Is it an S-500 Deluxe or just an S-500 (And Tribute or USA?

Sat Sep 04, 2010 11:52 am

I'm selling this LEFTY G&L that I love :( and I'm trying to nail down the specs a bit for people on ebay. I've attached some pictures. I'm trying to answer the questions in the title of this post. The guitar has no pick guard and natural wood binding like the USA S-500 Deluxe, but has a push/pull system for the pickups like the legacy series S-500. Any help would be appreciated. Also does this apparent "mix of features" hint at some special model/year of production?
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Re: Is it an S-500 Deluxe or just an S-500 (And Tribute or USA?

Sat Sep 04, 2010 12:17 pm

Looks like a S-500 Deluxe to me but highly customized. For instance, your guitar seems to have Seymour Duncan's instead of MFD's which are standard. It might very well be that the push-pull option is one of the customization that you can order nowadays since they are using similar push-pull pots on other models. It is certainly not a Tribute since that would have been indicated on the headstock.

Does it have a maple top or is it merely without pickguard? The last picture is not all too clear on that.

Hope this helps.

- Jos

Re: Is it an S-500 Deluxe or just an S-500 (And Tribute or USA?

Thu Sep 09, 2010 5:29 am

Looks like you def. have a lefty s-500 DELUXE on your hand. Deluxe is not available in tribute, so you have urself a USA.

I would quess it is from the early 2000's as it has the harder edges as oppossed to the rounded ones the deluxe now has.
Funny like 2 months ago I got a deluxe in a similar color (With some additional upgrades of course)
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Re: Is it an S-500 Deluxe or just an S-500 (And Tribute or USA?

Thu Sep 09, 2010 7:19 am

Umphreak wrote:I would quess it is from the early 2000's as it has the harder edges as oppossed to the rounded ones the deluxe now has.


The reason the body has the harder edge is because it has the wood binding option.
The serial number looks to be recent build, within 1 or 2 years ago.

I agree it's a US S-500 Deluxe but the pickups were swapped out after leaving the factory.
The factory used a push/pull pot instead of a mini-toggle for the expander pickup switch.
It also has non-locking tuners instead of the stock locking tuners. No way to tell whether
the factory installed them or they were replaced after leaving the factory.

I take it that current owner is not the original owner, right? Did the guitar come with the
stock MFD pickups?

Once you nail down the specs, why don't you register it in our G&L Registry and then post
your For Sale Ad in our Marketplace.

Hope this helps.