New G&L Facebook page - CLF RESEARCH CO.

Polished frets make old guitars remind owners of the best of times. It’s science.

I saw this today while out to lunch with my wife Amanda. When I read it I blurted out “No xxxxing way!! That’s awesome!” I’m not even sure why but it is.
Mandy made me take a pic so here ya go.

I forgot to tell you I was hunting for something else deep in Unit J and found an old black crinkle cover for the ‘86 Invader. Leo has plenty of screws in the lab so I’ll just use some of his.

Doheny V12 sitting on Leo’s drafting table, standing on the shoulders of a giant.

New Bass Day! Early L-2000 in natural over mahogany with ebony fingerboard, completed here on June 12, 1981.
Look at those gorgeous brown streaks in the ebony and how they tie in with the aged lacquer on the mahogany. 1
0.5 pounds of heaven.

Dave Brown G&L Custom Shop stringing up the Robert Poss blue SC-1. This guitar is legendary around here.

I dig Robert's website: https://www.robertposs.com/

A lot of G&Ls...

I just found these two crinkle bass neck plates, perfect for Project El Toro. Hopefully at least one of the serial numbers
wasn’t used so I can legit use it for The Bull. I can use it anyway, but that’s someone’s bass already. Back in the day there
were a few duplicate serial number plates made, often little errors made when ordering the next batch of serialized plates.

Looks like serial number B020507 was never issued and the numbers around it are 1990-1991. That’ll do nicely for Project El Toro.

Leo’s early ‘60s Delta Rockwell band saw made Fenders, Music Mans and G&Ls. It hasn’t worked on a long time,
but Johnny is going to bring it back to its Made In USA glory. If you can geek out on a old band saw, tell me. I’m serious.
I don’t know how far out there you guys want to get.

“...a Big Machine with Big Cutting Capacity.” The Delta Rockwell model 28-350 was an American badass. If you’re into specs, here is the original catalog page. I can’t believe we are geeking on this but I’m waaay into it.

It's way cool that all or most of my Leo era instruments were passed through this band saw for some part of the construction process. No need to apologize for the geeking out, it's like the old electronics that the early Beatles albums were recorded and mixed with. They weren't even considered a recording console at the time. Just a bunch of transistors, resistors, filters and even rheostats assembled to crudely manipulate the sound onto crudely constructed analog tape. Nothing like what is used today but did a hell of a good job for their time. Who, back then, would imagine that someday computerized cutting machines would be forming guitars and parts without much human intervention.

Geek away my friend, I for one greatly appreciate the history.

Tom

670 pounds of guitar making history. Geek on!

Y2kc

Our new friend Tom (on left) is a retired cabinet maker who once wanted to make guitars.
Unfortunately, the guitars didn’t happen and years later this pin router was put up for sale. Yesterday,
Johnny (on right) and I were casually talking about putting a pin router in a mini CLF wood shop to
mess around with. So I pulled out my phone to check Craigslist and was stunned to see this gorgeous
alpha dog SCMI R9 pin router appear on my screen. And that’s why we’re at Tom’s house today and
this machine will be moved to Fender Avenue next week. Hopefully, Tom can visit soon and make some
guitar sawdust with us. It was a long time coming.

Darragh has Project Fake Broadcaster all wired up and the jack installed. Next he lined up the pickguard and control plate, and now he’s gonna drill holes. There’s a little pressure. ; )

Drillin’ and chillin’

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Darragh lined up the CLF string retainer, used an awl to mark the screw hole locations, drilled and installed.

Getting setup.

Darragh in the lab with Project Fake Broadcaster. Not a bad day.

Back on Leo’s Delta Rockwell 28-350 band saw. I love how it was made in the early ‘60s but still has Art Deco foils that feel older, like ‘40s vibes.
You know what I mean? And check out the dealer sticker for Power Tool and Supply in Anaheim, California. No website. Not even an area code.
This phone number would be spoken to someone like this: “Providence Six Eighty-one-hundred”. The first two letters of Providence are P and R, and both
of those are represented on the keypad (dial back then) by number 7. So a local phone call to the dealer would be dialed 7768100.

A couple of the Doheny test mules. The one in front was used in V12 development. Yes, the switches got in the way.
We used the jazzer route so there’s space right there to pop in a couple of switches to tinker with.

The Robert Poss blue SC-1 holds decades of his memories, kinda like the old photos on the desk hold Leo’s memories.
I’ll keep it in Leo’s lab for a couple of days, give it a final check up then it begins its voyage back to Mr. Robert Poss.

Mr. Poss, I have tucked in your guitar for the night.

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Project El Toro’s neck is going to have its micro-tilt disc installed and 3-bolt holes prepped.

Marking locations for the screw holes and micro-tilt disc.

Memo getting that micro-tilt disc installed with a little help from Dave Brown G&L Custom Shop and a badass 1960s Delta Rockwell drill press.

