First Post - NGD 1981 F100 and Question

Hi all! I just got this guitar and was hoping to find out a little bit about it from some experts:
I saw this show up on my Guitar Center used inventory today and had just been thinking that I wanted to get a vintage Leo guitar. Since a 50/60's Fender is out of my price range and I am more into playing than collecting and like funky out of the norm things anyway, I started looking at MusicMan and G&L. I had recently purchased a Taylor 414CE but already have a Larrivee that covers my acoustic needs quite well so I returned the Taylor, bought the F-100 and got a few bills back!
Anyway, here she is!



Refretted at some point with jumbos and has a brass nut. I thought this would bother me but it's very comfortable with no fret out and I cant tell any difference with the nut.

So my question is probably a dumb one but how do I tell if it is active or passive? It sure seems to react like an active guitar and the red switch seems to be a boost but there is no battery hatch on the back like I have seen with Music Mans that had the active circuit. Are the G and L's different? Do I have to open to know for sure? Does the red switch act as an out of phase switch on the passive model?
I have heard that these are very bright but that has not been my experience at all. Actually, I have found it to have the most usable coil splits of any guitar i have played and to be very flexible. Not at all bright actually with the eq's help. I'm not sure if it was modded at all though under the hood.

Hmm. Opened up and it indeed has no battery so passive it is.

Welcome, Ben!

I am more into playing than collecting and like funky out of the norm things anyway

A lot of us here on the board are funky and out of the norm. It's nice to know we're appreciated!

So my question is probably a dumb one but how do I tell if it is active or passive? It sure seems to react like an active guitar and the red switch seems to be a boost but there is no battery hatch on the back like I have seen with Music Mans that had the active circuit. Are the G and L's different?

With the quirkiness and hand-built beauty of old G&Ls, no questions about them are dumb. We discuss a lot of unusual features around here, and for many that is part of the charm of the older G&L instruments.

My F-100 is around the same vintage as yours (Fall 1980). It is passive, so I can't give a firm answer about the F-100 battery access. Access on my two active G&L basses (from '82 and '84) are both through hatches on the backs.

If you go to the Gallery section of this site and check the technical documents section, you can view and download a scanned copy of an original F-100 instruction sheet. It's a lot easier than trying to explain the control layout. The design goal for the F-100, according to George Fullerton, was to let players have one guitar that covered all of the bases for rock, funk, country, etc., at the beginning of the 1980s. He certainly got every bit of versatility that can be squeezed out of two pickups.

Active G&Ls from the early days are not necessarily louder than their passive counterparts. Leo's goal was apparently to let them run at a lower impedance than passive instruments.

I have heard that these are very bright but that has not been my experience at all. Actually, I have found it to have the most usable coil splits of any guitar i have played and to be very flexible. Not at all bright actually with the eq's help. I'm not sure if it was modded at all though under the hood.

I noticed your guitar when it was first put up on their website. I suspected the mahogany body would have given a mellower tone than my ash F-100 has. I'd bet that with the right set of flatwound strings, you could even pull traditional jazz tones out of it.

Ken

By the way, please enter it in the G&L Registry if you haven't already. Out of curiosity, what is the serial number? From the appearance and chrome trim, this looks to be an early example.

Ken

Yes, I looked it up and believe it to be a 1981 #4128
I'll search for that instruction sheet. Good to know it exists!

Hi Ben,

What a fabulous specimen you have there Welcome to the forum and great score!

- Jos

That's a nice low number. Late '80 or early '81 are likely production dates.

The only way to know the date for sure is by carefully removing the neck. If you are so inclined, there are very good instructions for this in the Knowledgebase. One word of caution: the pockets are so tight on a lot of these instruments that a little bit of body finish can lift off with the neck. Slipping a fresh razor blade between the neck and body finish before loosening the neck screws can prevent this. Also, sometimes tightening the micro-tilt is necessary to unseat the neck. They really were built that precisely.

Ken

I know nothing about this vintage F-100 but it sure looks nice!-- Darwin

Very nice condition your F-100 is, congrats!

So my question is probably a dumb one but how do I tell if it is active or passive?

The active ones do have a plate on the backside to cover the battery cavity. My F-100 E has a vibrato unit too, so you can see 2 plates:



On the passive model the second small switch (closer to the belt pin) is a 2-way toggle and switches both pickups out of phase. The E-version doesn't have the out of phase feature, but has a 3-way switch for: passive, active, active+treble boost.

The other small switch is different too, but maybe just depend more on the production year than the active/passive feature. At my passive F-100 this switch is a 2-way with positions humbucker, single-coil+low-frequency-add. The F-100 E has a 3-way switch with: humbucker, single-coil + low, single-coil