Larel Rexford Bogue (Rex Bogue) was born in 1951 and raised in San Gabriel, California. He played in bands while growing up, rubbing shoulders with Zappa's Mothers of Invention. Bogue studied at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia and displayed a talent for music technology and electronics. Bogue experimented with lasers and was a pioneer of the  live music laser show. He moved on to building innovative guitars: and was one of the early users of active pre-amps in guitars. In 1972 he approached John McLaughlin with a proposal to build him a guitar. This instrument was to become John McLaughlin's iconic Double Rainbow 6/12 double neck.  At the time Rex was apprenticing in Ren Ferguson's Venice Beach shop. Ferguson made the guitar and Rex did the electronics. According to Ferguson:

"Rex would dream up fantasy stuff he made with parts from aerospace suppliers. He opened a shop, selling gadgets and pickups that would do everything but fly across the room. He had many ideas, but the business side was lost on him. He'd get excited about manufacturing something, get investors, then get bored and move on."

Santa Monica luthier Larry Brown shared a work-shop with Ferguson and also worked on the Double Rainbow.

"That thing weighed about 35 pounds and took two years to complete, I fretted the necks. When Rex got paid for it, he bought a lot rum; he was a connoisseur!"

Rex also did electronic work for Alphonso Johnson and Jorge Strunz, sold preamps under the Balz Deluxe and Balz Galore names, and built instruments for Frank Zappa and Miroslav Vitous. By the early 1990s, however, Bogue was suffering from health problems related to his diabetes and he finally passed away in 1991.

Source: Dave Marshall