lucky tour

i was out visiting a friend in Newport Beach, Ca, last week. he is a guitarist/bassist and i was showing him some pics of G&L's. i asked him if he'd been to Fullerton, and he said "let's go," i figured it'd be good just to stand on the hallowed grounds. when we got there, we struck up a conversation with a worker named John who was out for a ciggy break. he said they didn't give tours of the grounds anymore, but he introduced us to a guy named Ben who seemed like a manager. he was very cool, and very knowledgeable, and took us in for a private tour of the facilities that lasted maybe a 1/2 hr. holy cow, what a cool place. he walked us through from stem to stern and explained everything, introduced us to some of the craftsmen and technicians, showed us some of the new products and experiments. alot of the equipment dates to stuff Leo used at Fender in the 50's. especially cool were the saw that cuts the fret slots in the necks (Leo's 1st patent), the plek machine, and the humidified room where they condition bodies and necks. we saw new fretboards like caramel ebony, and some lighter/curvy rosewoods, and guitars and basses in all stages of production. the only place that was off limits was Leo's office, Ben said even he did not have the key! anyway, that was way more than we expected, and how cool is that! my friend is now shopping G&L basses.

Sweeet!!

That's too cool!

That is an awesome story of fortunate circumstances! Lucky indeed. Cool. Dan

Way to go John!

Always helps to be at the right place at the right time.

Lucky indeed ! Pretty cool that they showed you around. One more reason to like G&L.

Awesome! Were you able to get any pics inside? Ito so, please post them.

Awesome! Were you able to get any pics inside? Ito so, please post them.

nah, we decided to be polite and not whip out the cameras. Ben was so kind to show us around. There are several good videos on you-tube that show much of what we saw.