What great guitar!

Hello G&Lers,

After reading a recent post about the Asat III I decided to break one out. This guitar was re fretted many years ago by Chicago luthier Joe Campagne. while he was under the hood I also had him flatten the radius a tad.
After cleaning the rosewood and polishing the frets I put a set of 10's on it and now wonder why I have not been playing it this whole time.
It is amazing what a good tech can do to improve how a guitar plays. This guitar is heavier than the sc-3 I have been playing but the playability makes up for it. I now have the sc-3 strung with 11s and tuned a half step down.
I would be a mental case by now if it was not for guitars to play. Life is hard and it is good to have music.

y2kc

Hello G&Lers,

After reading a recent post about the Asat III I decided to break one out. This guitar was re fretted many years ago by Chicago luthier Joe Campagne. while he was under the hood I also had him flatten the radius a tad.
After cleaning the rosewood and polishing the frets I put a set of 10's on it and now wonder why I have not been playing it this whole time.
It is amazing what a good tech can do to improve how a guitar plays. This guitar is heavier than the sc-3 I have been playing but the playability makes up for it. I now have the sc-3 strung with 11s and tuned a half step down.
I would be a mental case by now if it was not for guitars to play. Life is hard and it is good to have music.

y2kc

Sounds like a winner. Is the ASAT III one of the 1988 era guitars or a newer version. I believe they came with either the large soap bar MFDs or the S-500 type pickups. Which is yours. I see one for sale and wonder If I should try to pick it up. It's a 1988 and they are asking too much but maybe I can talk them down some.

Tom

Hello G&Lers,

After reading a recent post about the Asat III I decided to break one out. This guitar was re fretted many years ago by Chicago luthier Joe Campagne. while he was under the hood I also had him flatten the radius a tad.
After cleaning the rosewood and polishing the frets I put a set of 10's on it and now wonder why I have not been playing it this whole time.
It is amazing what a good tech can do to improve how a guitar plays. This guitar is heavier than the sc-3 I have been playing but the playability makes up for it. I now have the sc-3 strung with 11s and tuned a half step down.
I would be a mental case by now if it was not for guitars to play. Life is hard and it is good to have music.

y2kc

Sounds like a winner. Is the ASAT III one of the 1988 era guitars or a newer version. I believe they came with either the large soap bar MFDs or the S-500 type pickups. Which is yours. I see one for sale and wonder If I should try to pick it up. It's a 1988 and they are asking too much but maybe I can talk them down some.

Tom

The ASAT III is a different model from the ASAT S-3, see: List of Regular Production ASAT-style guitars (USA).

y2kc, you know the rule, it does not exist without a photo (or three).

Looking forward to seeing your ASAT III .

Just like Craig said, these are small pickups. I have more than my share of Asat III's. I will try to post a photo after work today.

y2kc

Hello G&Lers,

After reading a recent post about the Asat III I decided to break one out. This guitar was re fretted many years ago by Chicago luthier Joe Campagne. while he was under the hood I also had him flatten the radius a tad.
After cleaning the rosewood and polishing the frets I put a set of 10's on it and now wonder why I have not been playing it this whole time.
It is amazing what a good tech can do to improve how a guitar plays. This guitar is heavier than the sc-3 I have been playing but the playability makes up for it. I now have the sc-3 strung with 11s and tuned a half step down.
I would be a mental case by now if it was not for guitars to play. Life is hard and it is good to have music.

y2kc

Sounds like a winner. Is the ASAT III one of the 1988 era guitars or a newer version. I believe they came with either the large soap bar MFDs or the S-500 type pickups. Which is yours. I see one for sale and wonder If I should try to pick it up. It's a 1988 and they are asking too much but maybe I can talk them down some.

Tom

The ASAT III is a different model from the ASAT S-3, see: List of Regular Production ASAT-style guitars (USA).

y2kc, you know the rule, it does not exist without a photo (or three).

Looking forward to seeing your ASAT III .

Ok, I see. However, is yours one of the 1988 models or later production?

Also, remind us again Craig, what are the basic categories of G&L guitars? We have Rare Birds, Limited Production, Production, Prototypes and one offs. Any others I am missing? And what would a ASAT Special HB fall under as only 35 or so were made?

Tom

Hey y2kc,

Glad hear ya let yer ASAT III out to play! Definitely sweet guitars.

After reading yer post pulled out a ASAT LE, “3 variant”, and let her roll! We still want to see pics.

Tom, when looking up the ASAT HB it is listed as a “Special Build”. Can see how it would be a rarebird but maybe since it was part the HOG builds; Jr, HB, Super, 25th etc., could be how it missed the rarebird moniker. The HB is still on my gotta get list!

+1 on the ASAT III !! Such a cool axe. Bonus for a maple body.

FZTNT, the Leo-era ones have a five-way switch, so you can't get neck + bridge (a classic T-style sound!) or all three. I believe the BBE-era ones in the later '90s had a push-pull pot to provide all seven combinations. So they have some advantage, IMHO. The Leo-era ones seem to be going for 1200 and up, though I'm not sure 1500 has actually been paid (it was recently asked for a beauty 1988 on Reverb, but someone made an offer that seemed to have been accepted). The BBE ones can be had for less than 1K (Guitar Center had a couple in the last year or two that didn't move for a long time). If you want one, keep watching ....

