1986 Leo era ASAT III

Mon Nov 12, 2018 11:16 am

Hello everyone,
In trawling the web as black Friday looms, I stumbled across the above listed guitar. Upon close inspection of the photos, I noticed the pickups were not MFD, (not adjustable polepieces). I immediately jumped to the conclusion that the pickups had been replaced, but I remembered reading somewhere on this site that for a period of time the G&L factory used some Seymour Duncan single coil size pickups, maybe on the Legacy Special?

At any rate, does anyone know of a time in the Leo era where G&L used non MFD single coil pickups in ASAT III's or is it safe to assume these are non original pickups? I did contact the seller to see if he/ she would consent to popping the pickguard to see if the maker of the pickups could be determined.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Re: 1986 Leo era ASAT III

Mon Nov 12, 2018 2:38 pm

Smoochimoto wrote:Hello everyone,
In trawling the web as black Friday looms, I stumbled across the above listed guitar. Upon close inspection of the photos, I noticed the pickups were not MFD, (not adjustable polepieces). I immediately jumped to the conclusion that the pickups had been replaced, but I remembered reading somewhere on this site that for a period of time the G&L factory used some Seymour Duncan single coil size pickups, maybe on the Legacy Special?

At any rate, does anyone know of a time in the Leo era where G&L used non MFD single coil pickups in ASAT III's or is it safe to assume these are non original pickups? I did contact the seller to see if he/ she would consent to popping the pickguard to see if the maker of the pickups could be determined.

Thanks in advance for any help.


You are probably thinking of the standard Legacy which first had Seymour Duncan SSL Vintage (flats) pickups from 1992 through 1994 and then factory switched to
G&L's CLF-100 single coil pickups 1995-present).

The ASAT III only came with 3 MFD single coils or 2 MFD single coils and an optional MFD GHB humbucker. See: List of pickups used in G&L guitars and List of Regular Production ASAT-style guitars (USA).

I think it is safe to assume the pickups in this guitar are non original pickups.

Hope this helps.