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 1992 G&L Climax on ebay ... 
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Post 1992 G&L Climax on ebay ...
The auction ends in 5 hours.

Is the Climax the forerunner of the Invader?


Thu Jul 26, 2012 2:08 pm
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Post Re: 1992 G&L Climax on ebay ...
jwebsmall wrote:

Is the Climax the forerunner of the Invader?


No, the Invader (1985-1991) came first.
The Climax models came out in 1992 thru 1996.
The later version of the Invader, and the rest of the Invader models came out
in 1997 and are still in production.

:ugeek:

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Thu Jul 26, 2012 2:40 pm
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Post Re: 1992 G&L Climax on ebay ...
Is the Climax much different than an Invader then?

Or is it essentially the same design.

Does the Climax has the 1 11/16" nut like the Invader?


Last edited by jwebsmall on Thu Jul 26, 2012 7:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.



Thu Jul 26, 2012 7:12 pm
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Post Re: 1992 G&L Climax on ebay ...
The blue Climax is gone. There is new red Climax up for auction now on ebay.
Wow - it looks great!


Thu Jul 26, 2012 7:14 pm
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Post Re: 1992 G&L Climax on ebay ...
With a little tweeking and replacement of the single coil pup the Climax can be a very nice player, the woods, bridge and the buckers are great quality, here is a post from 08 by Gabe basicaly disecting the Climax model


: Pickup type/characteristics
Either private label (No markings) Seymour Duncan’s wound to Duncan Distortion spec’s or Gotoh Japan made humbuckers. If you like the Duncan distortion…then you’ll like them. The pole spacing isn’t correct so the strings will never line up with the poles…no big deal…but thought I’d point that out.

The single coil is a piece of crap. It is a plastic bobbin, alnico slug-pole machine wound jobbie most probably produced by Gotoh as injection molded bobbins are identical to what I’ve found on other Gotoh single coils of that vintage.

The real problem with the Climax is the control circuit. The volume and tone pots are 1 mega ohm audio taper making humbuckers overly bright and the single coil unlistenable. Swap in a pair of 500K audio taper pots and you’ll hear a dramatic improvement overall. Also, the combined humbucker/single coil sounds are exactly that…the entire humbucker combined in parallel with the single coil…not very useful. You wire it so that the positions #2 & #4 use only one coil of each humbucker so you get a decent faux Strat “tweener” tone.

: Floyd Rose make/quality (Schaller?)

It is made by Gotoh, Japan. It is actually higher quality than the Schaller built Floyd’s. it sports a very nice billet brass sustain block. This is one of the nicest Floyd Rose type bridges ever produced. One problem with all Climax guitars is that the nut is an R-2 which is too narrow for the #3 & #4 they are typically bolted to. You’ll notice a very obvious gap up where the nut attaches to the neck. Kind of strange but easily fixed by swapping in a 1.75” wide Floyd Rose nut (R-6).

: Neck characteristics (fret size, finish type, shape/thickness)
The Climax series was inspired by the Jackson/Charvel instruments built years earlier in So-Cal by Grover Jackson. The nut width is generally 1.75” though I’ve seen a few with factory 1.625” nut widths and the radius is 12”. Basically, either a #1 or #3 G&L neck though the back profile is unique. The profile is almost a cross between a “D” and a “U” though certainly slim and fast. I guess this was G&L’s shot at the wide skinny neck. Personally, I love the profile…very comfortable to my hand. I’ve seen them finished in either Satin or Gloss poly…no rhyme or reason as to which got what.

The coolest feature of the Climax is the sculpted heel region…it really makes for a skinny neck joint region making playing up high much more comfortable. One problem with this is the reality that less wood here translates into less strength in the neck pocket region so you will often find small cracks in the joint. Not a huge deal but don’t be alarmed if you see cracks in the finish (which mean there are cracks beneath the finish in the wood). The neck joint is plenty strong…just prone to cracks.

Body wood varies…with a transparent finish they are generally ash though I’ve seen a few with maple bodies. With a solid finish they are almost always made from alder. The body shape is very obviously influenced by the 1984 neck-through Jackson Soloist or the later “Dinky” bolt-on version.

The neck is affixed with the same excellent 3-bolt, precision-tilt dealie George Fullerton was awarded a patent for back in 1970 when he worked for Ernie-Ball/Earthwood. It is the same attachment method used from 1980 to around 1997 by Music Man and G&L. Tuners are Schaller M-6 in black with a G&L logo on the housing cover. The 5-way switch is a top-quality, 2-pole CRL piece. Knobs are knurled dome jobbies in black.

Case is your basic early BBE era injection molded plastic SKB style. These aren’t the most durable cases in the world but that’s what they originally came with. If the latches have failed…no big deal, these guitars fit into just about every Strat/Superstrat case ever produced.


Fri Jul 27, 2012 8:51 am
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