NGD Comanche Hardtail

[xg5a]

Well, technically the new guitar day was two weeks ago, but I thought I'd post some photos of my new Comanche. I had an S-500 and have a Legacy, but decided a while back that the Comanche is the G&L for me, after playing one in a music store. I really don't like trems, though. After watching eBay and craigslist for ever and ever, I realized that I wanted a very specific set of specs, which I was never going to find on the used market. This was my first experience buying a brand new G&L and I have to say, all in all, it was great! The pleked fretwork is spectacular, and the instrument just feels so solid.

The guitar has a #3 1 11/16" wide quartersawn neck, ash body with a honeyburst finish, locking tunners, and of course the saddle-lock bridge.

Here's some info in case anybody runs into this in the future: The 4th fret was actually little high when I received the guitar, causing a little buzzing. After talking with Gordon from Upfront Guitars, where I bought it, we surmised that it had just popped up a little bit, so a plastic-tipped hammer restored everything to the way it should be, and now the guitar plays great.

I can't say enough good things about Upfront Guitars. Lots of good information on the blog and through email, which helped me narrow down all of the options for a custom G&L build.

Anyway, here are the photos!
Edit 9/26/17: Switching photos from Photobucket to Imgur

[Fumble fingers]

Beautiful !! ...... you picked some nice option .....

[NickHorne]

Yes indeed!
Z-coils, Saddle-lock & rosewood makes a great recipe.
Your cherryburst is really showing off that beautiful wood.

[yowhatsshakin]

Nice, nice, nice! And we're are not talking the town in the south of France!

- Jos

[Salmon]

Nice honeyburst there. This strong grain of swamp ash holds its own against all of the flamed with birdseye neck models. Photographed beautifully in that light though the 2nd picture has a convincing reflective artifact that I was certain represented the grain until I saw the other pictures. Just a beautiful guitar. Congratulations on receiving a special order that is so wonderful. Even the rosewood fretboard looks special.

[NickHorne]

Honeyburst! Sorry..
What a finish. It looks beautiful.

[Fumble fingers]

Nice honeyburst Photographed beautifully in that light though the 2nd picture has a convincing reflective artifact that I was certain represented the grain until I saw the other pictures. Just a beautiful guitar. .

that reflection threw me off for a minute too .... beautiful guitar , I'll be digging my Honey Burst Legacy out now ...

wish I would have been "up" on the locking tuners and quartersawn neck when I ordered mine

[xg5a]

Thank you all for the complements!! I appreciate the photo complements too, thats another one of my hobbies. Its funny you all mentioned the reflection in the 2nd photo...its the slats of the floor of my deck. I noticed it while I was shooting but ccouldn't get rid of it.

Also, yes, I know what you mean about the quartersawn neck and locking tuners. I have a legacy and used to have an S500, and I had no clue about those options when I was buying them. Now I wish I did. Buying a new G&L was really a completely different experience than tracking them down on the used market. I'm a player, not a collector, so I really, really liked getting exactly what I wanted. And those Z coils are amazing.

The other thing about this guitar is that I love the wide neck, which fits my big hands. But my other guitars feel too skinny now with the 1 5/8" nuts. So I could actually see some of them not sticking around much longer.

[xg5a]

Also for what its worth, the honeyburst is definitely less colorfully vivid in person. It came out looking like cherryburst in the photos, but its more subdued in person. Still beautiful, though

[Salmon]

@xg5a,

You make a thousand look like a million bucks. Honey anything is sort of funny. I have a honey not burst. Kind of green really but I still like it. Are you interested in sharing general tips on photographing guitar finishes? I seem to get awful results.


@Nickhorne,

I apologize for any jolt of lightening that might have passed through your system upon reading my words. I truly did not intend to be snarky about the color. I meant it as a fun jibe but I felt an emoticon would have been over the top at the time. The internet is a world of its own.

[NickHorne]

I really like the photos too, very nice!
I think quartersawn is a great option, + I believe it has a tone benefit - sort of a bigger voice.

Salmon - no jolt, no sweat.

I enjoy photography too, and I find that guitar finishes tend to confuse cameras' auto-white-balance algorithms. Such a high proportion of one colour in the frame is not what they are designed to average for. A grey card somewhere in a corner can help if you have the old Photoshop "Color Cast" function, or something similar, otherwise it's down to fiddling with white balance manually in a RAW editor unless your camera has good white balance options.

