During a travel in late '94 I was guest in his house. I met a generous man, a craftsman, a storyteller, an unbelieveable 12stringer, a great guy - I'll never forget: When he opened one of these cases and started to play that 12 string guitar, he had made himself, my hair were going like rockets up to the sky...
There is esp. one story, that seems to stand for that, what had happened to Fred:
He told me, when he went into a San Diego guitar shop in the '80s (I guess, I remember correctly), he found a guitar hanging at the wall, he built years ago, for $10.000. He asked the guy in the store about that guitar and got the answer "Oh man, that's an original Fred Gerlach..". He asked: why $10.000 and he got the information:" because, he's dead, man!" Fred's reaction: "Aaaaaahhh,...." and he left the store. He was a legend and not many people had the idea, that he was living not so far - and what I've seen, very much alive, full of energy and ideas. I guess, he's checking the bigger fleamarkets now, suddenly playing one of these cheap guitars and making people standing there with an open mouth, like in '94