Designing a LegASAT

I am thinking about ordering a new guitar with features that would produce both Legacy/Strat tones and ASAT Classic tones. I know of the ASAT "S" which gets Legacy/Strat tones. However, this way I could also order a neck that I would swap with my current Legacy. I think my current Legacy would look better with a maple fretboard rather than its rosewood. In theory I will be getting the most mileage out of the investment. Not only would I have expanded tone versatility but I would also improve on my current Legacy. Otherwise I would get an ASAT and accept the current scheme of my Legacy. It is a minor aesthetic issue and not something I would sell the guitar over. This is all theory. I have not had a chance to hear this combination of specs and do not know if this is the route to take.

Upgrading from a basic Legacy (so the headstock states "Legacy" not S500 for the neck swap) might end up costing more than working from an S500
S500 MFD pickups in Bridge and Middle with an ASAT Classic MFD in the Neck positions
S500 wiring with a push/pull knob rather than the mini toggle switch
Standard Legacy plastic knobs in black
Black pickguard
Swamp Ash Body
Old School Sunburst
Rock Maple Neck and Fretboard in Standard Satin Finish (to be replaced with my current rosewood fretboard)

Any thoughts?

A Legacy with the large ASAT Special MFDs would be really out there

Yes that would probably require a special route and pickguard at the least.

I had sent an email describing my idea over to a dealer and they just responded saying G&L does not do this type of customization.

I have not spoken directly to anyone.

I would guess that the ASAT pickup is the main issue. I could work with an S500 and would just have to have the labels be incorrect when I swapped necks. The Legacy vs S500 knobs is easy to remedy and the push/pull vs. mini toggle is an available option. It is a glitch but the main aesthetic benefits would be achieved.

As for the ASAT MFD in the neck I would have to do that on my own I guess.

This was originally posted in the old GbL Gallery in the Owner Custom section:

Dean says "My skunkworks creations usually arise out of discussions from the GLDP. TASA was created out of several members asking for the large MFD's in a strat body.
But to make it less like an ASAT, I flipped an ASAT pickguard over on a blank pickguard for the Legacy giving the reverse angle on the bridge pick-up. I did this to lessen the extreme
high end output of the MFD. I also moved it forward an 1/8 of an inch to find a sweet spot. The current pickups and controls are out of my Broadcaster. I did this to see how the original
wound MFD's would sound. So far I gotten positive responses from all who have heard or played it.

This was originally posted in the old GbL Gallery in the Owner Custom section:

Check out Gabe's custom built "Legsat"! Gabe states, "I spent a lot of time optimizing the pickup positions along with the control circuit itself.
I've built all sorts of different pickguards for it as well...finally settling on a "basic-black" 4-ply jobbie for now. I think I'm going to fabricate an
aluminum/exotic wood veneer pickguard sometime in the future. For now...I'm pleased with the vinyl. The control circuit on this particular guitar is quite slick...
The treble pot is a push/pull DPDT switch and the 5-way is an Oak-Grigsby 4-pole unit. I have the circuit wired in such a way to provide 10 unique switching
options including both parallel and serial connections. By the way, no G&L ever produced ever left the factory with the ability to connect the pickups in a serial
fashion. If you like the sound of MFD's alone or connected in parallel...you'll go nuts over the serial connections...they are searing hot, yet tastefully bright and
cutting. While I was at it I tossed the crappy stock ceramic capacitor on the volume pot and replaced it with a more tone-friendly silver-mica unit. I bump up the
value from 200pf to 560pf and bridge the terminals with a 300K resistor which eliminates the high frequency loss you normally get when you back off the volume
knob. While I was at it I removed all ground connections to the potentiometer cans and relocated them to a "star ground"...this all by itself is a great way to reduce
60 cycle hum. Each pickup is individually shielded as is every cavity of the instrument...this is an extremely quiet guitar even at ridiculously high volumes. Anyway,
a couple of months ago I was putting the finishing touches on a fret-dressing using my high speed buffer when the neck got caught in the wheel and launched at
high speed into a steel beam in my basement! Of course, the beam won...the neck lost. Fortunately, a quick call to Dave McLaren and several weeks later I managed
to get a replacement 3-bolt out of the factory for a modest fee. I've always found little use for fingerboard position markers so I had them leave them off... Personally,
I'm quite pleased with the end result. This is the type of instrument that G&L really needs to seriously pursue. The large MFD's are among the finest sounding and most
versatile single coils ever devised. The Z-Coil in between is the perfect choice because the lower output coupled with the oddball stagger makes for some extremely
tasty sounding parallel connections (quack) plus it doesn't interfere with your picking unlike the old ASAT S-3. Many players (like me) prefer the ergonomics of a
Strat-styled body over the Tele/ASAT and you just cannot beat the performance of the Dual Fulcrum and the Sperzel locking tuners. You add in the true 10-way switching
which provides some extra meaty and midrange boosted tones and you have yourself an axe that is so versatile that you can cover Strat, Tele and Gibson tones quite convincingly.

It would probably be much easier and cheaper to go the route in Craigs post above this one. Get a Legacy in whatever colour you want, then modify the pick-guard to fit the S500/ASAT pickups, both of which are easily obtained on ebay.

My 1000th post!

1000 an historical moment!

All of this is intriguing.

I would love to have a guitar shielded and grounded as thoroughly as the second mod.

(Blarg, I wonder if you were thinking of the older S-500 with larger pickups. The current S-500 has pickups that fit inside the Legacy PU holes.)

Because it is the ASAT Classic with S-500 pickups and switching I had in mind I think starting with an S-500 would be the way to go. Upon looking at the screw configuration of the ASAT Classic neck pickup it would require a custom pickguard. I have not compared their sizes. Another advantage of beginning with a basic S-500 is that it would allow me to determine whether I would simply opt for the S-500 as is. I have not heard one. Last night I found a video on YouTube that demoed a guitar with the Series/Parallel option. I did not bookmark it and only remembered it after reading Craig's post. The difference between the two is close yet different enough to be a desirable feature. I will probably have that done as well.

[Craig]

This bugged me all night so I spent the morning looking for that Series/Parallel demo.

For a sampling this is a Fender Baja Tele which comes wired for it:

phpBB [video]

Last edited by Craig on Mon Jan 23, 2023 5:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: fixed video post

For posterity, here's a link to my LegASAT build thread. I borrowed the reverse angled bridge pickup from Dean's build (to fit the pickup in the bathtub rout) and some of the wiring recommendations from Gabe. Mine differs a little from the other builds in that I used the two jumbo MFD pickups with the S-500 PTB (passive treble bass) tone circuit and a 3-way selector switch.