And my recent Blackburst is very taxing of the dynamic range in my Nikon D300! The body is close to shadow blackout when the hardware is edging into highlight burnout. Just like analog tape recording....

Actually, I find photography's a lot like recording. You can't recreate reality, or anywhere even close. A band / orchestra in the room? The mountains on your wall like a window? No way ever. We just have to do whatever it takes to make it work in a good way, emotionally / intellectually / whatever, and call it done.

[darwinohm]

Beautiful Comanche XG. The fret that you seated may work upward at some point but it is an easy fix besides it's on warranty. --Darwin

[Lacking Talent]

Never seen a hardtail -- cool!

[patricks]

Absolutely lovely! Great contrasts between the body, pickguard, pickup covers and neck - I like the #3 neck, too
Never tried a saddle-lock bridge, but it looks like a beefy bit of gear!

[jeffmarshall67]

awesome!

[xg5a]

@xg5a,

You make a thousand look like a million bucks. Honey anything is sort of funny. I have a honey not burst. Kind of green really but I still like it. Are you interested in sharing general tips on photographing guitar finishes? I seem to get awful results.

Salmon - no jolt, no sweat.

I enjoy photography too, and I find that guitar finishes tend to confuse cameras' auto-white-balance algorithms. Such a high proportion of one colour in the frame is not what they are designed to average for. A grey card somewhere in a corner can help if you have the old Photoshop "Color Cast" function, or something similar, otherwise it's down to fiddling with white balance manually in a RAW editor unless your camera has good white balance options.

And my recent Blackburst is very taxing of the dynamic range in my Nikon D300! The body is close to shadow blackout when the hardware is edging into highlight burnout. Just like analog tape recording....

Actually, I find photography's a lot like recording. You can't recreate reality, or anywhere even close. A band / orchestra in the room? The mountains on your wall like a window? No way ever. We just have to do whatever it takes to make it work in a good way, emotionally / intellectually / whatever, and call it done.

I'm a little late to reply but I thought I'd chime in with my photography knowledge, as it's my "other hobby". Nick hit the nail on the head with avoiding auto-white balance. What I did was shoot a white piece of paper in the same light as the guitar, then calibrated the camera to that white balance (a function that's built into my Canon slr). So then, orange = orange and the camera doesn't try to be smart and compensate to make everything grey.

Actually these photos are shot in two different types of light, as well. The ones where the guitar is on the wood table are in the shade, and I think they look much better. The deck shots are in direct sunlight, which I find much harder to work with, especially with the small dynamic range of a digital camera. In the shade the light is diffuse so everything is evenly lit, in direct light you get weird reflections, like the deck planks tricking everybody into seeing flamed maple.

I did also have to bracket my exposures here, since (like Nick said) the dynamic range is tough. Either the pickguard is too bright, or some other part is too dark, you can't win!

The main point is, I totally agree that photography is like recording. The photos are never never like reality, you just have to make something that looks cool, and forget about it being just like what you see with your eyes, because it never will be.

[xg5a]

Now for an update on the guitar - that loose fret never popped back out, but over the course of a month the neck developed a nasty backbow around the 12th fret that was unfixable with the truss rod. It caused buzzy notes even with really high action, and forget bending anything. So it's currently back at the G&L factory on warranty, probably getting a new neck. We'll see. The neck was "right" for probably about 3 weeks after I got the guitar, so I got just a taste of how good a USA G&L can be. Now I'm hooked. I can't wait to play it again!!!!

[Monahan]

Sweet-- Congrats!!

[xg5a]

Yep, I agree about the saddle lock bridge, it completely changes the sound of the instrument. It's much thicker with better sustain. Plus Its easier to bend and your notes stay in tune when bending. If the DF bridge could be decked or locked I would feel differently, but for me the saddle lock is the way to go. It's really hard to find strat style hardtails though, including G&Ls.

[Fumble fingers]

my 2000 Comanche twisted a neck 3 or 4 months ago , was fine and with in a two week period it went from great to unplayable .... mine was Birdseye , my new neck is quarter sawn other wise the same features as the old neck .... I liked the old neck fine but the new neck put my Comanche into the top of the "feel and comfy" category in my collection of G&L's , I guess wood and women are un predictable sometimes

[JagInTheBag]

The more I look at the Legacy body, the more I like it as a hard tail. Give me a few ideas!

