G&L in trouble...?

[Cato]

I guess Fender decided it was more cost effective to chuck the stuff they had no intention of using rather than pay to store it while it could be sold off?

 

I can kind of see the logic for the bridges and pick ups which probably have limited demand and might take a long time to sell on if they had a lot of stock but you'd think they could shift the pedals and other electronic items fairly quickly in a fire sale scenario. 

[Woodinblack]

What was skipped? (for those of us that can't get more than 2 seconds through a Sapko youtube!)

[Ben Jamin]

24 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

What was skipped? (for those of us that can't get more than 2 seconds through a Sapko youtube!)

Looks like a lot of the stock from the factory - bridges, tuning machines, pick-ups and misc. parts/electronics - as well as a bunch of BBE Sonic Maximisers and other outboard pre-amps.

[Woodinblack]

Well, some good scavenging there then! Will keep facebook fullerton marketplace busy for a while!

 

[BassAgent]

I'm not surprised. If Fender's goal was to acquire Leo's workplace and his name and likeness, it's not more than logical that they don't "need" the G&L stock. They won't sell Fender-branded basses with G&L branded bridges and MDF pickups, anyway. It's a lot cheaper to sell or dispose of that stuff than to try to re-purpose it. 

[HeadlessBassist]

The story of the closure...

 

 

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

It will be interesting to see whether Fender keeps Leo's workspace intact — or if his tools etc went in the skip, and whether they put the fullerton factory up for sale, keep it as a factory, or turn it into as museum or other public venue.

[neepheid]

1 minute ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

It will be interesting to see whether Fender keeps Leo's workspace intact — or if his tools etc went in the skip, and whether they put the fullerton factory up for sale, keep it as a factory, or turn it into as museum or other public venue.

 

The factory was hired, had to be emptied for new tenants next month.

[Sean]

27 minutes ago, neepheid said:

 

The factory was hired, had to be emptied for new tenants next month.

Tis the cold corporate way. 

[Russ]

1 hour ago, neepheid said:

 

The factory was hired, had to be emptied for new tenants next month.

They probably cleared it out in order to recreate it in Fender's Corona facility. I'm imagining something a bit like what they did with Francis Bacon's art studio when they moved it from his old home in London to the Hugh Lane gallery in Dublin.

[Cato]

Given their actions so far, I'm not sure that Fender will have much interest in putting the workshop Leo used to design non Fender branded instruments on display.

 

I don't think they necessarily want that part of his history memorialised.

[LukeFRC]

2 minutes ago, Cato said:

Given their actions so far, I'm not sure that Fender will have much interest in putting the workshop Leo used to design non Fender branded instruments on display.

 

I don't think they necessarily want that part of his history memorialised.

- why not? They own it now. (That bit of his history) 

Edited yesterday at 19:34 by LukeFRC

[Cato]

Seems odd that despite the takeover apparently being a done deal some weeks ago that there's doesn't seem to have been any official announcement by Fender either about aquiring the company or what their future plans for the brand and it's various models are.

[BassBiscuit]

2 hours ago, Cato said:

Seems odd that despite the takeover apparently being a done deal some weeks ago that there's doesn't seem to have been any official announcement by Fender either about aquiring the company or what their future plans for the brand and it's various models are.

 

I feel that may be all in good time...all in good time....!

[Jean-Luc Pickguard]

3 hours ago, Cato said:

Given their actions so far, I'm not sure that Fender will have much interest in putting the workshop Leo used to design non Fender branded instruments on display.

 

I don't think they necessarily want that part of his history memorialised.

It's the same workshop with the original workbench where Leo worked when it was the original Fender factory, so a lot of classic Fender design work was originated there too.

[LeftyJ]

9 hours ago, Jean-Luc Pickguard said:

It's the same workshop with the original workbench where Leo worked when it was the original Fender factory, so a lot of classic Fender design work was originated there too.

It was not the original Fender factory. That has long been torn down, there's a parking garage there now. It's the old CLF Design facility, where Leo built the original Music Man guitars and basses for Music Man after he sold Fender to CBS. So FMIC has zero history in that building, other than all the cool prototypes Leo took with him.

 

I wrongfully thought this too, but was corrected when I posted it on Reddit. 

Edited 13 hours ago by LeftyJ

[Wolverinebass]

That video reminds me of the insane video where Gibson drove a massive JCB over all their surplus guitars with all the pickups and hardware still installed. 

