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b"Leo\\xa0Fender\\xa0invented the electric guitar. But what made him even more special is that his guitars were used by giants\\xa0spanning decades of music from Elvis to Eric Clapton to Jimi Hendrix to Keith Richards\\xa0all the greats of rock and roll!\\xa0\\n\\nWhen Rolling Stone Magazine published a list of the world's top 100 guitarists, 90 of them used one of Leo's guitars\\xa0and the rest used guitars that basically copied Leo's invention.While\\xa0Fender\\xa0guitars were recognized around the world, few people knew much about the man behind the legendary guitar. Leo\\xa0Fender\\xa0grew up in California, where an interest in electronics led him to open up a radio repair shop in 1938. But he didn't just work on radios; his reputation earned him the respect of musicians and band leaders who trusted him to repair their equipment. As time went on he founded\\xa0Fender\\xa0Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company and later, G&L Musical Instruments.Leo's wife Phyllis, along with Randall Bell, Ph.D., give music fans a memory-filled look into the remarkable world of this quiet genius in their latest book, Leo\\xa0Fender: The Quiet Giant Heard Around the World. Randall Bell also grew up in Leo's neighborhood and his father was the head of the R&D department at\\xa0Fender's company.\\n\\nFender's game-changing contributions to the music world have been widely recognized. He was presented with the Country Music Association Pioneer Award in 1981, and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Rock Walk of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His accomplishments were also acknowledged with a Technical Grammy Award in 2009.\\n\\nLeo\\xa0Fender\\xa0died in 1991. Today, Phyllis\\xa0Fender\\xa0volunteers at the Fullerton Museum where she shares with visitors stories about her life with Leo."