[GeorgeB]

Saddle-Lock "Strats" rule, especially in honeyburst over ash and with a #3 neck. How do I know? I'm the lucky owner of a hardtail Invader which is like a twin sister to your stunning guitar. Actually yours is looking even better with the white pearl PG and rosewood board.

Hope the neck thing will be fixed by G&L smoothly. I'm confident that quartersawn kept the neck proper from warping, it looks like it just needs a full refret and plek service.

[xg5a]

Yeah I was really surprised that the quartersawn neck warped. But, sighting along the nck is pretty clear that the wood itself was going up,down, up, down from the nut to the body. But hey, even quartersawn extra thick hard rock maple is still WOOD! So anything can happen especially when its new. Hopefully everything gets made right without a hitch.

[xg5a]

I just wanted to post a follow-up to my initial excitement about getting this guitar a year ago. As I said in my posts above, the neck developed a bump (backbow) around the 12th fret on the treble side, which caused buzzing and fretting out during bends from the 10th to 15th frets on the g, b, and e strings. It can't be fixed with the truss rod. I had to set the action to around 5/64" at the 17th fret to avoid buzzing, which for me is not comfortable to play.

So, I sent the guitar back to G&L on warranty repair shortly after I received it. When I got it back, the frets had been leveled, but not crowned (they were square!). And, the buzz wasn't really any better. I called G&L and eventually connected with their warranty repair guy. He wasn't helpful, as he told me "we don't specify action and buzzing, I can't help you if that's your problem". He also didn't believe me that the frets weren't crowned, and didn't believe me that the neck has a bump/backbow. SOOO disappointing!!!!!!!!!!!

Fast-forward a year, and I really like the guitar except the higher action compared to my other guitars. As a lead player it pretty much annoys me every time I pay it. The experience really left a bad taste in my mouth about G&L, since I splurged and paid double what they go for on the used market to get the exact guitar I wanted new.

A month ago I had the frets leveled and crowned locally, hoping that the bump had now stabilized. This made the guitar *almost* cured for a few weeks. But lately the guitar was buzzing again at the same spot, and my fret rocker confirmed that the frets in the problem area are not level. The "bump" in the neck seems to still be very unstable. I guess G&L didn't use a very good piece of wood for this neck.

Anyway if anybody has any ideas, I'm all ears. I also wanted to vent because I'm very disappointed. Thanks for reading...

[Katefan]

Wow, what a hassle… I"d be demanding a new neck, $ back and an apology.

Hope you get something favourably sorted out of all this.

Cheers,
KF

[Fumble fingers]

you have a 10 year warranty , maybe it's time for the Factory to get involved since the dealer hasn't helped , made it even worse

[xg5a]

you have a 10 year warranty , maybe it's time for the Factory to get involved since the dealer hasn't helped , made it even worse

To clarify, the dealer was great. They agreed that the neck wasn't right. Then shipped the guitar back to the factory for me, and paid for the shipping. No complaints there!

The G&L factory were the ones who were dismissive on the phone and didn't think the guitar had a problem. They were no help at all.

The G&L warranty department said "we don't get involved with guitars that have fret buzz." After the G&L factory told me they don't specify action/buzzing, then the dealer didn't think we could do anything about it. That's why i'm not sure what to do.

[deytookerjaabs]

you have a 10 year warranty , maybe it's time for the Factory to get involved since the dealer hasn't helped , made it even worse

To clarify, the dealer was great. They agreed that the neck wasn't right. Then shipped the guitar back to the factory for me, and paid for the shipping. No complaints there!

The G&L factory were the ones who were dismissive on the phone and didn't think the guitar had a problem. They were no help at all.

The G&L warranty department said "we don't get involved with guitars that have fret buzz." After the G&L factory told me they don't specify action/buzzing, then the dealer didn't think we could do anything about it. That's why i'm not sure what to do.

Wow, I think the language you're using might be an issue. Action/Buzzing is a real subjective thing depending upon how hard you play so I could see them not wanting to play the game of the local tech for ya. BUT, that said, if there's a backbow that can't be straightened with the rod and you can prove it with maybe pics or a vid + tools then you should have a new neck if you bought new within the last decade. Get a notched straight edge and take some pics.

