NGD: 1980 G&L F-100 Series I (Searching for F-100 Info)

First post! I posted this over on thegearpage to a tepid response, so thought I'd run this by the home crowd.

New to me, recently got this baby back from my tech after buying it. Excellent condition, neck is dead straight, no neck flip (never a guarantee for an early, micro-tilt G&L). Nitro lacquer on body and neck, shiny all over. Series I so it has the 12" radius, with nice low action. A nick here and there, but I really couldn't ask for better condition. I am mostly a single coil guy trying to find a humbucker guitar I like. So far I have been digging the classic dual humbucker sound through my cranked 60's Ampeg Jet and Gemini. I have its cousin, a 1981 L-1000 bass with the same tobacco burst finish, also mahogany but with ebony board. I look forward to getting to know this guitar. Have a look at the (clickable) thumbnails I shot.

I'm especially interested if any of the many G&L experts have any info/experience/tips with this model. This is actually my 4th G&L, as I have an '83 SB-2 and a 2000 Legacy, in addition to the L1K mentioned above. All are stellar. The legacy is super rock solid and a total workhorse that I gig with often. This baby will likely see its first gig in a week or so. Peace!

Other than doing the G-200 mod on it, which seems to give many sonic improvements, I'd say you have a nice guitar there. The old board had a number of threads about f-100's but I don't know if that archive is accessible or not. Mahogany G&L's are always a treat and being an Ampeg fan myself, I know how good it must sound. My first decent amp was a 65 Jet although i like the larger amps with 7591's better. You've probably seen Greg's site:

http://www.ggjaguar.com/f-100-i.htm

http://www.ggjaguar.com/f-100-ii.htm

http://www.ggjaguar.com/81g-200.htm

You might be interested in the recent under the control plate photo of a 1981 F-100 and some F-100 wiring schematics in the Gallery Album: Instrument Manuals and Wiring Schematics.
There are also copies of the original F-100 Instruction sheets.

Hope this helps.

If you have not yet registered your F-100, please do so in our G&L Registry.

Thanks,

Thanks for the information. I read a bit about the G-200 mod, and if I understand correctly it just makes the guitar have a 2 volume, 2 tone configuration. But are the pickups identical in the G-200 and F-100? I wonder why people like that mod. Is it just because it makes the guitar more like a les paul? Or is it that the treble/bass roll off as it comes from the factory is considered not such a good fit for the F100. Thanks.

Very nice!

Congratulations.

Thanks for the information. I read a bit about the G-200 mod, and if I understand correctly it just makes the guitar have a 2 volume, 2 tone configuration. But are the pickups identical in the G-200 and F-100? I wonder why people like that mod. Is it just because it makes the guitar more like a les paul? Or is it that the treble/bass roll off as it comes from the factory is considered not such a good fit for the F100. Thanks.

according to the G&L guitar pick-ups page the early large humbuckers are the same on both the G-200 and F-100 (viewtopic.php?f=12&t=38), though greg's page says otherwise (http://www.ggjaguar.com/81g-200.htm). i can't comment directly as i don't have a F-100 although I've played a G-200 and it's a better sounding guitar to my ears than the F-100. which is probably why some guys have done the mod. and to your last question i would think the latter instead of the former. hopefully shawn or one of the guys who has done the mod will chime in. that said, if you like it like it is just play it and enjoy.

Thanks for the information. I read a bit about the G-200 mod, and if I understand correctly it just makes the guitar have a 2 volume, 2 tone configuration. But are the pickups identical in the G-200 and F-100? I wonder why people like that mod. Is it just because it makes the guitar more like a les paul? Or is it that the treble/bass roll off as it comes from the factory is considered not such a good fit for the F100. Thanks.

according to the G&L guitar pick-ups page the early large humbuckers are the same on both the G-200 and F-100 (http://www.guitarsbyleo.com/FORUM/viewt ... ?f=12&t=38), though greg's page says otherwise (http://www.ggjaguar.com/81g-200.htm). i can't comment directly as i don't have a F-100 although I've played a G-200 and it's a better sounding guitar to my ears than the F-100. which is probably why some guys have done the mod. and to your last question i would think the latter instead of the former. hopefully shawn or one of the guys who has done the mod will chime in. that said, if you like it like it is just play it and enjoy.

Here is what Gabe (aka GPD) had to say about the F-100 (from a post on the G&LDP back in 2009):

Opinions are varied on the F-100 pickups
GPD on May 05, 2009 at 10:13:57:
Pickup FAQ page comment - F-100 posted by Vibrolux on May 04, 2009 at
20:45:49:

: As the proud and happy new owner of an old F-100, I was surprised to see how little was
written about the F-100 pickups on the FAQ page. All the other pickups have a nice description
of their tone, but the F-100 does not. I'd love to see what the consensus of opinion on their
sound is. I have my own thoughts, but I've never played another G&L so I don't know how they
compare.

