Since 2006, the Leo Fender Gallery at the Fullerton Museum Center has drawn visitors from around the world to marvel at the inventive genius behind the world’s most popular musical instruments. Rotating exhibits have focused on advertising, patent schematics, electric basses, and unique instruments and custom guitars from Fender and G&L Musical Instruments.

Leo Fender, the father of the modern solid-body electric guitar, was a life-long Fullerton resident, and his most important designs and products were manufactured in shops and factories located in Fullerton, California. The Leo Fender Gallery is a tribute to an American success story of a modest man whose innovations defined an entire genre of music, style, and culture.

Collection highlights have included the first prototype solid-body electric guitar designed by Leo and Doc Kauffman as well as never before displayed memorabilia from Leo’s original radio shop on Spadra Rd. (now Harbor Blvd.) all the way up to guitars and basses he worked on at G&L.