Awesome G&L DNA for a NGD

Tue Jun 27, 2017 1:19 pm

Well, hope I don't get barred for this. We all know that Leo Fender and George Fullerton built guitars for many years. After selling his company to CBS in the sixties, Leo was in some kind of non-compete agreement to not build guitars under the name Fender. This didn't stop the two from continuing their tinkering with Leo playing around with the electronics and hardware while George tinkered with new designs of form and function. For a few years in the 1970's the two began under an agreement, to manufacture guitars for Music Man Guitars. These guitars turned out to be the primordial ooze under which G&L guitars would evolve.

As luck would have it, Music Man tried to screw Leo and squeeze him out of business and quite frankly, if this had not happened G&L may never have happened. The Music Man Sabre guitar was quite popular guitar at the time (1977- 78) and basically became the F-100 years later. I am not sure how the pickups compare but the electronics and bridge are very close to the 1980 F-100. Including the saddle lock bridge, just without the lock screw.

I have been looking at this guitar on Reverb for over a year now and really wanted it. It stared out at $10K and after about two years and 2526 views later the seller slowly reduced the price until it was low enough for me to make an offer of much less and after a bit of back and forth they accepted my offer and Now I own it!! This guitar was personally gifted to George from Leo and remained in George's collection for many years. It's in time machine condition. It wad displayed in a Fender Museum a while back and then returned to George. Perhaps some of you had seen it there.

OK, so it's not a G&L but it is for sure the grand daddy of all G&L's out there today. 40 Years old of awesome Leo and George MOJO!

Tom


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Nice Red.

Re: Awesome G&L DNA for a NGD

Tue Jun 27, 2017 3:05 pm

Wow! Awesome! How does it sound? How does the sound compare to the early F100 models? Do you know what the body wood is? How about the neck radius?

Congrats!

Re: Awesome G&L DNA for a NGD

Tue Jun 27, 2017 5:05 pm

Very cool piece! Thank you for preserving it, and thank you for sharing it!

Re: Awesome G&L DNA for a NGD

Tue Jun 27, 2017 5:27 pm

That is a very special find, congratulations. :alright:

Are you going to frame the documents or keep in the folder?

Re: Awesome G&L DNA for a NGD

Wed Jun 28, 2017 4:24 am

Congratulations. That's a very cool looking guitar (not to mention the history). Nice that you got a fair price too.

I've been a bit interested in EB/MM and considered the Stingray recently....somehow I ended up with another GL.

Re: Awesome G&L DNA for a NGD

Wed Jun 28, 2017 6:55 am

That is a great guitar!

Of the 2526 views, I imagine a couple dozen were mine.

Enjoy,

y2kc

Re: Awesome G&L DNA for a NGD

Wed Jun 28, 2017 7:46 am

Great score Tom!

Re: Awesome G&L DNA for a NGD

Wed Jun 28, 2017 8:00 am

That is a cool one. Love the color.-- Darwin

Re: Awesome G&L DNA for a NGD

Wed Jun 28, 2017 10:34 am

Well I knew this would get moved but that's the risk I took.

I only just received the guitar yesterday and have had little time to play with it. The strings are old and I want to do a complete setup and look under the hood before I do a lot of playing.

I will probably just keep the documents as they are in a folder. I'm not out to frame such things as they get exposed tonight and that eventually degrades them pretty bad. We'll se though.

I am not sure what the wood is or even what they used back then. My first inclination is Mahogany cause it's very heavy. Could be maple though too. It loos like a three pice body as I can detect a seam at about the third top of the body. I will hope to find out soon when I get it on the bench. But first I have to clean up my bench (really my dining room table) cause I have the G-200 scattered all over the place and still need to get it to a luthier for a re-fret.

So, stay tuned for more info of interest and Craig, so sorry I posted it in the wrong place. I just felt it commanded a bit more attention than General interest.

Tom

Re: Awesome G&L DNA for a NGD

Wed Jun 28, 2017 11:22 am

FZTNT wrote:...I will probably just keep the documents as they are in a folder. I'm not out to frame such things as they get exposed tonight and that eventually degrades them pretty bad. We'll se though.


exposed tonight = exposed to light?

That's how I am reading it anyway.

Re: Awesome G&L DNA for a NGD

Wed Jun 28, 2017 11:56 am

DanDoulogos wrote:
FZTNT wrote:...I will probably just keep the documents as they are in a folder. I'm not out to frame such things as they get exposed tonight and that eventually degrades them pretty bad. We'll se though.


exposed tonight = exposed to light?

That's how I am reading it anyway.



True that...spellcheck + failure to proof read = Exposed to Error.

Thanks Dan...

Re: Awesome G&L DNA for a NGD

Wed Jun 28, 2017 7:27 pm

Grammar Police do not take this sort of exposure lightly...

Re: Awesome G&L DNA for a NGD

Thu Jun 29, 2017 1:18 pm

"Frightened by shadows at night...when exposed to the light."

Re: Awesome G&L DNA for a NGD

Sat Jul 01, 2017 6:17 am

A very nice piece of guitar history. Treasure and play it in good health.

Re: Awesome G&L DNA for a NGD

Sat Jul 01, 2017 2:35 pm

Never seen a Sabre in that condition. Incredible.

Re: Awesome G&L DNA for a NGD

Sat Jul 01, 2017 4:10 pm

Red is the best, nice piece of history too