What great guitar!

[y2kc]

Hello G&Lers,

After reading a recent post about the Asat III I decided to break one out. This guitar was re fretted many years ago by Chicago luthier Joe Campagne. while he was under the hood I also had him flatten the radius a tad.
After cleaning the rosewood and polishing the frets I put a set of 10's on it and now wonder why I have not been playing it this whole time.
It is amazing what a good tech can do to improve how a guitar plays. This guitar is heavier than the sc-3 I have been playing but the playability makes up for it. I now have the sc-3 strung with 11s and tuned a half step down.
I would be a mental case by now if it was not for guitars to play. Life is hard and it is good to have music.

y2kc

[FZTNT]

Hello G&Lers,

After reading a recent post about the Asat III I decided to break one out. This guitar was re fretted many years ago by Chicago luthier Joe Campagne. while he was under the hood I also had him flatten the radius a tad.
After cleaning the rosewood and polishing the frets I put a set of 10's on it and now wonder why I have not been playing it this whole time.
It is amazing what a good tech can do to improve how a guitar plays. This guitar is heavier than the sc-3 I have been playing but the playability makes up for it. I now have the sc-3 strung with 11s and tuned a half step down.
I would be a mental case by now if it was not for guitars to play. Life is hard and it is good to have music.

y2kc

Sounds like a winner. Is the ASAT III one of the 1988 era guitars or a newer version. I believe they came with either the large soap bar MFDs or the S-500 type pickups. Which is yours. I see one for sale and wonder If I should try to pick it up. It's a 1988 and they are asking too much but maybe I can talk them down some.

Tom

[Craig]

Hello G&Lers,

After reading a recent post about the Asat III I decided to break one out. This guitar was re fretted many years ago by Chicago luthier Joe Campagne. while he was under the hood I also had him flatten the radius a tad.
After cleaning the rosewood and polishing the frets I put a set of 10's on it and now wonder why I have not been playing it this whole time.
It is amazing what a good tech can do to improve how a guitar plays. This guitar is heavier than the sc-3 I have been playing but the playability makes up for it. I now have the sc-3 strung with 11s and tuned a half step down.
I would be a mental case by now if it was not for guitars to play. Life is hard and it is good to have music.

y2kc

Sounds like a winner. Is the ASAT III one of the 1988 era guitars or a newer version. I believe they came with either the large soap bar MFDs or the S-500 type pickups. Which is yours. I see one for sale and wonder If I should try to pick it up. It's a 1988 and they are asking too much but maybe I can talk them down some.

Tom

The ASAT III is a different model from the ASAT S-3, see: List of Regular Production ASAT-style guitars (USA).

y2kc, you know the rule, it does not exist without a photo (or three).

Looking forward to seeing your ASAT III .

[y2kc]

Just like Craig said, these are small pickups. I have more than my share of Asat III's. I will try to post a photo after work today.

y2kc

[FZTNT]

Hello G&Lers,

After reading a recent post about the Asat III I decided to break one out. This guitar was re fretted many years ago by Chicago luthier Joe Campagne. while he was under the hood I also had him flatten the radius a tad.
After cleaning the rosewood and polishing the frets I put a set of 10's on it and now wonder why I have not been playing it this whole time.
It is amazing what a good tech can do to improve how a guitar plays. This guitar is heavier than the sc-3 I have been playing but the playability makes up for it. I now have the sc-3 strung with 11s and tuned a half step down.
I would be a mental case by now if it was not for guitars to play. Life is hard and it is good to have music.

y2kc

Sounds like a winner. Is the ASAT III one of the 1988 era guitars or a newer version. I believe they came with either the large soap bar MFDs or the S-500 type pickups. Which is yours. I see one for sale and wonder If I should try to pick it up. It's a 1988 and they are asking too much but maybe I can talk them down some.

Tom

The ASAT III is a different model from the ASAT S-3, see: List of Regular Production ASAT-style guitars (USA).

y2kc, you know the rule, it does not exist without a photo (or three).

Looking forward to seeing your ASAT III .

Ok, I see. However, is yours one of the 1988 models or later production?

Also, remind us again Craig, what are the basic categories of G&L guitars? We have Rare Birds, Limited Production, Production, Prototypes and one offs. Any others I am missing? And what would a ASAT Special HB fall under as only 35 or so were made?

Tom

[sam]

Hey y2kc,

Glad hear ya let yer ASAT III out to play! Definitely sweet guitars.

After reading yer post pulled out a ASAT LE, “3 variant”, and let her roll! We still want to see pics.

Tom, when looking up the ASAT HB it is listed as a “Special Build”. Can see how it would be a rarebird but maybe since it was part the HOG builds; Jr, HB, Super, 25th etc., could be how it missed the rarebird moniker. The HB is still on my gotta get list!

[tomanche]

+1 on the ASAT III !! Such a cool axe. Bonus for a maple body.

FZTNT, the Leo-era ones have a five-way switch, so you can't get neck + bridge (a classic T-style sound!) or all three. I believe the BBE-era ones in the later '90s had a push-pull pot to provide all seven combinations. So they have some advantage, IMHO. The Leo-era ones seem to be going for 1200 and up, though I'm not sure 1500 has actually been paid (it was recently asked for a beauty 1988 on Reverb, but someone made an offer that seemed to have been accepted). The BBE ones can be had for less than 1K (Guitar Center had a couple in the last year or two that didn't move for a long time). If you want one, keep watching ....

