Asat S-3

hey fellow G&L fans. as of this past Monday, I am the very happy owner of an Asat S-3. It took some work prying it away from the previous owner. He tends to go through guitars regularly but he held on to this one for the past year. Our agreement was that I could borrow it for a week while he tried out my 25th Anniversary model. After one day and one band rehearsal with it, I was hooked and asked the owner to make up his mind as soon as possible. He said that he couldn't give it up but I enticed him by adding some cash on top of my guitar. The 25th Anniversary model was the guitar that I thought I would never give up but I am down to one electric guitar now and that one was generally too dark sounding for the style of rock that I play.

I am hoping someone here can give me some more info on this guitar. I will take the neck off eventually but not now. To me, it is a very special guitar (and not just because it says that on the neck plate) It sounds so bloody good and as of now, this has little to do with middle pick up. The previous owner said it was a maple body. Not sure how he knows this since he is not the original owner. It sounds like it has a chambered body-it sounds hollowed out in the top of the lower bout. it has a push/pull pot on the volume knob. I am not sure what it does-I haven't tested it out yet to see if the middle pup is being deactivated, it seems to be thinning the sound of the pups a bit. As you can see in the photos, it has the individual routes and the word "revised" inside the guard. the neck appears to be tinted orange but perhaps that it is from age. I added some locking tuners that I had in a box. Because of the way the edges have been chipped up, it appears to have the faux wood binding as described by GGJaguar. Unfortunately, it does not have the rear contour as he described this model.

Besides it's killer sound and awesome looks, the really great thing about this guitar is the FAT neck. I have owned two guitars with these pups in them. a vintage SC-2 and a mid 90s Asat. And I loved the sound of those guitars but the necks were too skinny for my big dumb hands.

Anyway, I am really happy. My wife doesn't understand. None of my friends can so I don't bother. Thankfully, there are you guys.

Well, without seeing the headstock, I would say it looks like an ASAT Trinity Special Edition.
Can you post a picture of the headstock? Does it have the Trinity special logo?

However, all of the original 25 plus one oops (wood binding without tint and probably should have not left the factory) and one replacement of an original which was destroyed have been registered in the G&L Registry.

I did notice some spots near the wood binding on yours. Do they exist on the guitar or just on the photo?


Perhaps Tim Page knows some history on this guitar. Any idea, Tim?

Hope this helps.

Hi Craig. I forgot to mention the headstock. it definitely does not say Trinity on it. it is a typical ASAT headstock, below is the best picture I took of it..Being a fan of G&Ls for a few years now, I am aware of the Trinity model. I have heard some great things about them here, I am very stoked to acquire this guitar-probably as close as I will ever get to playing a Trinity. Since this is not one of them, I am wondering whats up with the "special edition" engraving.

And yes, as I mentioned, those are chips in the wood near the wood binding. that's why I assumed it was the faux binding as described by GGJaguar.

Also forgot to mention, for what it's worth, it had the flat silver tuners with the logo on it. Not the nice brushed silver ones found on the 25th Anniversary and what appear to be on the Trinity and probably other models as well.

Pico, Maybe a trinity body w/ replacement neck due to mishap?

Pico, Maybe a trinity body w/ replacement neck due to mishap?

That makes sense to me. the serial number CLF45XXXX is close to all the registered Trinities. Would a replacement neck have its own, new serial number? when I got it, it had the typical silver tuners with the G&L logo, not the softer grey Sperzel ones that the Trinity has. I would think that the original Sperzels would have made it on the new neck if it was a replacement but who knows.

the previous owner registered it here as an ASAT S-3. he told me that he got in a trade as well.

whatever it is, It's a keeper.

I took the control plate off last night because I heard something rattling around in there. it was little wood fragments. also discovered that it is not the normal routing that I am used to. see below. does this mean it's a hollowbody? sorry for the newbie question. again, it also sounds hollow in the top of the lower bout. thanks, Paul

Looks like it might be a hollow, only way to tall is knocking on it really.

It is possible that it is one of the 25 Trinity's and probably had the neck swapped for the one currently on it.
If it was handled at the factory under a neck warranty issue, I too, would have thought the original tuners
would have been put on the new neck, as well. So, I am guessing that one of the previous owners did the neck swap.
And yes, the neck carries the serial number, so without knowing the original serial number, there is no way
of knowing for sure if this was one of the 25, which is too bad. The registry entries do not indicate which Trinity
serial numbers had creme pickguards, so we cannot narrow down which ones it might be, if it is one of the 25.
There was also a special Certificate of Authenticity which went with each Trinity, and since you did not mention
any COA, it was likely lost or not transferred to the next owner(s).

The body does look to be a Semi-Hollow body. There is an upper and lower chamber and the lower one is visible
underneath the control plate as shown. The body wood also looks to be Maple as well. Which is another indicator
that it is one of the Trinity SE's.

In conclusion, I would say that the body is a Trinity body, with a replaced ASAT neck.

I'm hoping that Tim will see this and possibly add additional information, too.

Hi:

The "Special Edition" neck plates only came from our shop. When we design and produce a limited edition run, we take the plates to a local source who engraves them for us. There was an issue on neck pocket fitment on a few instruments which were returned and rebuilt by G&L. There were also some with incorrect appointments that we resold as ASAT-S3 Semi-Hollows. If I remember (as this was 4 years ago) ~ there were 2 which were rebuilt and returned with out our engraved neck plate.

Somewhere in the stacks of papers in my office I still have the check in logs and information. If you wish to e-mail me the serial number I can verify it ~ however I'm pretty certain due to the neckplate it's a Trinity that was returned for either neck fitment or appointments.

Regards,

Tim

Now that is cool.

hey all. just a final follow up on this sweet guitar. I was in Hawaii on my honeymoon last week but thanks to my fancy phone, I was able to chat with Tim Page via email a bit about this guitar. (I also bought an ukulele to hold me over) He ultimately agreed with Craig and with what I was starting to believe, that is, this it is more than likely a Trinity with a replaced neck. It doesn't have the very cool Trinity logo and may not be a collectible but boy, is it a sweet guitar. I had other guitars hanging on a wall but I hid this one in a the back of a closet while I was in Hawaii, just to be safer in a burglary scenario. my band is trying out some bass players this week and we are moving into a real rehearsal space (instead of a basement where I stood inches away from a crash cymbal) so all is very good. Thanks again Tim.