A former G&L Guitars employee has shared their story in the wake of speculation surrounding the fate of the firm, whose closure and dissolution has now been quietly confirmed.
G&L – the company established by Leo Fender in 1979 after he left his namesake brand in the mid-1960s – was the subject of intense online speculation last month when word of staff furloughs and an impending sale began to spread.
The lack of an official statement from both G&L and Fender – the party that was heavily rumored to have bought G&L – gave way to mounting rumors that the company was in the middle of a quiet shutdown.
These rumors were further fuelled when reports emerged online that G&L was quickly clearing its inventory, and that Fender had bought G&L's intellectual property – including the trademark for the ‘Leo Fender’ name.
Now, Steve Araujo – the frontman of The Bass Hang YouTube channel who worked for G&L for almost a decade – has shed light on the situation, as new court filings confirm that Fender has indeed successfully filed for the ‘Leo Fender’ trademark.
“The majority of people watching this will know that G&L is no longer and we still have a lot of unanswered questions,” Araujo begins, “so I'm going to try to give my side of the story and just maybe dispel some myths.
“G&L is dissolved, or gone, as of right now,” he explains. “I don’t think it’s a big mystery that financial issues were the problem, [and] have been the problem.
“I resigned on August 1. Fast-forward to Monday September 15, the employees were furloughed. To their understanding – and everyone’s understanding – they were going to be furloughed for two weeks, and they were going to come back to work on Monday September 29.
“A week and a half into the furlough, the employees that were owed money actually got paid. There were a lot of employees that were not paid and hadn’t been paid for a few weeks. But at the time of the furlough there were some employees that pressed to receive their payment, and they actually did get paid.”
Araujo continues to allege that on Friday September 26, G&L employees who were furloughed were told they needed to attend meetings on the following Monday, where they were informed that they were being let go.
“They were told that they were killing the company, killing G&L. They received severance and they had to sign some paperwork," Araujo alleges. “So Monday September 29, everybody’s let go. No more factory workers, no more G&L.”
The situation surrounding G&L between September 15 and September 29 was, as Araujo puts it, “up in the air”. People – dealers and G&L fans included – were reaching out to him to see if he had answers, but he didn’t.
As for reports that the G&L factory was being wound down over the past few weeks – which were brought to light by the Guitarcheology Instagram account – Araujo confirms the facility is “pretty much gutted”, and that “machinery, everything is out of most of the units”. That means G&L as we know it has come to an end.
“No more G&Ls will ever be produced out of that Fender Avenue factory,” Araujo adds, referencing the historic site on which the firm has operated since its inception. “And we still don’t know what’s going on as of today.”
One thing that has been confirmed, albeit under the radar, is that Fender now owns the trademark for the ‘Leo Fender’ name and likeness, having first filed for the trademark at the start of October. This was confirmed in court filings that can be found on the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and were brought to light by YouTuber Phillip McKnight.
For Fender, that is perhaps the most valuable G&L asset it could own. It is now free to use the brand founder’s name in any of its operations going forward – and internet sleuths have spotted that Fender.com has already had a Leo-heavy makeover.
What all this means for the rest of the G&L inventory, and some of the company’s more cherished models – such as the Jerry Cantrell-approved Rampage – remains to be seen.
Fender has been approached for comment.
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