Hello G&Lers,

After reading a recent post about the Asat III I decided to break one out. This guitar was re fretted many years ago by Chicago luthier Joe Campagne. while he was under the hood I also had him flatten the radius a tad.
After cleaning the rosewood and polishing the frets I put a set of 10's on it and now wonder why I have not been playing it this whole time.
It is amazing what a good tech can do to improve how a guitar plays. This guitar is heavier than the sc-3 I have been playing but the playability makes up for it. I now have the sc-3 strung with 11s and tuned a half step down.
I would be a mental case by now if it was not for guitars to play. Life is hard and it is good to have music.

y2kc

Sounds like a winner. Is the ASAT III one of the 1988 era guitars or a newer version. I believe they came with either the large soap bar MFDs or the S-500 type pickups. Which is yours. I see one for sale and wonder If I should try to pick it up. It's a 1988 and they are asking too much but maybe I can talk them down some.

Tom

The ASAT III is a different model from the ASAT S-3, see: List of Regular Production ASAT-style guitars (USA).

y2kc, you know the rule, it does not exist without a photo (or three).

Looking forward to seeing your ASAT III .

Ok, I see. However, is yours one of the 1988 models or later production?

Also, remind us again Craig, what are the basic categories of G&L guitars? We have Rare Birds, Limited Production, Production, Prototypes and one offs. Any others I am missing? And what would a ASAT Special HB fall under as only 35 or so were made?

Tom

Sam nailed it. Here are some lists we have in the G&L Knowledgebase forum in the General G&L Questions sub-forum:

Production List of G&L Instruments (USA)
List of Regular Production ASAT-style guitars (USA)
List of Special Edition & Non-Production ASAT-style guitars
See this note for the ASAT HB Special Build in the List of Special Edition & Non-Production ASAT-style guitars:

Custom Creations Special Build, but never was added to the Custom Creations webpage.

List of G&L Rarebird Instruments (USA)
See this note in the List of G&L Rarebird Instruments (USA):

Custom Creation Special Build and other periodic Special Build instruments are not included because they do not have a set production number and date.

Hope this helps.

Seriously I can not post a photo here to save my life. The Asat III is from the first run . A burst on a maple body with a rosewood board. Black tuners. The maple puts some weight in this guitar but it's not as heavy as some other G&Ls I have.
Craig, I will send photos to you and if you wouldn't mind posting them for me I would appreciate it.

Maple bodied G&L's (imho) require a little tweaking on the amp to reach the tone in my head. After you find the sweat zone, everything is good.

Without a photo, they just don't exist!

y2kc

Seriously I can not post a photo here to save my life. The Asat III is from the first run . A burst on a maple body with a rosewood board. Black tuners. The maple puts some weight in this guitar but it's not as heavy as some other G&Ls I have.
Craig, I will send photos to you and if you wouldn't mind posting them for me I would appreciate it.

Maple bodied G&L's (imho) require a little tweaking on the amp to reach the tone in my head. After you find the sweat zone, everything is good.

Without a photo, they just don't exist!

y2kc

Yes, please do send me your photos and I will post them for you.

Here are three photos of y2kc's ASAT III.






Very nice indeed!

Very nice!

Now we need a rundown of what’s in each of those cases.

Beautiful ! Talk about under the radar. I too would like to see whats in those other cases. That is a really nice burst on that ASAT III

Thanks Craig for posting these pictures.
As I get older it is harder to remember where I got all these G&L's. It is all recorded and kept in a folder but I have no idea
off hand where this Asat III came from. All I know is that Joe Campagne made this a really good playing guitar. Many of the guitars we have collected have stories behind them that I will never forget. Good people and fun trips with the wife & kids.
Only a handful of my guitars have had professional therapy but they seem to play the best. It is amazing what a good tech
can do. I am truly a hack player and need all the help I can get.

Thanks for looking,
y2kc

Nice ASAT III Casey. Looks too like you have a good collection started. I need to sit down some weekend and document all of mine so there is a record of exactly what they are and what they are worth in case, God forbid, something happens to me. Honestly, my wife would have a really hard time figuring them out.

Curious... does your ASAT III, or any of them, have a painted belly cut?

Tom

Sam,Paul & Tom,

Thanks for looking. The other cases have the same type of stuff. I will show more as we get into this long winter.

Tom,
I do not think there are any Asat type guitars here that have a belly cut.

This Asat III is in standard tuning, strung with D'Addario NYXL's 10-52. I received these strings from D'Addario after I complained that I was getting messed up sets of strings. Two sets in a row would have duplicate e strings and then be missing some other string.
I purchased the strings at a local big box guitar store. When I called them up and told them that would be returning the sets they got the manager to tell me that I was trying to pull a fast one on them. Seriously ?

Would I cough out big money for these strings? Would you?

tgif,
y2kc

love the sunburst ASAT III with black hardware, so cool!
are the 'tween positions 2 and 4 strat-esque?

John,

Yes the five way switch is wired like a strat. The 2 and 4 position produce that familiar quack sound.
This is a pleasure to play.