“I first met Paul through Ted Peckels.  I’d known Ted (and his lovely wife Donna) for many years because he owned the ‘in’ music store (the House of Note) in Riverside and every musician in the Riverside/San Bernardino area hung out there.  Ted introduced me to Paul (IIRC) in about ’64 (about the same time they were forming Bartell) and I started working there part-time building guitars. At that time they had a small (1500 square foot or so) commercial unit on Arlington Avenue where we assembled guitars.  Most of the woodworking was done at another facility and I don’t, for the life of me, remember the name of that woodworking shop or the name of its’ owner.  One of the nicer finishes they had was the ‘lace’ finish formed by placing a piece of plastic lace (such as those used for dinner placemats) over the guitar body and shooting the final sunburst through it.  I don’t know how many guitars were made with that finish (maybe a hundred or so while I was there), but it was very attractive.  I don’t remember ever seeing it on a fretless bass, but I assembled a lot of the Spyder guitars that had it.

I ended up joining the Army in ’66 and, by the time I was back in the World (in ’69) from ‘Nam, Bartell was pretty much a memory.

Ted still had the House of Note in the Magnolia Center (at the intersection of Magnolia and Jurupa, if you know the Riverside area) and Paul had opened a small guitar shop about midway  between Arlington and Corona (again, if you know the area). Paul’s shop was a small, 2 story building and he and his wife lived above the shop.  I only met his wife once (and I don’t even remember her name) but she impressed me as being a very nice lady.  I heard about Paul’s death (he had a fatal heart attack while climbing the stairs from his shop to his home in about ’72 or ’73 IIRC) from a mutual friend.

Paul’s shop was subsequently bought by Don Underwood who ran it for several years.  Don was a good musician (I’d worked with him many times over the years) and an excellent guitar craftsman as well.  Unfortunately he, too, had a heart attack (fortunately non-fatal) in ’78 (again, IIRC) and he had to retire and close up the shop.  The one guitar I still own was built by him in ’75.  It’s an ‘almost’ Stratocaster body made out of ‘birds-eye’ maple with an ‘almost’ Telecaster neck.  I used that guitar to help get me thru my last 3 years of college (MSc. Math ’78) and I’ve been working as a researcher and engineer (computer systems ‘n stuff) ever since.

Ted ran into some financial problems and the House of Note closed in the early 70’s but re-opened about 10 years later and operated until Teds death in the mid 90’s.  My first wife (Francie) was, for many years, his primary guitar teacher until he was forced to close.

That’s really about all that I can tell you.  I’ve been living in Tucson since ’90 and haven’t played professionally since ’78.  (Jeezzz…..Has it really been 30 years?)  I wish I could tell you more about
Paul.  He was a good guy and one helluva good guitar craftsman.  One thing that you failed to mention on your website was that he was instrumental (no pun intended) in getting Leo Fenders operation (down in Santa Ana) semi-automated in the early 50’s.  He was the one who built many of the woodworking jigs that were used to shape necks and bodies for the very first Jazzmaster, Jaguar, and Stratocaster guitars.  And, of course, he built all of the jigs used for the Bartell guitars.

As for the fretless bass guitars….  If you own one that was built before ’66 it’s a virtual certainty that I assembled it.  I think Ted and Paul assembled maybe 3 or 4 of them (to make sure that everything fit properly) and I built the rest of them.  I honestly don’t remember how many of them were built during the period I was there.  Probably less than 100 or so.  I ran into a few of them in the 70’s and every one of their owners praised them.  It’s always nice to hear things like that.”