This is the last instrument created by Leo Fender

[Craig]

About 3 hours ago, Dave posted these photos, with this caption on G&L Facebook page:

This is the last instrument created by Leo Fender. This prototype was called a 6-string bass, though it seems more akin to a baritone guitar.
It has a 25 1/2" scale, two humbucking pickups, a swamp ash body and a maple neck. The final drawing for this prototype was made in February, 1991,
and this prototype, the only one in existence, was completed on March 21st, the day Leo passed away. A man of passion and determination, he held on
until he was certain his life's work was complete.

Last edited by Craig on Sat Dec 08, 2018 2:37 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Reason: fixed photo links

sure is a beauty , that grain is sweet ..... so are they going to make this ?

It's really cool to see new pics . Do we know how it's wired ?
Glad to know someone has been dusting that broom .

thx Craig

It is almost painful to see the last thing Leo was working on just laying fallow for so many years. Is there a business case for such an instrument?

I hate to be the party pooper here, but my information has it that this is distinctly NOT the last instrument Leo worked on. The last guitar Leo worked on is S/N G028886, on which he was trying out a new humbucker he was designing. After some testing on that guitar he left for home on the evening of March 19, 1991. It was Dale Hyatt who put the instrument of this thread (S/N G029213) together the same evening and he constantly calls it a '6-string bass', not a baritone. He left it on Leo's chair for Leo's approval but unfortunately Mr Fender never made it to his lab again and passed away March 21st. So he never saw the final result displayed in the beautiful pictures (for which I want to thank Dave).

Don't take my word for it, just read Dale's letter originally pictured at the bottom of this post but repeated here:
.

- Jos

Edit: Since the Gbase page does not exist anymore, include a newer picture of the letter.

Last edited by yowhatsshakin on Sat Mar 10, 2018 3:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Hi Jos,

You're not a party pooper at all; you've just been given some information that's incorrect. I'd like to think that Dale didn't write that, particularly as he didn't sign and date it as he typically would. Here's a couple of things that make it clear something is amiss.

Serial number G028886 has a Dale connection, but it's not especially significant. It was a black Superhawk with pickups wound at 1300 turns. Rather than the PO number supplied by G&L Music Sales to G&L Musical Products, it says "DALE" in the margin of the logbook. Dale's responsibilities were sales and marketing at G&L Music Sales, and it was common for him to request the factory - G&L Musical Products - to build samples with various tweaks requested by artists or dealers. These instruments were typically noted "DALE" in the logbook as this Superhawk had been. Anyway, this particular Superhawk was built on March 5th, 1991.

"...that same night I started putting it together...." is also strange. Dale's job wasn't building instruments, prototype or otherwise, and he didn't build the prototype "6-string bass" serial number G029213 which was completed on March 21st, 1991. Gene Engelhardt carried out the build, being the go-to guy for this sort of thing. We've got a variety of trivia about the last instrument Leo created, the 6-string bass, because it warranted that sort of attention being the last, and also because of the mystery surrounding it as nobody knew what Leo's next step with it would be.

My suspicion is that someone other than Dale produced that paper in order to inflate the value of that Superhawk. On its own merit, that Superhawk is special, just not that much.

Best to you,

Dave

Dave,

Any chance of this seeing the light of day as a special run or a production model? I've looked on and off for a baritone (or whatever this would be called), and haven't been able to find any US-built products. There are a couple of so-so imports, but that's about it.

Ken

I hate to be the party pooper here, but my information has it that this is distinctly NOT the last instrument Leo worked on. The last guitar Leo worked on is S/N G028886, on which he was trying out a new humbucker he was designing. After some testing on that guitar he left for home on the evening of March 19, 1991. It was Dale Hyatt who put the instrument of this thread (S/N G029213) together the same evening and he constantly calls it a '6-string bass', not a baritone. He left it on Leo's chair for Leo's approval but unfortunately Mr Fender never made it to his lab again and passed away March 21st. So he never saw the final result displayed in the beautiful pictures (for which I want to thank Dave).

Don't take my word for it, just read Dale's letter originally pictured at the bottom of this post but repeated here:
.