[Craig]

Hello G&Lers,

After reading a recent post about the Asat III I decided to break one out. This guitar was re fretted many years ago by Chicago luthier Joe Campagne. while he was under the hood I also had him flatten the radius a tad.
After cleaning the rosewood and polishing the frets I put a set of 10's on it and now wonder why I have not been playing it this whole time.
It is amazing what a good tech can do to improve how a guitar plays. This guitar is heavier than the sc-3 I have been playing but the playability makes up for it. I now have the sc-3 strung with 11s and tuned a half step down.
I would be a mental case by now if it was not for guitars to play. Life is hard and it is good to have music.

y2kc

Sounds like a winner. Is the ASAT III one of the 1988 era guitars or a newer version. I believe they came with either the large soap bar MFDs or the S-500 type pickups. Which is yours. I see one for sale and wonder If I should try to pick it up. It's a 1988 and they are asking too much but maybe I can talk them down some.

Tom

The ASAT III is a different model from the ASAT S-3, see: List of Regular Production ASAT-style guitars (USA).

y2kc, you know the rule, it does not exist without a photo (or three).

Looking forward to seeing your ASAT III .

Ok, I see. However, is yours one of the 1988 models or later production?

Also, remind us again Craig, what are the basic categories of G&L guitars? We have Rare Birds, Limited Production, Production, Prototypes and one offs. Any others I am missing? And what would a ASAT Special HB fall under as only 35 or so were made?

Tom

Sam nailed it. Here are some lists we have in the G&L Knowledgebase forum in the General G&L Questions sub-forum:

Production List of G&L Instruments (USA)
List of Regular Production ASAT-style guitars (USA)
List of Special Edition & Non-Production ASAT-style guitars
See this note for the ASAT HB Special Build in the List of Special Edition & Non-Production ASAT-style guitars:

Custom Creations Special Build, but never was added to the Custom Creations webpage.

List of G&L Rarebird Instruments (USA)
See this note in the List of G&L Rarebird Instruments (USA):

Custom Creation Special Build and other periodic Special Build instruments are not included because they do not have a set production number and date.

Hope this helps.

[y2kc]

Seriously I can not post a photo here to save my life. The Asat III is from the first run . A burst on a maple body with a rosewood board. Black tuners. The maple puts some weight in this guitar but it's not as heavy as some other G&Ls I have.
Craig, I will send photos to you and if you wouldn't mind posting them for me I would appreciate it.

Maple bodied G&L's (imho) require a little tweaking on the amp to reach the tone in my head. After you find the sweat zone, everything is good.

Without a photo, they just don't exist!

y2kc

[Craig]

Seriously I can not post a photo here to save my life. The Asat III is from the first run . A burst on a maple body with a rosewood board. Black tuners. The maple puts some weight in this guitar but it's not as heavy as some other G&Ls I have.
Craig, I will send photos to you and if you wouldn't mind posting them for me I would appreciate it.

Maple bodied G&L's (imho) require a little tweaking on the amp to reach the tone in my head. After you find the sweat zone, everything is good.

Without a photo, they just don't exist!

y2kc

Yes, please do send me your photos and I will post them for you.

[Craig]

Here are three photos of y2kc's ASAT III.






Very nice indeed!

[sam]

Very nice!

Now we need a rundown of what’s in each of those cases.

[glvourot]

Beautiful ! Talk about under the radar. I too would like to see whats in those other cases. That is a really nice burst on that ASAT III

[y2kc]

Thanks Craig for posting these pictures.
As I get older it is harder to remember where I got all these G&L's. It is all recorded and kept in a folder but I have no idea
off hand where this Asat III came from. All I know is that Joe Campagne made this a really good playing guitar. Many of the guitars we have collected have stories behind them that I will never forget. Good people and fun trips with the wife & kids.
Only a handful of my guitars have had professional therapy but they seem to play the best. It is amazing what a good tech
can do. I am truly a hack player and need all the help I can get.

Thanks for looking,
y2kc

[FZTNT]

Nice ASAT III Casey. Looks too like you have a good collection started. I need to sit down some weekend and document all of mine so there is a record of exactly what they are and what they are worth in case, God forbid, something happens to me. Honestly, my wife would have a really hard time figuring them out.

Curious... does your ASAT III, or any of them, have a painted belly cut?

Tom

[y2kc]

Sam,Paul & Tom,

Thanks for looking. The other cases have the same type of stuff. I will show more as we get into this long winter.

Tom,
I do not think there are any Asat type guitars here that have a belly cut.

This Asat III is in standard tuning, strung with D'Addario NYXL's 10-52. I received these strings from D'Addario after I complained that I was getting messed up sets of strings. Two sets in a row would have duplicate e strings and then be missing some other string.
I purchased the strings at a local big box guitar store. When I called them up and told them that would be returning the sets they got the manager to tell me that I was trying to pull a fast one on them. Seriously ?

Would I cough out big money for these strings? Would you?

tgif,
y2kc

[john o]

love the sunburst ASAT III with black hardware, so cool!
are the 'tween positions 2 and 4 strat-esque?

[y2kc]

John,

Yes the five way switch is wired like a strat. The 2 and 4 position produce that familiar quack sound.
This is a pleasure to play.