2003 Legacy Korea Tribute Pickups

Long time lurker and finally signed up. I recently found on GCs used site a nearly unplayed 2003 MIK Legacy Tribute.

Ash with trans amber finish. Amazing player and very light but my question is pickups.... they sound good but it dosent hold a candle to my USA legacy tangerine metallics sound. Less warm/full/defined/chimey.

But these are supposed to have the same USA alinco pickups correct?

I changed the strings and pulled the guard today and they have a black fiber bobin but the wires have me wondering. All are plastic covered, not cloth wires. Neck and bridge are black/white wires. Middle is green and yellow. Pots are cor-tek full sized switch is just a generic import (all work well) oh and they have the same G&L covers (though oddly the neck is bright white new looking and the Mid and Bridge is yellowed.

Im new so not sure how to post pics yet so i cant attach any.

Any thoughts? Im worried these are the korean pups not the USA ones...... i was under the impression the older ones definitely had USA.

Long time lurker and finally signed up. I recently found on GCs used site a nearly unplayed 2003 MIK Legacy Tribute.

Ash with trans amber finish. Amazing player and very light but my question is pickups.... they sound good but it dosent hold a candle to my USA legacy tangerine metallics sound. Less warm/full/defined/chimey.

But these are supposed to have the same USA alinco pickups correct?

I changed the strings and pulled the guard today and they have a black fiber bobin but the wires have me wondering. All are plastic covered, not cloth wires. Neck and bridge are black/white wires. Middle is green and yellow. Pots are cor-tek full sized switch is just a generic import (all work well) oh and they have the same G&L covers (though oddly the neck is bright white new looking and the Mid and Bridge is yellowed.

Im new so not sure how to post pics yet so i cant attach any.

Any thoughts? Im worried these are the korean pups not the USA ones...... i was under the impression the older ones definitely had USA.

First read this post: Welcome! Read This First.
It will help you navigate the site and has some tutorials for posting photos, videos and audio files.

See these posts for info on the 2003-present Tribute Series guitars:

What is the new Tribute series which G&L announced in 2003?
List of pickups used in G&L guitars and
Note About G&L Tribute Series Guitar Pickups.

You should see that the 2003 Tribute Legacy came from the factory with US CLF-100 single coil pickups made at the Fullerton factory in CA, USA.

Since you bought this guitar at a GC in the Used Section, there is a possibility that a previous owner replaced the stock G&L pickups with some other brand.
The G&L Tribute stock pickup covers should have the G&L Logo embossed on the covers, but again the pickups themselves may have been replaced using
the original covers. Photos of these pickups showing the underside and wiring will help.

https://flic.kr/p/2jX6YAf

Still not sure why pics wont post. Says cannot detrmine dimension of this image...... but that link looks like it shows all the pics.

Still not sure why pics wont post. Says cannot detrmine dimension of this image...... but that link looks like it shows all the pics.

Since you are using Flickr as your hosting service, use the instructions at the bottom of the photo Tutorial:

For Flickr hosted photos, use these instructions to post inline photo:
View photo hosted from Flickr, select Share option and then select BBCode.
Select a size for photo, but no larger than "Large - 768 x 1024".
Copy the highlighted code and paste into the forum Post Editor.

Hope this helps.

[timage=]20201019_130124 by Matt Brach, on Flickr [/timage]

[timage=]20201019_130156 by Matt Brach, on Flickr[/timage]

[timage=] 20201019_130223 by Matt Brach, on Flickr [/timage]

[timage=] 1111 by Matt Brach, on Flickr [/timage]

sorry for the delay lifes been crazy. What do you think about the pickups

[timage=] 20201002_155508 by Matt Brach, on Flickr [/timage]

[timage=] 20201002_155500 by Matt Brach, on Flickr [/timage]

[timage=] 20201002_155504 by Matt Brach, on Flickr [/timage]

[timage=] 20201019_130223 by Matt Brach, on Flickr [/timage]

sorry for the delay lifes been crazy. What do you think about the pickups

Your photo confirms that the pickups are not G&L CLF-100 pickups. G&L CLF-100 pickups have cloth wiring.


A previous owner must have replaced the stock pickups with some aftermarket pickups.

You can get genuine G&L CLF-100 pickups from the G&L On-Line Store: Pickup - CLF-100 Alnico Single-Coil.

What else could they be? This old reverb listing shows a neck and middle that have the same wires i.e. plastic coated and color combo as mine but obviously the bridge is a hum so cannot compare.

I remember reading somwhere on this site about a korean supplied pickups at some point. Are these them?

https://reverb.com/item/4754829-used-g- ... trat-style

What else could they be? This old reverb listing shows a neck and middle that have the same wires i.e. plastic coated and color combo as mine but obviously the bridge is a hum so cannot compare.

I remember reading somwhere on this site about a korean supplied pickups at some point. Are these them?

https://reverb.com/item/4754829-used-g- ... trat-style

Not Korean supplied pickups, see:
What is the new Tribute series which G&L announced in 2003?
Why the change in manufacturing location for the Tributes?
2015-present MF/GC Exclusive Tribute Models
Note About G&L Tribute Series Guitar Pickups