New Member L-1000 Series E question

Hello,

This is my first post to this forum and I hope I have the protocol right. I posted this same question at BassesbyLeo.com and Ken suggested that I try it here also.

I am looking for information about a 1980 L-1000 that I got back in the 1990's. There's some possibility that I may be the second owner, but that could also be my memory playing tricks on me.

I have the original warranty card which lists the model No. as L 1000 Series E and 12/27/80 as the date purchased. Serial No. is B002150. Everything about it seems to be a nice original early bass with passive pickups. I have a photo of the headstock etc. but I did not see a way to post it here.

So far, I have not been able to find any information or even a mention about any L-1000 Series E.

Thank you in advance for any information that might help solve the puzzle.

L-D-C

Hello,

This is my first post to this forum and I hope I have the protocol right. I posted this same question at BassesbyLeo.com and Ken suggested that I try it here also.

I am looking for information about a 1980 L-1000 that I got back in the 1990's. There's some possibility that I may be the second owner, but that could also be my memory playing tricks on me.

I have the original warranty card which lists the model No. as L 1000 Series E and 12/27/80 as the date purchased. Serial No. is B002150. Everything about it seems to be a nice original early bass with passive pickups. I have a photo of the headstock etc. but I did not see a way to post it here.

So far, I have not been able to find any information or even a mention about any L-1000 Series E.

Thank you in advance for any information that might help solve the puzzle.

L-D-C

Welcome to our site!

To post photos here, see: Tutorial: Posting photos.

I did a quick search of our site here to see if there was any mention of an L-1000 Series E, but did not see any.
I also checked on GGJaguar's G&L Page and no mention there either.
You might contact Memo Romero (G&L Service Manager) at repairs@glguitars.com and ask him to look up the S/N for your bass
in the factory logs and get the details of it, including the completion date and the model name listed.

Thanks for the information Craig. I will contact Memo Romero and see what information comes to light if any.

L-D-C

Craig,

I did contact Memo Romero at G&L and this is what he said:

Our records indicate that this is a made in Fullerton California USA L1000. The description is just L1000 there is no “E” in the records, the completion date is October 7, 1980".

So, it looks like I have reached a dead end. I know they made at least one because it's sitting here in front of me. I did post a photo of the head stock on the Guitars By Leo site as it is much easier to do. Subject of that post is also is the same as this one -- New Member L-1000 Series E question

Thanks again for your help,

L-D-C

Craig,

I did contact Memo Romero at G&L and this is what he said:

Our records indicate that this is a made in Fullerton California USA L1000. The description is just L1000 there is no “E” in the records, the completion date is October 7, 1980".

So, it looks like I have reached a dead end. I know they made at least one because it's sitting here in front of me. I did post a photo of the head stock on the Guitars By Leo site as it is much easier to do. Subject of that post is also is the same as this one -- New Member L-1000 Series E question

Thanks again for your help,

L-D-C

I saw the photo of the headstock on Ken Baker's Bassesbyleo.com site. Not sure what "Guitars By Leo" site you are referring to.
I took the liberty to copy the photo you posted on Ken's site and am posting it here:

I sent this photo to Dave McLaren (CEO) and he asked for some more photos. If you can post them here (front and back).
If you are not able to post them, please send them to me at mcdewey49 at gmail.com.

Looking forward to seeing more photos of your bass.

Welcome to the club L-D-C,

Sweet bass ya got there. A few low Enders round here who can provide better answers than six stringers like me. Are you focused on bass or is there a 6 stringer that often calls yer name?

Jump in when ya can, bunch of friendly folks round here.

Thank you to all of you for your responses, and thank you Craig for posting the headstock photo from bassesbyleo.com. The Guitars By Leo reference was a typo, not unlike the reference to "passive pickups" in my original post.

I will take more photos of the bass and send them to you soon.

