My New Axe, a G&L
I admit to being something of a gear addict. I recently bought a new guitar, and I'm pretty excited about the possibilities it presents. It's a G&L Tribute ASAT Special Semi-Hollow.
For those of you who don't know, G&L is the guitar company started in the eighties by Leo Fender and his former employee George Fullerton. Their guitars are largly made in the USA, and pretty expensive, but they also have a line of guitars called Tribute which are manufactured in Asia, but use the same American made pickups and electronics as the regular line and are set up in California. The ASAT models are a similar body style to the Telecaster. The one I own uses the USA made MFD pickups. These are high output soapbars that produce a very bright sound. These are some really spanky pups that almost out tele a tele!
I'm still getting a feel for the axe, and for its strengths and weaknesses. I believe it will turn out to be a really good blues machine, and I'm anxious to hear from any of you who own one or have used one.
For those of you who don't know, G&L is the guitar company started in the eighties by Leo Fender and his former employee George Fullerton. Their guitars are largly made in the USA, and pretty expensive, but they also have a line of guitars called Tribute which are manufactured in Asia, but use the same American made pickups and electronics as the regular line and are set up in California. The ASAT models are a similar body style to the Telecaster. The one I own uses the USA made MFD pickups. These are high output soapbars that produce a very bright sound. These are some really spanky pups that almost out tele a tele!
I'm still getting a feel for the axe, and for its strengths and weaknesses. I believe it will turn out to be a really good blues machine, and I'm anxious to hear from any of you who own one or have used one.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Chad Nordhoff on -
My guitars seem to be on a cycle. For many of them, the older they get, the lower I tune them. I have one nameless electric guitar that my friend pulled from the dumpster near his apartment. I removed the 6th string and tuned the remaining 5 to open C. The intonation is hopelessly out of wack and the action is about half an inch off the neck. The 5 notes needed for blues still work though and it sounds great.
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Permalink Reply by Fred Willard on -
Wow. What a cool sounding geetar -- perfect for slide. You'll never bottom out.
If I could get around better I'd start checking dumpsters. I once found a fiddle on a junk pile on the curb. It was much appreciated.
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Permalink Reply by Larry on -
Too bad I'm too old and feeble for dumpster diving. I'd probably just end up with rancid mayo on my shoes anyway.
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Permalink Reply by Fred Willard on
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I'd get in the dumpster and never be able to get out.You could hear me hollering as they hauled me to the dump.
I hate to admit this, but I have done it back when things weren't too financially fine.
The secret to escaping with your life is to convince someone who is both young and enthusiastic into being the inside man, and throwing the goods over the top while you wait outside.
Not a bad idea to wear a raincoat either.
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Permalink Reply by Larry on
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I almost forgot about the Blues Jr. When I first started shopping for amps I heard one at a local music store and was really impressed. It was, however, out of my price range at that time. I still think it's an excellent sounding amp, and plenty loud for me.
I too am a country blues finger picker. The only guitar that I own which, IMHO, sounds right being finger picked, is an Oscar Schmidt Delta King I bought at MF for $129.00 It arrived with only one pup working because of a grounding issue and with no apparent set up. Lousy, rusty, too light strings, as well. I fixed all the issues, installed #10 strings and now love the damn thing.
As for the G&L, I'm still making up my mind. I do think the PUPs are absolutely killer, though. Very spanky. I'm certain I'd love it if I was a better blues/rock flat picker.
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Permalink Reply by Fred Willard on
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Which PUPs does it have on it?
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Permalink Reply by Larry on
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It's got the big, rectangular MDF high output single coils. Sort of soapbar looking things. These, I definitely like. They sound a little like P-90's. They are, IMHO, screamin' great blues pups. They are somewhat thicker sounding than Fender pickups. Each polepiece is height adjustable with a hex key, allowing fine tuning of the output of each string.
I haven't really had the guitar long enough to do a lot of playing around with the various adjustments and features. I'm still just trying to get a feel for it. It came strung with d'Addario 9's, but I think I'm going to exchange them for 10's like on my Delta King (which is a 335 clone.) I'm hoping it will make it better for fingerpicking.
Still, there's a British fellow on UTube, Wil Fly, who fingerpicks very well indeed on a G&L similar to mine. He says he uses 9's on all his electrics. Check him out.
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Permalink Reply by Fred Willard on
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I've got 9's on my strat that set set up for straight guitar and 11's on the slide strat. The 9's have stated feeling a bit a bit gooshy on mine, I think I'll switch them to 10's.
I always play bare fingered, but have been using the finger picks acoustically since i picked up the reso. They make for a lot more volume.
I don't like them, but I'm trying to give them a chance.
You ever messed with the Fender Thinline 69 Reissues? They are what got me interested in the ASAT semi-hollow.
Fender also makes a fabulous no-caster thinline in the custom shop for about $3,000.00.
Not going to be in my budget anytime, but play one sometime if you can. It felt like it was worth it to me.
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Permalink Reply by Larry on
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Becoming aware of the existance of the Thinline Tele led me to my ASAT. It took awhile, but the journey did start the day I found out there was such a thing as a semi hollow Tele.
As much as I loved my 335 clone Delta King, I was unhappy with it's heavy weight. I wanted an axe with which to play blues and a bit of jazz, but I was hoping to find something lighter.
About a year ago, a guitar store opened about 5 minutes from my house. It was owned by a character named Kevin McDonald and his son, Justin. These two men, both terrific guitar players, made me feel welcome in their store, whether to play the instruments, browse, or just talk music. I played most of the guitars in their store, and that's a lot of guitars. There were several I liked a lot, some of which were way out of my budget.
Both Kevin and Justin believe in the quality and value of the G&L line and their enthusiasm got to me, I guess. The price Kevin offered me on the guitar helped too.
As far as the custom shop thinline goes, I'll take your word on the quality. I haven't yet played one. Still, even the USA made and assembled G&Ls are out of my price range for now. I'm thrilled about the great quality of inexpensive imported guitars these days. My Tribute series ASAT was made in Indonesia. I also recently owned a Mexican Strat which I sold to finance the ASAT. Though I never really got comfortable with it, the guitar seemed to me as high quality as the American Strat I owned years ago (and eventually had to sell.)
I remember quite well, and I'm certain Fred does too, what cheap guitars were like in the sixties and earlier. Still, a lot of great bluesmen played them. As a matter of fact, that hollow, high tone that young guys try to imitate with high end amps and bunches of pedals was originally created with a Sears Roebuck guitar and five year old strings. The tone was also due to mind, soul, and fingers that knew what they were about.
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Permalink Reply by Blue Peter on -
Hi Larry,
I play G&L L2000 bass, tribute model, I bought this bass 3 years ago when I first took up bass playing with the intention of upgrading after a couple of years. So far I haven't found a need too. I also had a tribute Legacy (strat copy) which was also beautiful guitar, but I couldn't do it justice so I swapped it for a Mexican Telecaster (which previously belonged to James Bailey, a brilliant young Kiwi guitarist, he supported Buddy Guy a couple of years back in Auckland), I then sold this to a friend. I'll stop waffling now and finish with the fact that you have bought yourself a first class instrument, I hope you enjoy your G&L as much as I enjoy mine. Regards, Pete.
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