I've told this story before, but it's a good one, because Leo Fender, born August 10th 1909 is my favorite inventor. Sure, I give T Ed his due for the light bulb, you can even visit it at Greenfield Village here in Michigan. But Leo's story starts when he's a mere 8 years old. He develops a tumor and loses an eye because of it. Imagine medicine back in the day? Leo as a little boy suffered having a glass eye in 3rd grade, however the hell hard that was, he went on to college to become an accountant. But restless Leo couldn't help tinkering with electronics and thankfully ghosted accounting for a radio repair shop. In between replacing people's tubes in those forties era radios, he tweaked a solid body guitar with a 'pick up' for plugging it into an amp to serve the dance bands of the day. What evolved from that was the worlds best selling solid body guitar, the Stratocaster. Here's some of the master axists of that creation performing the music we love thanks to Leo Fender, born this day in his parents' orange grove outside of Fullerton, Ca. My favorite inventor.