G&L in the UK?

Hello all!

I have only recently discovered G&L (embarassingly) and have been a fender man for years. G&L look incredible, I have lost all my free time to oggling guitars!
I have decided to sell my Les Paul studio and get a proper single coiled strat style guitar as the gibson tends to gather dust while my Korean made Telecaster Blackout HH (my 1st true love) gets all the action.

I have a few questions for you experts (this forum seems like an amazing resource by the way).

1) I am based in Manchester UK, how can I find out where my nearest retailer of G&L is so that I can try one out?

2) What G&L am I best buying? I play pretty noisy math rock/experimental instrumetal stuff with a relative amount of distortion (not Metal levels, mainly my Hayden Mofo 30 cranked with a Digitech CM-2 overdrive in front of it). Have a listen here: http://www.soundcloud.com/cleft_band . I really like the look of the Tribute series S500s as the magetic field pick ups seem great. My concern is there being loads of 60 cycle hum when running overdriven sounds. I have read that the comanche pick ups do a better job of surpressing noise.

3) I have read that the tribute series guitars tend to have quite noisy volume pots (crackles and drop outs). Am I perhaps best trawlling ebay / gumtree for an american made S500 / Comanche? I am fairly certain I will only get about 7-800 for the Les Paul, which is in practically brand new condition.

4) Are the only finishes available on the tribute series the ones pictured on the main G&L site? It looks like the tribute S500 comes in blueburst, 3 tone sunburst and Natural, and the commanche only comes in amberburst.

Thanks in advance for your help

Welcome to the Forum Cleft!

1) I am based in Manchester UK, how can I find out where my nearest retailer of G&L is so that I can try one out?

More than like the G&L distributor for G&L can help you out there. I hope that some of the Brits on the Forum will chime in too.

2) What G&L am I best buying?

Always the tough question. Beyond the Commanche I would advice you to look into the ASAT HB or Legacy HB which both come equipped with bucker(s) if the 60Hz is really your main concern. I provided links to the Tribute Series since that is what you seem to be looking at but be advices each has its US built equivalent.

3) I have read that the tribute series guitars tend to have quite noisy volume pots (crackles and drop outs). Am I perhaps best trawlling ebay / gumtree for an american made S500 / Comanche? I am fairly certain I will only get about 7-800 for the Les Paul, which is in practically brand new condition.

I don't own any Tribby and hence am not familiar with its potential deficiencies but all US built ones use first class components. If you want to avoid excessive shipping costs, you're more or less limited to the domestic UK market which may limit your choice.

4) Are the only finishes available on the tribute series the ones pictured on the main G&L site? It looks like the tribute S500 comes in blueburst, 3 tone sunburst and Natural, and the commanche only comes in amberburst.

I believe so although the website is not necessarily the most up-to-date source of these kind of things. So find your dealer, or talk to the distributor, and you might find out the latest and greatest.

Hope this helps,

- Jos

3) I have read that the tribute series guitars tend to have quite noisy volume pots (crackles and drop outs). Am I perhaps best trawlling ebay / gumtree for an american made S500 / Comanche? I am fairly certain I will only get about 7-800 for the Les Paul, which is in practically brand new condition.

4) Are the only finishes available on the tribute series the ones pictured on the main G&L site? It looks like the tribute S500 comes in blueburst, 3 tone sunburst and Natural, and the commanche only comes in amberburst.

Thanks in advance for your help

When the Made in Korea Tributes first came out in 2003, there were some runs which had faulty pots.
Once this was discovered, this issue was resolved with new pots. In 2007, the Tribute manufacturing
was moved to the more modern manufacturing facility in Indonesia. IFAIK, no noisy pots have been reported.

I have heard that some new Tribute finishes are coming. As soon as I hear more, I will be posting about them.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly you two!

I'm not massively concerned with a bit of noise and I'm definitely looking for that true stratty glassy yum sound that you just can't get with humbuckers. I can get some beautiful humbucking sounds with my telecaster (loaded with Seymour Duncan SH-1 RP '59 (neck) and Pearly Gates Plus (bridge)) so I'm looking for something different.

I'll be getting onto the G&L distributor and finding out where I can get my hands on some G&L goodness.

That's great news that there are plans to expand on the finishes currently available on the tribute range, it seems a bit limited. My dream strat type guitar would definitely be a white (maybe even a slightly translucsent blonde) with maple fretboard. YUM!

Sonically, what would the differences be between the comanche and the S500? I'd imagine the Z shape pickups have more bottom end as the top half of the pickups are shifted along nearer the neck.

Thanks again for helping me out, this forum is brilliant.

Dan

Hi
I live in the UK and have several G&L guitars and I just love em.
There is a guy in Ashbourne in Derbyshire who holds stock of used G&Ls (US only) he is www.guitars4you.co.uk all of his G&Ls are very clean and tasty I recently traded my ASAT Classic for a very nice Comanche in fact he now has that ASAT up for sale his name is Mark and he is a good guy if you want to talk to me 07768692110 is the number to call
By the way once you have played a US made G&L THERE IS NO GOING BACK!!!!!!
Regards
Richard