Some "Music Man" History From George Fullerton.

**Aussie Mark** · 12-17-2005, 01:47 AM

Originally Posted by tkarter

If Mark means have another beer and sit back and listen then I got that covered.

Spot on with the translation. This thread is a great read!

**tommyindelaware** · 12-17-2005, 08:17 PM

awaiting the next chapter.......

**Big Poppa** · 12-18-2005, 12:04 AM

Its a blur but I think it was late 82

**bklein** · 02-11-2006, 10:45 AM

No, I was not referring to "the Paul" model - as that would have been a solid wood plank body and what I remember was a solid colored LP with raised fingerboard, fancy trim around the outside of the body, fancy gold hardware, maybe even inlaid pearl fret markers. The "Paul" model doesn't have the raised fingerboard... Doesn't really matter - he could have had both, and both would have had a different (more solid) sound. I took a bunch of color pictures of his lab years ago. Wonder where those ended up. I have a cool shot of Leo I printed with his visor on, holding the long phillips screwdriver...

You are right you said, 2500 was the count earlier... That is a hell of a lot of necks to make before you know a problem exists. Too bad we'll probably never know why this happened. Personally I find it hard to believe that Leo's crew would continue to make knowingly inferior product. I also don't believe Leo would trash his own operation by intentionally shipping something crap to MM. Now I could believe that he may have gotten a new QC guy at the same time a new neck router was implemented and it was set up wrong and he didn't catch it. But that is just conjecture. At that time he was getting new machinery and constantly tweaking designs. What was his daily output? What happened to those 2500 necks? Did they ship? I would think MM shipped less than 100 units per day. I think Tom was reclusive simultaneous with this - something else was going on. I think someone in MM or a dealer found this and it took several days to escalate it - partially maybe because of his reclusiveness or other focus - by that time they were screwed. Other things had to be going wrong between Tom and Leo as if truly it was a CLF screwup he'd try and make things right. Both men were stubborn as hell though - each been through a lot of their share of business rankness. In fact, I could believe Leo would tweak the neck router, be focusing his attention on a specific problem, but at the same time not realize he messed up the whole thing by fixing his problem - and then be stubborn that he is right. And then be surrounded by "weaker beings" (otherwise known as kiss-asses) that would not disagree with him. Possible.
To my recollection, Leo got involved in all areas of the guitar making process - he designed the pickup winders from scratch (and probably has several patents on them). I remember him pointing out the rubber band drive system to vary the wind tension as the pickup rotated. He experimented with wire sizes and insulation and magnetics. He dealt with the hassles of sourcing the wood - making sure it was stored and aged correctly. He experimented with different finish materials... With today's computers, he'd probably be spending his nights dabbling with Solidworks modeling neck designs. He'd buy CNC machines to make the bodies from his continuous re-designs. His pickup winders would be stepper-motor controlled. Spray finishes done by robots. Wood cured in environmentally controlled chambers with datalogging. The big question is - would he have sent all manufacturing off to Asia?

**Big Poppa** · 02-11-2006, 06:56 PM

barry

where theres smoke there fire....trust me

**Randracula** · 02-11-2006, 07:24 PM

Originally Posted by Big Poppa

Leo didn't have a Les Paul, He had a "The Paul" which was a walnut neck and bodied variation of the les Paul but thinner and had different contours. I have that guitar also.
It sounds nothing like a mahoghany body/maple top standard LP.

"The Paul" is a great guitar.I've been around this one for the better part of 20 years.........

**jchalas** · 02-12-2006, 09:55 PM

Fascinating stuff and it would certainly make for a great read. A 'desk' book of MM history, hmm.. could title it "Keep the Ball Rolling", "Balls to the Wall" or something equally clever. Anyone else care to chime in with a potential title?
Janice