have been the 1952 Tele ? |
I made a list of what Gibson Aficionados
do not like about Fender Strats & Teles
-They hate the length and feel of the neck.
-They hate having a whammy.
-With a Tele they hate the neck pickup.
They find it bland sounding.
-On a Strat they hate the bridge pickup.
It sounds too thin.
-Finally they do not really wish to be seen
playing a real Tele or a Strat. 😠
THE ANSWER?
Keep the PU's they liked.
Replace the whammy with a hardtail bridge.
Make the neck from the nut to the pocket Gibson specs.
Give it a Fenderish look ...but not a clone.
WHY NOT GET LEO FENDER TO DESIGN THE BODY ?
I tried designing the body by borrowing from many different guitars but none seem to work.
I got a big break through. I met up with a guy that worked side by side with Leo Fender in the last 2 years of his life. Leo spent at least half of every day working on new designs for guitars, hardware and pickups. Leo kept every idea he had including notes and drawings going back to day one. In '51 he started working on a new guitar just after finishing his Precision bass. (sometimes referred to as a Tele Bass)
He made a drawing of a Tele where he drew the Precision bass upper horn over the upper non cutaway part of the Tele. He than chopped off phallic shaped horn from the lower cutaway.
It had a Tele PU at the bridge. The bridge PU was the one thing Tele players praised and never criticized. He had a new PU he was working on at the neck. It definitely looked like an early Strat PU. (No there wasn't a middle PU. I added that.)
There were already prototypes of the hardtail. No one even thought about a whammy at this time. In those days the only whammy in the world was the Bigsby and they were custom order and handmade.
The body looked very much like the LENARD. I had to fill in the blanks. A Strat style pickguard made sense when I asked myself what would Leo do? The top can be routed out as one separate task and all the electrics can be attached to the pickguard even the jack for the output. By having someone working away doing this task at a separate station you could dropped it in place on assembly and all but the bridge was finished in one operation. The headstock is Strat like but it is small and narrow just like the Tele.
In 1951 Leo thought his guitars should be like American cars where for example the 1950 Ford was replaced by a new 1952. The guitar that looks like mine would be the 1952 Tele.
If this happened the 1954 Strat would have been the 1954 Tele. We all know that the '52 was delayed and by 1954 the new Fender was called the Stratocaster. The whammy was actually an 'extra'. It was a special order for more money. In fact the first run of Strats were shipped to stores with a hardtail.
It was decided to phase the Tele out when the Strat caught on but sales were split and within a couple of years they could see the Tele was not going to be dropped.
In keeping with the Leo design all hardware and PU's are vintage 50's
The body is alder the neck is all maple. Everything Fender personified!
The whole point is to get the 'Fender Sound' Nothing is more Fender sounding than
everything used from 1950 to 1954.
CONCLUSION
You get the best sound of both Fender guitars
You do not have to change your whole technique
to play a different neck.
Yes ...anything can be lint picked. Big But.
There is nothing in a band context or on record
that will tell anyone they are not hearing a real
50's Tele or Strat.
LENARD Re-Inventions
Lenard Guitars will be an on-line direct to the buyer
on a Reverb Store like most small companies.
The projected price of the guitar is $895.00 USD
Keep in mind every guitar is hand made with
Fender U.S. spec parts for wood, hardware and PU's.
If I get to a point that I can project sales to be
about 100 guitars per quarter the price has room
to drop by as much as $100.00 USD.
My long term aim is $750.00 USD
Less I can not be sure of a Pro guitar.
There are always exceptions but this is
going to be a second guitar for most players.
The guy may trade his SG for a Les Paul Standard.
Big but!
He is keeping his Lenard!
GOOGLE
The Second Best Guitar on the Planet
There I have the whole story and more pics.
Exciting times... I cannot wait to hear what you think it feels and sounds like.
ReplyDeleteDo you think you will sell to customers outside US? I am in the UK but I guess you have readers from all over.
Thanx for the inquiry Dave. I am aiming for a general world wide sales. I have not yet played it myself. lol After I do it is going to a luthier friend who has done all the work for guys like Eric Clapton and Dave Gilmour. He will take it apart and look for any flaws etc.to be corrected. I have not decided who will make it yet. It will not be made in the U.S. as even the cheapest builder would add about $800 to the price. All countries have companies that do superb work but that is not the buyers perception. In Indonesia and Korea there are really dependable makers of quality guitars but they want 100 units per order. OUCH! I can not afford such orders on a completely untried new instrument. I may have to start by having them made in Canada. It is about 30% cheaper than the U.S. and nothing they turn out has less quality than Fender 'ultra' models. They are scary good!!! The up side is there would be zero criticism of the build. The price however I expect could be in $1200-$1500. Guitars around $800 are actually the biggest sellers because today anything lower cuts corners and anything higher is only better by tiny increments as you go up. A great deal of those improvements are cosmetic. I am amused that guys spent hundreds of dollars on paint and plastic (binding). Unfortunately market research shows we buy with our eyes.That is why there is so much gorgeous crap.
ReplyDeleteMy family is Brit. I was born in Canada and have lived everywhere lol. I lived in London for years when I played for the Brit Prog Rock band Tallis. I am affectionately known as the 'Colonial Wanker. LOL
Sounds good. Country of manufacture and price point is a tough one to decide... and the type of paint finish and binding to get the best tones...
ReplyDeleteMost (or some?) of us want a guitar that inspires us to pick it up and play. What this guitar is, is different for all of us.
I have guitars MIC, MIM and I think one is Korean... a 1980s or 90s shredder. none from Canada or US... yet...
I'm from Oz and live in the UK... my attempt to un-colonise...
I will wait in anticipation and keep reading about your pedals.... (un)fortunately I keep buying pedals...
Have fun!