What else would the warranty be for if not for a major structural issue?

[john o]

G&L should provide a replacement neck, under warranty. Would pursue that.

[xg5a]

Wow, I think the language you're using might be an issue. Action/Buzzing is a real subjective thing depending upon how hard you play so I could see them not wanting to play the game of the local tech for ya. BUT, that said, if there's a backbow that can't be straightened with the rod and you can prove it with maybe pics or a vid + tools then you should have a new neck if you bought new within the last decade. Get a notched straight edge and take some pics.

What else would the warranty be for if not for a major structural issue?

Sorry to be unclear. Here's the long and short of it:

G&L's factory spec for action is 4/64" on the treble side and 5/64" on the bass side at the 12th fret, and that they don't guarantee anything further. They told me that they only guarantee fret buzz-free action at this level.

My guitar can sometimes barely achieve this, and sometimes can't, seemingly depending on the season.

Additionally, my ideal setup is 2.5/64" on the treble side and 3/64" on the bass side. I play light and use 11's. All of my other USA G&Ls (3), plus my Gibson SG 61 RI can achieve this with no problem.

Here is the photo I sent G&L of the backbow in the neck. It's taken on the treble side of the neck, looking down to the body from the headstock. Let me know if you think the backbow is clearly visible. I think it is (but I know what I'm looking for). G&L told me "we can't do anything with this photo".

I talked to G&L and sent this photo AFTER I got the guitar back from warranty service. They also told me at that point that they had no idea what was done/wasn't done to my guitar when it was there for service, as apparently they don't keep records. Their response on the phone is why I didn't send it back for a 2nd warranty service, it seemed like they weren't going to do anything more to it.

Given G&L's response to my inquiries, I'm not sure what to do.

[darwinohm]

The neck looks to me like it has back bow or downslope where it connect to the body in the picture. Do you know how to adjust the truss rod yourself? If you do, then you should be able to turn the truss counter clockwise to get the neck perfectly flat. If the truss rod nut gets slack and you still have back bow, you have a warranty issue, no question. I think you need to have this checked by a competent person. This is a plecked neck and it should be perfectly flat when adjusted as such. Anything else would be unacceptable on a new guitar. If it is not right then it should be a warranty issue. String buzz can be a symptom of different things and it alone is not necessarily caused by the neck.

I want to share a recent experience that I had with an American Breedlove acoustic and in the end I was very satisfied. It had high action and a very low bridge from when it was new. After about 5 years nothing had changes and I contacted Breedlove and told them it needed and neck reset. They gave me an RA and said they would check it. They called me after receiving it and said they would do a reset. I had it back in my possession in less than 3 weeks. The action was beautiful but I noticed that there was down slope from where the neck joined the body to the last fret. I called them and was told that was quite normal. I set photos with a straight edge and they agreed that they would look at it again. It was returned and repaired perfectly the second time. I paid shipping on the first repair and they paid it on the second time.

My point is that you cannot always take what you are told as fact, especially if it doesn't seem right to you in the end. I would get a professional opinion and if it isn't right I would insist on a warranty repair. Even if it is close but not perfect, I wouldn't settle for less. -- Darwin

[xg5a]

The neck looks to me like it has back bow or downslope where it connect to the body in the picture. Do you know how to adjust the truss rod yourself? If you do, then you should be able to turn the truss counter clockwise to get the neck perfectly flat. If the truss rod nut gets slack and you still have back bow, you have a warranty issue, no question. I think you need to have this checked by a competent person. This is a plecked neck and it should be perfectly flat when adjusted as such. Anything else would be unacceptable on a new guitar. If it is not right then it should be a warranty issue. String buzz can be a symptom of different things and it alone is not necessarily caused by the neck.

Yep, I know how to adjust the truss rod and I'm fairly competent with setup and guitar maintenance. Turning the truss rod affects the relief/bow of the neck from the 12th fret to the headstock but this backbow is unaffected by any truss rod settings. It comes and goes slightly with the weather but it's always present. Really the variability is the big problem, though, because otherwise the frets could be leveled with respect to it.