- Jos

A rare letter indeed Jos.
Only a handful of people are aware of it. I have personally seen the letter when Dale showed it to me at his home in 2009. As is Dave, I was curious about the lack of signature so I just asked him. He explained it was a draft for his personnel files which he seldom signed. He did however sign everything he mailed out.
HLG

So based on that letter Dale built the 6 string Bass ?

So based on that letter Dale built the 6 string Bass ?

Don’t misunderstand. It’s not like Dale built the guitar from the ground up although he did have the skills. The letter states he assembled, wired, and tuned it. It was Dale, George Fullerton, Lloyd Chewning, John Rodriguez along with a few others conferring to get this to a final product. You have to understand during the last few years of Leos life Dale was running the entire show and as always, with Leos final approval on all major decisions. This guitar had been in process since 1988 as the L6000 and even made it on the price sheet but some test players didn’t like the pickups in the early configurations. Shortly before Leo’s passing the last circuitry and pickup change had been completed. Two days before Leo passed is when Dale put it in Leos’ office for approval. Unfortunately, Leo didn’t make it back and never got the chance to see the final product.

HLG

A rare letter indeed Jos.
Only a handful of people are aware of it. I have personally seen the letter when Dale showed it to me at his home in 2009. As is Dave, I was curious about the lack of signature so I just asked him. He explained it was a draft for his personnel files which he seldom signed. He did however sign everything he mailed out.
HLG

HLG,
Yes I know how rare this letter is. As well as its authenticity. And it is not uncommon to not sign copies of correspondence one keeps in their own archive. I don't sign my own copies

So based on that letter Dale built the 6 string Bass ?

Fumble,

To add to HLG's remarks above, you'll notice that each of the 'hum buckers' in the L6000 (or L6K as it's known) is actually a pair of S-500 single-coil MFD pups wired as a bucker. Pre-BBE S-500 pups can be recognized from their squarish corners instead of the rounded ends as on the Nighthawk/Skyhawk pups. So these pups were certainly not the final configuration and Leo, or anybody else at G&L at the time for that matter, would not have allowed a pickup configuration where the strings do NOT run straight over the pole pieces; just look at the high-A string (if we consider this to be a baritone) at the bridge. I have seen a picture of Leo's test pickup jig intended for the L6K with the correct pole piece spacing. Pretty cool stuff. On top of that the development of the L6K took quite the number of years. There are a number of necks with sickle headstock roaming around that were produced around the 1988 time frame for an earlier prototype of this model. Apparently it was fairly close to completion because the L6K even appeared for a very short time in the January 15, 1989 price list as 'L-6000E' with a targeted release date in March 1989 before being pulled a couple of months later. So this is 1989, a couple of years before 1991.

Dale Hyatt, beyond being founding partner in G&L Music Sales Inc. and running much of the day-to-day operations at G&L after Leo bought out George's stake in G&L Musical Products Inc. in 1985, was indeed a capable craftsman. Certainly good enough to put a neck and body together, string up an instrument, and get it in tune. Many of the designs for G&L models and test mules were created and sketched out by Dale, frequently in collaboration with George (who could now focus more on instrument design again instead of running a factory), and/or LLoyd, and/or John, and/or Steve Reed to get to a final design. Of course my all time fave is the Broadcaster model Dale concocted (while Leo was vacationing mind you ). Another example would be the Comanche VI which was discussed in one of my recent LRs. But pickups (and electronics) were generally the exclusive purview of Leo. It is very unlikely he would have signed off on these S-500 like pups in the end, but we will forever be curious what his thoughts might have been. With all of the main players from that era gone, we will never know for sure.

Another interesting tidbit is that the S/N of this instrument does NOT appear in the sales log Dale kept until his retirement. This means it was never officially purchased by G&L Music Sales Inc. from G&L Musical Products Inc. Many of the prototypes were officially transferred from the one to the other, e.g. the 'CavASAT' debated in another LR of 'mine'. In addition, neither Dale nor George 'appropriated' the instrument and added it to their collection of rarities and test mules although they had ample opportunity to do so after Leo's death.

In the end, and no matter the exact details, this remains to be a remarkable and very historic instrument which I would love to see go into production, maybe even with the intended pickups

- Jos

Last edited by yowhatsshakin on Tue Mar 27, 2018 6:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Anyone know the tuning on this instrument?