Greetings from Tx! I hope to be a G&L owner soon..have ?'s

Hello everyone, I'm John. I'm from Texas and have long been a fan of these guitars. A friend is trading me his Jeff Beck strat for a Yamaha semi-hollow I had. After A/B'ing the Beck strat to a standard G&L Legacy, the Legacy won hands down. So, I'm gonna sell the Beck and get one. But I kind of want a Legacy Special for the pickups and locking tuners. Does anyone have one with a rosewood neck they'd care to sell me? I'll post that in the questions part of the forum, but wanted to mention my desire to buy here too.

I've been playing for almost 20 yrs and have never owned a strat before. I play Ernie Ball, Carvin, and Yamaha. I don't know why I've never owned a strat. I've always loved them. But now I'm going G&L...Any tips or advice for a newcomer on owning a G&L? Things I need to know? I saw someone mentioning taking the neck off and registering the # underneath. Is this necessary? What's the benefit in doing that?

J

Not sure but i think I recognize your handle from my time on the Carvin forums. I don't have any now but I still like 'em.
I've owned a ton of strats including Custom shop. I'm down to one just 'cause i like to keep one Fender around. It's a nice one
but my Legacy gets played a lot more. Not sure I've got tips for you since the Legacy is the only G & L I've ever had the chance to play.
There are some experts here though that will steer you straight.
I will say....as far as tuners go the non-locking Sperzels on my Legacy are really great. I would not let that be a deal breaker.
Welcome...there's good folks here!

+1 on the tuners - I can push my whammy down to the deck, multiple times, and still be in tune. And, you can get a set of the correct Sperzels, usually for $60 or less if you just want the convenience.

It's tough to find a bunch of G&Ls to test drive - I crossed my fingers & went the eBay route and got an amazing 98 USA Legacy for $600. Felt like a thief, but that's an average eBay price.

If you hunt the online dealers, you may be able to find one that will give you a test period - expect to pay return shipping if you don't keep it, etc.

After 20+ years playing strats exclusively, now my only strat is the G&L - really wonderful guitar, the tone is complex and filled with character & personality, and the build quality & playability is simply top-nothc, custom shop, boutique level. They are an amazing deal in a lifelong keeper guitar.

And as a Jeff beck fan, I'm just nuts about Leo's final 2-point trem design. Really does the job as advertised.

Well I bought a G&L. Found one from a guy on Craig's List. It's a Legacy Special. I'm not sure of the year, but it has a green and black swirl finish. I'll try and attach a pic here if it lets me. I've played Legacys before and like I said, the Legacy I compared to the Beck strat won. That was also just a Legacy, not a special. So I'm SUPER excited about owning this. I'm not sure if the body wood is alder or ash. I don't really care at this point. I posted another thread asking about the differences, etc. I'm sure it will be fine whatever it is.

Okay..so how do I attach an image here? I have no clue how to do it.

As far as I know - you can upload an image that's a max of 200px x 200px as your profile image (IE, that cherry burst G&L to your left...).

Or you can upload an image to a web server, flickr, etc, and use the "Img" button above. You paste the web address of the image between the two IMG tags. (Roll over the button for an example of how the code looks). The web address of your image might be something like "http://flickr.com/12345678.jpg"

Ahhh ok...thanks for the help there. I'm at work and sites like flicker and what not are blocked. I'll have to do it from home if I can't upload it as my profile pic. Let's see if that works.

I'd like to know if anyone out there knows what body wood the swirl finishes have. This is the slickest finish I've seen on a G&L. It has to be a customer order job, because I don't see the finish as an option on their website.

J

I totally dig the swirl finishes. It's obvious why many call it the "bowling ball" finish. It is so cool. However, most of the ones you see have some sort of damage to the finish. They can't take a punch very well, so avoid banging it against anything hard if you want to keep it nice. If I were to buy a Legacy, it would undoubtedly be a swirler. Congratulations on your "bowling score".
If you're comfortable removing the neck, just wait until you're doing a string change. While it's certainly possible to remove the neck with the strings just loosened a lot, I don't advise it. I like to have a little more freedom to maneuver the neck around to avoid stressing the thin points at the neck pocket. Being that the swirlies seem to have a finish that's a bit more brittle, you want to be extra careful when you remove the neck. Of course, the first thing to do is to check to see if it's already registered, and the previous owner removed the neck to get dates at that time. The few times the neck is removed, the better. Mishaps are related to odds.

Trust me, I will not be doing any neck removing myself. I have a friend who is a great tech and does all my work. I'll have him do it. I hope it's not some scam deal. The seller seems like a real stand up guy, so I'm sure it's all good. As for being registered...is there a benefit from G&L for registering your guitar? The seller is including his certificate of authenticity...will there be info on there I can use without removing the neck?

Thank you for letting me know about the fragility of the swirl finish. I'm sure it's gonna have some surface scratches, etc. But I will be sure to be extra careful with it at home. If I get it out on the gig and damage happens (which it always does), I call it fate. I felt weird buying a guitar which such a nice finish because I tend to use my guitars a lot. I'm a careful owner...but I don't believe they are art or eye candy to be hung on a wall. They're tools and mine are gigged, recorded, practiced on, you name it. So there's a lot of wear. The G&L Legacy I tested against the Jeff Beck strat (and beat it) has 12 yrs of gigs on it...spilled beer, smoke (pickguard turned yellow), and sweat/grim. It's still going strong!

You can still register the guitar in the registry without removing the neck. Just use the description of the guitar and the serial number. You don't have to have the neck and body date for registration. The set up will probably change somewhat if you pull the neck. The main advantage of registering your guitar is historical documentation.


[quote="jredden2012"]Trust me, I will not be doing any neck removing myself. I have a friend who is a great tech and does all my work. I'll have him do it. I hope it's not some scam deal. The seller seems like a real stand up guy, so I'm sure it's all good. As for being registered...is there a benefit from G&L for registering your guitar? The seller is including his certificate of authenticity...will there be info on there I can use without removing the neck?

Cool....Thanks for the input on that. I'll make sure I register it then. This baby definitely needs to go down in history. I hope she looks as good in person as she does in her picture.

I spied a gold sparkle Legacy I want now. hahahaha. These things are addicting!

The G&L Legacy I tested against the Jeff Beck strat (and beat it) has 12 yrs of gigs on it...spilled beer, smoke (pickguard turned yellow), and sweat/grim. It's still going strong!

In light of your background, and record of "babying" your guitars, if it's minty, you might want to just chip off a piece of the finish as soon as you get it. That way, you won't be distracted on stage when you drop a beer bottle on it and see some finish fly.

hahahaha..>I had the keyboardist I'm working with tell me the exact same thing tonight. I don't have the guitar just yet. It was mailed today. But I'll have it Wed. He said he wanted to play it first before I drop it, or ding it, or spill something on it at a gig. hahahaha. Honestly, I am going to do my best to watch out with this one...at least for a few months while we're getting to know each other.

I don't even have my 1st G&L yet, and I already want my 2nd. I saw a Gold sparkle finish Legacy that has my name ALL over it.