[quote]Gettin’ them holes drilled![/quote

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Project El Toro is ready to play. Now if you will excuse me, I have some walls to shake.

Ugh...I forgot that Project El Toro’s control assembly was sketchy. It was an old one laying around, the sort of thing that got swapped out for a good control assembly in production and this one found its way into a bin or box. Decades later, it still needs to be fixed. And this time, it will be.

I think I just heard Memo mumble something about changing some caps. Come on, man! Work your magic! Right now we are recording video in Leo’s Lounge and I really want sneak in some Project El Toro coverage.

...aaaaaand he did it! Thanks, Memo. Now I’m gonna bring it to Leo’s Lounge and do a little recording.

Stage drapes for the expansion of Leo’s Lounge. Thanks to Steve Araujo for getting me hooked up with these pro level pieces. What would Leo hang? Never mind.

Leo’s circa 1956 Eico 950 has tubes and measures capacitors. Built for the Modern World. One of these days we need to revive this cool piece of history.

Steve with Dunkel Bros. Machinery Moving has brought our new toy, a late ‘90s super minty SCMI R9 pin router. The clouds have parted and angels sing: “ahhhh!” I’m so stoked.

Oh yeah!

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Very nice! The question now is: Got Wood?

I'm normally a C.R. Onsrud guy, but this IS something...

And just like that, suddenly the CLF Research time machine spit out some amazing artifacts. Some I can’t show you now,
but finding them is like an affirmation from the spirits of Fender Avenue. I feel pretty damn good right now.

I came to Unit J to vibe out on the new pin router and figure where I might put a massive, multigenerational, kick-ass template library.
Like 5 seconds later the afternoon light caught my eye, and hey! here’s an original die stamp for the L-2000 control plate. Imagine this thing
back in 1981 literally bashing out those L-2000 plates. How am I supposed to get anything done when this building is stealing my attention?

This proto has been in the lab for like 35 years. I just grabbed it, brought it to the lounge and handed it to Steve. No idea if it worked. It does.

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My brother Johnny is the best. I was talking about doing an MFD version of the low-output pickups in the CLF-67/68 prototype,
and how I’d use them with the preamp and control setup Memo copied and constructed. Just riffing, right? Next thing I know, Johnny
came up with a plan to make some prototypes. Don’t ask me if *I* have a plan; I don’t. Well, I do plan to have some fun, if that counts.

The F-100 was the first G&L guitar model, a technically advanced instrument with Leo’s latest features developed at CLF Research in the late 1970s.
This is the passive version; the F-100 E with preamp was also offered.

An old ASAT Classic bridge plate with the Leo sig would be cool on a project build, no doubt. To the lab it goes.

The F-100 E was the active version of the first G&L guitar model. It could be used either passive or active with the preamp switch turned on.
I love L-2000 basses, so I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that I prefer the F-100 E over the F-100.

I really love seeing pics of that guitar and now that my refin is done it pretty much is the 'good' version of my 'evil' passive black Series 1 . That said I want to try an active model, because it's difficult for me to imagine anything sounding better than my passive Mine sounds heavy and loud enough already; I understand the preamp provides a bit more treble?

I understand the preamp provides a bit more treble?

It also provides an overall boost, great for juicing overdrive tones.

IIRC, it's the Cavalier E preamp that was designed to give unity gain while decreasing impedance
downstream.

My brother Johnny is the best. I was talking about doing an MFD version of the low-output pickups in the CLF-67/68 prototype,
and how I’d use them with the preamp and control setup Memo copied and constructed. Just riffing, right? Next thing I know, Johnny
came up with a plan to make some prototypes. Don’t ask me if *I* have a plan; I don’t. Well, I do plan to have some fun, if that counts.

So, a left-handed version of these Z's is possible. Just w/out covers like zebra's...

Just sayin' and my B-Day is in July...

Me and Johnny doing research in Leo’s office file cabinets. I just realized I should stop and show you this is really the stuff we do.

Back in 1982, Freddy Tavares gave my brother Johnny this 1960s Peterson Model 70 tuner when they moved Fender R&D
from the old 500 South Raymond building into the big CBS building. This tuner makes sound you tune to, you don’t plug into it.
Stuff had to get canned, and Freddy handed this to Johnny and said “Here, you can tune your guitar with it.”
I just found the thing in the Unit F loft.

The old Peterson just made some crackle noises, so I gave it a little love and it now works great. I love the harmonica sound! This tuner survived the fire in R&D at the old building.

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The vintage Peterson is all cleaned and back together, and boy am I smitten with this thing. Now I’m gonna take it to Leo’s Lounge and tune stuff!
[EDIT: not so fast] On the way I’m gonna walk through the factory with this blaring. I also need to return it to Johnny, but hey, at least I gave it a mini-makeover first.
Or broke it. Whatever.