My point is that you cannot always take what you told as fact, especially if it doesn't seem right to you in the end. I would get a professional opinion and if it isn't right I would insist on a warranty repair. Even if it is close but not perfect, I wouldn't settle for less. -- Darwin

This is the sort of resolution I'm hoping for. You hit the nail on the head - things don't seem quite right in my mind. The problem is that G&L was very dismissive to my complaints. They said "if it plays at 4/64", we don't care." My additional issues with their warranty service are:

- No documentation on what work was done.
- Someone had obviously hand-leveled the frets, so my new guitar is essentially no longer Plek'd.
- The frets were not crowned after being leveled.
- The neck moved again after they did their fret leveling and they refused to believe me

[deytookerjaabs]

Yeah, for me it's a bit hard to tell in the photo but if you can drop around 35 bucks on ebay to get a "notched straight edge" (make sure for 25.5, the one from "madpark2008" is the real deal & 20 bucks) and "luthier's feeler gauge" you can get better pics/proof. Get it as straight as you can on the treble side by adjusting the rod and pop the straight edge on there then see if you have gaps, then measure the gaps with the gauges. It will come in valuable down the road too! I've been deceived by the eye test before so I use these to verify if I think any of my guitars have issues. Sometimes the fret edges or the side of the fretboard can give the appearance of a hump/dip. Sometimes it looks straight and voila..there's a friggin dip!

[xg5a]

I thought I'd post another update:
I had the frets leveled locally shortly after I posted on here the last time and the guitar plays much better now. At one point a few frets around the 12th came a little loose again but I was able to re-seat them without too much trouble. I'm told G&L now superglues in their frets so I wonder if it was more widespread. If I have any trouble in the future I'll glue them in.

I also decided to stop being a sissy and play with 4/64" action instead of the super-low action I was previously shooting for, and I think it really helped my tone in the long run. So, maybe I was a bit of an alarmist with the neck issues, and maybe the guitar did have an issue. But, almost 2 years on the wood seems to have settled down and I'm very, very happy with this guitar. I play it a lot and it's aging nicely. I just posted a demo of it through my Marshall amp here:
http://www.guitarsbyleo.com/FORUM/viewt ... 18&t=13019

[xg5a]

3.5 year (almost) update - still loving my Comanche! It's by far my best sounding and best feeling guitar. Plus the sides of the fretboard are getting nicely rolled, and the maple neck is darkening nicely, making the headstock decail pop a bit more which looks great.

I did have to swap out the volume pot this year as it was getting scratchy. I replaced it with one of the Emerson CTS pots that Stew-Mac sells and it's great! Even better action than the original. I have a 150k resistor soldered in parallel with the treble bleed cap on the volume and in my opinion this gives the same guitar tone regardless of volume pot setting.

Here are a few more videos I recorded recently using the guitar:

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JxXEQ7v05tQ[/video]

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVBO1ubbd_A[/video]

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0TjwmiMydc[/video]

[video]https://youtu.be/nnSy-LBW0UE[/video]

[glvourot]

I some how missed this thread the first time around. I'm glad in the end that your guitar issues have worked out. There's some good playing here and your Comanche sounds really good. Another G&L that I have only ever seen and heard on the web. The Traynor demo was great. I love how Pete Traynor threw amps off the second story roof of Long & McQuade to check them ( for ruggedness ).

[xg5a]

I some how missed this thread the first time around. I'm glad in the end that your guitar issues have worked out. There's some good playing here and your Comanche sounds really good. Another G&L that I have only ever seen and heard on the web. The Traynor demo was great. I love how Pete Traynor threw amps off the second story roof of Long & McQuade to check them ( for ruggedness ).

Thanks!! Yeah I really love those Traynor amps, such a thick but tight Marshall-type sound but with their own personality too. I think the huge transformers contribute a lot to the tone, and also make them really reliable.

As far as the Comanche one of the coolest things (in my opinion) is that it really works no matter what amp you plug it into. For me, guitars with humbuckers sound really good in both Marshall and Fender-type amps, but I typically only like single-coil guitars into Marshalls. A strat into a Fender amp is too thin and shrill for me. With the Comanche, though, I've enjoyed the tone through Blackface, Tweed, and Marshall amps. They're all a little different but the personality of the guitar comes through. The Z-coils have just enough thickness to work with the Fender amps, and still also sound great through Marshall amps and closed back cabs.

That versatility is definitely not the case with some other guitars I own. I have a Strat and can't stand it though my AB763 Deluxe Reverb, and I have a Ibanez copy of an Epiphone Casino that just does not work through anything with a closed back cab.