The pickups found in the F-100 model were Leo Fender's first commercial implementation of the
MFD pickup design. Opinions of the sounds afforded by these pickups vary greatly. Here are
some facts...

Inductance is modest as far as humbuckers go...about 4.7H for the neck and 5.0H for the bridge
(measured at 1KHz).

D.C. Resistance is reasonably low, again, as far as humbuckers go which is a hallmark of the
MFD design. It has to do with the fact that Leo opted for less turns of coil wire on the coil forms
in order to preserve the higher frequency side of the spectrum. (Typically 6.9K-7.9K depending
on the pickup).

The resonant peak is extremely high as far as humbuckers go...8-9+ KHz.

The output at the resonant peak is relatively strong especially when you consider how little
copper is on the coil forms. The reason for this is the efficiency of the magnetic field which has
various components. Part of this is the positioning of the magnet which is directly beneath the
pole pieces which are fashioned from an alloy of steel that has high permeability. Secondly, the
magnets are charged through their thickness so unlike a PAF, the field travels directly through
poles. On a PAF, the magnet is at a 90 degree angle to the pole piece which is not nearly as
efficient of a design. Also, the magnets are ceramic...grade 5...and they place about 600-700
Gauss at the top of the poles which is a rather aggressive amount of magnetic strength for a
pickup and no doubt one of the reasons for the strong output/punch.

The inherent sound that you get from the F-100 is one of strong upper midrange and treble
content with a decent amount of bottom and midrange. You hear a lot more of the fundamental
note than you would hear compared to a PAF. The bass string response is particularly crisp on
these guitars. Like most things G&L, the overall voice is on the brighter side of bright. These
pickups sound absolutely nothing like a PAF which I would describe as overly sweet,
compressed and midrange biased with plenty of overtones.

Personally, I don't care for the sounds of the F-100 all that much, however, I do like the same
basic pickup design in the G-200 model. The advantage the G-200 has over the F-100 is a
shorter scale length coupled with different pickup locations and a lot more load on the pickups
in the control circuit. The difference package of the G-200 makes for an overall sweeter and
more mellow tonality and the individual volume/tone controls afford a lot more tone shaping
options.

Also, I've found the single coil and out-of-phase settings on the F-100 to be more or less
useless. The single coil mode provides even more brightness and a thinner weaker sound.
The out-of-phase is hopelessly thin and bright though the nasal quality might come in handy
for certain things.

Outside the tones on tap, the F-100 is actually a very solidly built and great playing instrument.
the body shape is a well thought out rework of the Stratocaster. the neck is very comfortable
and the hardware all very good...save for those crappy early style Schaller tuners which definite
ly are exactly that...crap. When you pick up one of these guitars they feel solid and the high
quality of the build and components is obvious.

One place I've found the F-100 really shines is for heavier music that relies on heavily detuning.
Unlike most other instruments the F-100 remains crisp and articulate even when crazily
detuned...like say to B. Slap some heavier strings on an F-100 and you'll be amazed at how
great it sounds which has everything to do with the pickup design.

Personally, I've said this many times but I feel like Leo rushed the F-100 to market without
getting enough player feedback. To be quite honest, the Music Man Sabre that preceded it
was/is a much better all around sounding instrument. I think the general consensus regarding
the F-100 was proven quite readily when you consider that the second G&L came out with
other models (S-500, SC*, Nighthawk, Skyhawk, etc.) sales for the F-100 plummeted faster
than the share price of General Motors. Even though the F-100 remained in production until
1991...very few were ever built post 1981.

That said, there are some dyed-in-the-wool F-100 fanatics out there. Local G&LDP resident
Jeff Gruwell is one of them and there are many others.

That's my dos pesos on the Fwunhundredt,

Gabe

The F-100 and G-200 pickups are of the same design, but I don't have a G-200 to check DC-R of the
pickups to see if they are identical (or atleast within the same range). I don't recall any other
information posted by Gabe about any differences between the F-100 and G-200 pickups.
Also, Brad Traweek, who originally created the G&L Pickup tables, owns both models. I can only assume
he must have checked them out and if there were some difference would have noted them in the table.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Craig, and of course Gabe, for this info. Nice that now it readily can be found through Search. Or maybe worthy of an entry in the Knowledgebase?

- Jos

Thanks for the extensive replies and useful information. I am currently having a grind and polish done on the frets, since there seemed to be a couple of high frets causing just a bit of buzz. Like I said, the neck is dead straight and once the frets have been treated, it should play perfectly. Hopefully I'll be getting back tomorrow, as I am jonesing to get it back in my hands. Thanks again folks!

Your F-100 pictures a 4-string tree, and the G&L Store lists one as code GTST; help finding one appreciated (at less than the cost of a 1980 F-100)! Thanks much.
Bob