Best Regards,

L-D-C

Hi L-D-C,

Welcome! That is an interesting headstock indeed. [i]"Series-E"[\i] was the way G&L indicated that there was a preamp in the tone circuit, i.e. to distinguish e.g. the totally passive (and rare) L-2000 from the "active" L-2000E. So beyond the label, these basses are always recognizable by a battery compartment accessible on the back of the body. I am pretty sure there will not be one on your bass. But if so, post a pic. Even on their first price list from September 1980, G&L only included the L-1000.

As a side note, the only other G&L bass ever released in a passive and an active version is the El Toro from 1984, But at that time, G&L did only use an "El Toro" waterslide decal without making a distinction between the 2 versions.

Another interesting detail in you picture is the "stylized" truss rod nut access which is painted. I have never seen that before either. Does your neck have a skunk stripe on the back? If it is truly from that era, it should have one.

There might have been plans to have an L-1000E that never reached final production but for which decals hade been printed already. And knowing the way Leo worked and not wanting to waste anything, I can totally see somebody used one of these without clipping off the "Series-E" part.

- Jos

Hi L-D-C,

Another interesting detail in you picture is the "stylized" truss rod nut access which is painted. I have never seen that before either. Does your neck have a skunk stripe on the back? If it is truly from that era, it should have one.

There might have been plans to have an L-1000E that never reached final production but for which decals hade been printed already. And knowing the way Leo worked and not wanting to waste anything, I can totally see somebody used one of these without clipping off the "Series-E" part.

- Jos

I believe that is the way the factory finished the truss rod nut access back then. Here's a photo of my '81 F-100 headstock:


You might take a look at your 1980 L-1000 as the photo of the headstock on your website looks finished too.

I sent Dave L-D-C's photo and asked him if an L-1000 active model was considered and perhap decals were made. He thought not and from that
photo the decal does look uncut. He asked for more photos, which I will send to him as soon as they are available.

Stay tuned.

Here are the first set of photos L-D-C sent me.







I will be sending these to Dave McLaren later today.

Here are additional photos of the headstock at different angles I got from L-D-C and I also sent them to Dave McLaren:










I noticed right away that the dot (dash) between L and 1000 was missing.

I heard back from Dave today:

Here's the factory logbook page showing the entry for B002150:


Here's a photo Dave sent showing the standard model decal for the L-1000 bass:

Hi Craig, I don’t see anything special in the logbook but it’s definitely weird. My guess someone did cut-n-paste with the logo,
with Series E coming from an L•2000. The missing dot is almost as strange. Maybe if he pulls the neck the date will suggest something.
Was it replaced at some point? I can’t imagine why that would result in the mysterious logo but maybe there’s something.

Still a mystery...

Hi Craig, Thank you for posting Dave McClaren's reply and photos. I have not as yet pulled off the neck and hesitate to do so because the bass plays so nice as it is and it's not really within my skill set if something were to go wrong.

The one thing that suggests to me the neck is original to the bass is that "L 1000 Series E" is the model No. listed on the G&L warranty card from when it was purchased back in 1980.

According to the factory logbook, the bass was entered on 10/7/80 and according to the warranty card purchased on 12/27/80. Makes me wonder why the original neck would have been replaced with another one just like it, only with a different decal, in so short a time. And who would have had access to the various components it would take to create the Series E neck?

Thanks again for everybody's help and interest.

Like you say: Still a mystery....

L-D-C

L-D-C sent me these photos and I sent them off the Dave McLaren.



Here are Dave's comments:

It seems so legit, plus that decal looks so straight I’m imagining that something got mixed up. I imagine decals got made wrong by the supplier and somehow one got used. Sounds kinda silly as I type this, but odd things happen and the Series E is perfectly in line with the L•1000 as though it’s one continuous decal.

You might take a look at your 1980 L-1000 as the photo of the headstock on your website looks finished too.

How about that sports fans! It is right there and I had never noticed. And not just on an L-1000 in my collection but on a whole slew of basses and guitars. Not the SC- and SB- series though. And all the way up to 1983 it looks like.

Thanks for pointing that out Craig!

- Jos