New G&L Facebook page - CLF RESEARCH CO.

Hope they bring back the F100 or Rampage/Nighthawk style in greater force; distinctive yet not alienating. Really looks well put-together and thought out, so it should be used on more guitars.

Man, oh man, do I love our 1980 L-1000. Sunburst on mahogany with maple neck. You wunkay fans know that “OMG mode” punch is sweet.

1977 exhibit

In the darkest, dustiest corner of the lab I just found a pair of these. Now, I may need more coffee but I think these are very early MFD pickup prototypes.
Solid poles in Sabre covers makes me think these may be 1978.

CLFR styling evolution. ‘86 Skyhawk, ‘82 S-500, ‘81 F-100, ‘78 Sabre.

I just scored this nice old SC-2 from a cool guy on Reverb. The guitar is in really great shape, though it had an unfortunate body refin.
That’s not a problem for me, as you might imagine. Kinda thinking about this new gold color we have here. It’s this hot, deep metallic which
Cadillac called “Pharaoh Gold Firemist” in their 1973 and 1974 brochures.

This is Johnny’s Mustang. I think it’s a ‘64 or ‘65. He got it around ‘95 from an employee here named Chris
who had the guitar since he was a kid and his dad bought it for him.

Anyway, Chris had pulled the frets and flattened the fingerboard to use for slide. Not surprisingly the dots had fallen out,
what was left of them long gone. I think Ed fixed it up by re-radiusing it on the old swing arm sander, refreshed slots,
new frets, pearl dots as used in production. Belair Green was still a pretty new color for us then and Johnny liked it.
I think Malcolm painted it and Ed got it together into a decent player somehow.

Glad they're Mustang fans; happy it was brought back to life. Somewhat like my '66 .

Our ‘78 Stingray is getting CLF mods. First thing is to solder independent leads for each coil,
so we now have four leads coming from the pickup which originally had two leads. You know what that
means: mini-toggles! The original control plate assembly on this bass has beautiful patina so we’ll keep
that original. Instead, we will use a NOS control plate assembly from Leo’s lab, epoxy coated preamp and all.

Memo is in the middle of surgery. A CLF mod from way back is one mini-toggle for series/parallel with independent leads for each coil.
On this one we’re using a 3-way mini-toggle for series/single/parallel. We will have another mini-toggle to kick in OMG mode from the L-1000
when the other toggle is in series.

We used a preamp we thought worked. It didn’t. We’ll sort that out tomorrow. The mini-toggles are black for parallel/split/series,
red adds OMG cap for series mode, white not hooked up. Already drilled three holes this morning, so a white switch to nowhere
is better than a hole.

Assuming each pickup has independent volume controls you could use the white switch to swap phase of the bridge pickup. I have no idea how that would sound on a bass, but I have done this on some of my humbucker equipped guitars and you can get some pretty cool tones.

I just disassembled the old SC-2 so the body can be sanded and repainted in Pharaoh Gold Firemist, a Cadillac color option for 1973-1974. It’s sweet.

[Craig]

Goodbye turquoise crappy paint

The original paint was sanded off prior to the repaint, so we’re definitely going down to the maple.

phpBB [video]

Have a bit of housekeeping in the pockets then it gets undercoated.

Last edited by Craig on Wed Jun 27, 2018 6:37 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Added more photos

I hope the CLF L-1000 "Wunkay" announcement will be added to this CLF Research on this forum too (I did see the other post). Just to keep it all together. The G&L website has it already: http://glguitars.com/product/clf-research-l-1000/

- Jos

That’s a sample reissue CLF Research guitar knob. Looks awesome, so we’re gonna do a production run of them and they should be in the online store in July.
I just love these things.

December 1978 - Leo in front of Jolly Roger restaurant in Fullerton. I believe he used to go there often.

Sorry to be the weirdo amateur OC historian again- Jolly Roger was in Dana Point, not Fullerton.

Second pic here is taken at the same angle: https://www.ocregister.com/2013/08/12/n ... nt-harbor/

eerie, image of the photographer is seen in the mirror by the staircase...

Student Set, List price...$119.50

May 6, 1976 letter from Forrest White to Tom Walker with copy to Leo. At that time, Music Man had been producing only amps
but the Sting Ray guitar and bass were being developed at Leo’s new CLF Research building at 2548 Fender Avenue in Fullerton.

Got the urethane undercoat done on the old SC-2. We’re going thin urethane base/color/clear and the color will be Pharaoh Gold Firemist. This is gonna look so sweet.

That’s a sample reissue CLF Research guitar knob. Looks awesome, so we’re gonna do a production run of them and they should be in the online store in July.
I just love these things.

These are now available, see: The CLF guitar knobs are in stock at the online store ....

Got the urethane undercoat done on the old SC-2. We’re going thin urethane base/color/clear and the color will be Pharaoh Gold Firemist. This is gonna look so sweet.

Observation: Compare the rather clean look of the SC-2 body with routs of the proper size only where needed and the rather gouged out looks of the other bodies in the picture with a "bathtub rout".

The same is trie for that other clean looking body on the right with 3 pickup routs, which I gather is for a RMC Legacy ...

My 2¢.

- Jos

It almost makes them hollow bodies with no F hole, huh?

