Back To The Beginning

With the launch of the CLF Research Skyhawk, G&L is revisiting its past to recall the pioneering spirit of Leo Fender and George Fullerton. Guitarist finds out more…

The G&L story is well documented. However, its principle characters, Leo Fender and George Fullerton, played such a significant part in the design and manufacture of Fender guitars (which still dominate the music industry) that this overshadowed the work they did, nearly 30 years later, in the early years of G&L. Yet the latter – still a relatively small US brand, and a close neighbour to those original Fullerton Fender factories – is now enjoying something of a resurgence.

Although not the first G&L guitar, the Skyhawk model epitomises the company’s approach as an improved bolt-on guitar, rather than just a mere clone. “They wanted to be bold,” explains Dave McLaren, president of BBE Sound, the company that purchased G&L after Leo Fender died in 1991. “They didn’t put the walls up here to make things that looked like Stratocasters.”