 

Still, that bloke who picked all of that G&L stuff out of the skip can now set himself up on ebay he's got so much gear.

 

 

[snorkie635]

17 hours ago, neepheid said:

 

The factory was hired, had to be emptied for new tenants next month.

I believe 'Neep Basses' are moving in?

[HeadlessBassist]

1 hour ago, Wolverinebass said:

Still, that bloke who picked all of that G&L stuff out of the skip can now set himself up on ebay he's got so much gear.

 

 

Let's hope it's not his main gig - Nobody buys G&L's, hence the company folding. Obvs.

[Kiwi]

2 hours ago, Wolverinebass said:

That video reminds me of the insane video where Gibson drove a massive JCB over all their surplus guitars with all the pickups and hardware still installed. 

 

Still, that bloke who picked all of that G&L stuff out of the skip can now set himself up on ebay he's got so much gear.

 

 

If I were him, I might be a little cautious about that.  It's not technically his property and he probably trespassed to get it.  Whether the matter gets enforced or not is another thing though. 

[LeftyJ]

1 hour ago, Kiwi said:

If I were him, I might be a little cautious about that.  It's not technically his property and he probably trespassed to get it.  Whether the matter gets enforced or not is another thing though. 

He's not. He filmed himself while doing it, and during the car ride back home described in full detail to his selfiecam what he has taken home with him, including many photo's and video's of everything. 

[tauzero]

1 hour ago, LeftyJ said:

He's not. He filmed himself while doing it, and during the car ride back home described in full detail to his selfiecam what he has taken home with him, including many photo's and video's of everything. 

 

"Hello police, this is FMIC. Someone has raided the dumpsters that we were using to carefully store our newly acquired inventory and made off with lots of stuff".

[snorkie635]

1 hour ago, tauzero said:

 

"Hello police, this is FMIC. Someone has raided the dumpsters that we were using to carefully store our newly acquired inventory and made off with lots of stuff".

"Right! You're nicked!"

[TheGreek]

Here

 

 

[TheGreek]

🎸 Afterword: The End of the Leo Era — Guitars in the Age of Machines
There is a quiet, almost sacred weight to the realization that an era has ended. When G&L Musical Instruments closed its doors in September of 2025 and Fender Musical Instruments Corporation took ownership of the Leo Fender name and likeness shortly thereafter, it wasn’t just a corporate event. It was the closing of a circle that began in a California workshop nearly seventy-five years earlier, a circle drawn by the hands of one man who changed how the world heard itself.

For decades, guitars were more than tools. They were companions to rebellion, mirrors for expression, and extensions of personality. The men who built them Leo Fender, Les Paul, Ted McCarty, George Fullerton didn’t see themselves as legends.
They were engineers, craftsmen, and dreamers shaping the electricity of a new century. Their work gave sound a body and feeling a form. But as time passed, the tools outlived their makers, and the world they built for began to fade.

In 1991, when Leo Fender passed away, production continued.
His instruments still bore his name, still resonated with the clarity and bite that had defined his philosophy: “Keep it simple, keep it serviceable, keep it musical.” Yet the world around them changed. 
Computers began to play where musicians once did.
Songs became data.
Instruments became icons hanging on digital walls. Gradually, the sound of fingers on strings once the voice of a generation grew quieter beneath the algorithmic hum of automated rhythm and synthetic tone.

Now, in an age of artificial intelligence, auto-tune, and generative soundscapes, the tactile nature of a guitar feels almost rebellious. To hold a slab of wood, to feel its grain, to fight the resistance of strings, this is an act of defiance against convenience. It is imperfect, human, and slow. And because of that, it is real. That reality may not trend on streaming charts, but it endures in hearts and hands that still crave authenticity.

The guitars Leo built at G&L from the first F-100 to the final ASATs will never exist again. Not in their original form, not under his name, not with his vision guiding production.
They are artifacts now, preserved echoes of a time when sound was made, not programmed.
Each neck pocket date, each pot code, each finish check is a record of human intention, proof that design, when born of passion, can transcend the life of its creator.

To the next generation, Leo Fender’s name may appear in footnotes, or on the headstock of a reissued model designed by committee. But for those who remember and for those who care to rediscover his genius remains carved in every curve and frequency of the instruments he left behind. And those instruments, kept alive by players and collectors alike, will continue to sing long after the machines have fallen silent.

What dies in the market often survives in memory.
And memory, if tended to carefully, becomes legacy.