Tom

Leo’s early 1980s prototype MFD split coil guitar pickup. Note the covers appear to be fabricated from early style S-500 units.

This may well be the first photographic evidence of the long-rumored brief period when Leo was experimenting with the tonal qualities of pickups dusted with powdered sugar.... In the never-ending pursuit of sweet tone....

That's a good one...funny.

On a serious not, do you guys have any idea what year these were prototyped like this? Do they actually work?

Tom

Rhino Records LP press release. I guessed the year was 1982, googled it and was right.

A pickup form for Leo Fender signature decals.

A new CLF 2k next to Tony’s ‘81 2k. You’ve heard me blather about how much I love the ‘81, but man, this new one seriously has it goin on.
I feel really good about making these.

Engineering in the 1970s. You make one miscalculation or just want a change, you get to do this.

The old SC-2 is now wearing Pharaoh Gold Firemist.

Photo by Leo Fender of a man in a park feeding birds. Or whatever that is going on. October, 1982

July 24, 1977 letter from Guitar Player Magazine editor, Tom Wheeler, to Leo.
On the following page Tom has questions for a GP cover story and for his upcoming 1978 book, The Guitar Book.
We lost our old friend Tom earlier this year.

Our ‘86 Skyhawk is fine as can be in Sunburst over mahogany.

One thing it needs is an S-500 expander switch. Fortunately, a sister model to Skyhawk, called the Cavalier, used this same control plate but with an added hole for a mini-toggle.

So out comes this original plate for preservation, and in goes another plate with the mini-toggle for expander function. An incredibly useful mod with these MFD single coil pickups.

The old SC-2 is back together and looks great with its fresh coat of Pharaoh Gold Firemist.

January 25, 1984 date stamped neck for a model in development named Innovator. The Innovator body, control plate and pickguard are basically the same as Nighthawk/Skyhawk/Cavalier,
but Innovator explored different pickup and switch configurations. You can see examples at guitarsbyleo.com at http://guitarsbyleo.com/FORUM/viewtopic.php?f=36&t=6015.

The old SC-2 is back together and looks great with its fresh coat of Pharaoh Gold Firemist.

That sure is purty. Is this now a standard color?

Tom

That sure is purty. Is this now a standard color?

Tom

Yes, it is a new Standard color and replaces Yukon Gold Metallic. See: January 25, 2018-present Body Finishes.

Craig,

That is so cool! The color is fantastic.


y2kc

I'm not sure where I sit with the color, but it's markedly nicer than the former turquoise (re)finish. Looks brand new! Wouldn't mind seeing it out in the wild, or at least under natural lighting.

Looks like a prelude to the upcoming CLF Research SC-2! (at least we can hope...)

The SC-2 is back in Leo’s Lounge. Now, the second image shows my inspiration for trying out Pharaoh Gold Firemist. Not the couple,
that’s a life goals deal though they appear to be living the dream. But the car, that deep rich gold is all about that 1974 luxury life, baby.
That period mojo just makes me like this color more.

Now that the CLF Research Skyhawk launched this morning over on the G&L Musical Instruments page,
I can tell you that the vintage style CLF 3/16” press-in arm is available in the online store.

You can also get the matching CLF 3/16” arm socket to retrofit to a later Dual Fulcrum as on this Legacy. Yes, it works on Tribute models too.

Use coupon code CLF20 for 20% off now through Friday. Works on these and all bridge parts, CLF and other knobs, and CLF tees and other apparel.

I think the SC-2 seems happy to look so nice in its new finish. This guitar sounds fantastic.
I’m digging the maple body, and the weight isn’t bad at all, maybe 7.25 lbs.

This is our 1984 Cavalier E, a sister model to the Skyhawk at the time. Cavalier features Leo’s Angled Offset humbuckers
where the MFD pole pieces align to the strings quite well. This version has a preamp which is engaged with the mini-toggle.
That’s the battery compartment on the back of the body.

This Skyhawk came back from photos. No arm on it at the moment but anyway, I’m gassing hard for it.
That Clear Blue and black combo was killer on these back in the day.

NBD here and I’m pretty stoked about this 1981 L-1000 in Natural Ash with ebony fingerboard. This road warrior comes home to Fender Avenue 37 years later, and for some reason I dig the hell out of that.

Almost NGD: This 1986 Invader arrived a couple of days ago but I’ve been busy. Had a visit with Jerry Cantrell and I asked him to sign it.
I never ask people to sign stuff for me personally, but I dig the the thought of this 32-year-old rock machine coming home after a hard life and
immediately getting some extra mojo at the stroke of a sharpie. Anyway, some of you will note the rare Leo Fender Dual Fulcrum bridge with
fine tuners and the Leo Fender Guitar-Tech string lock behind the nut.

At the end of the day I like to walk around and check all doors, but also I like that it gets me a different view when things are quiet. I notice things.
As I walked through the paint and polish shops, I saw racks of beautiful Skyhawk and L-1000 bodies. Wait, what year is it again?

I believe it was ‘83 that the L-2000 got a black powder coated control plate and bridge plate, while its headstock changed to the current hook style.
I would love to have the one in this old G&L Music Sales ad slick. It’s got me bad.