ASAT customising ideas (not bluesboy)

[AnthroTony]

This is a followup to other questions I've recently been posting. Thanks in advance for your patience and for the amazing insights that are always shared.

Recap: I'm "resetting" myself as a guitarist, getting rid of everything that no longer inspires me, to focus only on the least possible equipment that can motivate me to play every day, and play better every day. With trepidation this will involve letting go a vintage SG Special and an ES-335 amongst others, as well as all my amps.

As soon as I can get out of hospital, I'll be picking up hand-built hand-wired replicas of a 5e7 Bandmaster and a Blackface Vibrolux Reverb to satisfy the amp focus -- I've built a superb attenuator that allows me to attenuate from -3.5db to -31.5db its almost no audible loss of tone, so the higher wattage amps don't bother me. I'm keeping my 2000 Am Std Tele and 2002 G&L Legacy. I'm not a lover of P90s (heresy right) nor, and longer, humbdickers. I wish to add a third electric to balance my gear.

Originally I'd thought of getting a thinline Tele, but I really love the G&L "difference". So I persuaded myself that I'd look for a G&L USA (if possible) hollow-body Special with the jumbo MFD pickups. I don't buy all the arguments that the USA models are so vastly superior to the Tribute ones even if they certainly are better, but it seems there isn't a Tribute equivalent to what I want. Also, I'd like to remain traditional and have an Ash body with a maple neck. A couple of years ago it was easyish to find a great used USA model for the price of a Tribute. I think that people have caught on and this is more challenging now, especially in Europe where I live, where finally USA G&Ls are attracting pretty decent prices from the perspective of a correct value.

So option one would be to wait and find the right guitar. When have guitarists ever been that patient. I used to be a photographer and should have learned that skill, but it lost in the mists of time.

Option two would be to be very conservative on buying partscasters options and build the basis of the guitar and then try to acquire G&L electronics. Not sure how feasible this is.

Option three is where your collective knowledge might help. It's the same as option two, but I've been rather intrigued by the TVJones pickups in Teles -- originally I'd thought to add Filtertrons and make THAT my new guitar -- different enough to a Tele but with some potentially gorgeous additional tones. Then I learned about the TVJones Starwoods. I've only found a very few videos that reveal something potentially very worthwhile, although with a very bright sound. Perhaps by changing my preferred tonewoods to say mahogany with a maple top might warm out the TVJ exuberance and perhaps get closer to the breadth and warmth of the MFDs? Or perhaps this would just yield another great, but totally different, guitar.

I'd love to have a discussion on these options as there doesn't seem to be too much targeted information out there. Not so worried about resale values, and I know that building one's own guitar is always more expensive than initially imagined, especially compared to simply finding a good G&L USA used guitar! Oh, but that makes me think of a sub-option. I could buy the closest Tribute to my needs (which would have non-jumbo MFDs installed, and potentially replace them with jumbos. I'm assuming again that its possible to buy the jumbo pickups and that a little bit of routing work would be necessary to achieve the desired result. Actually this might be the most practicable option. Along this line of thought, I wonder if the routing could be made so that with minimal work, I could install the jumbo MFDs or the TVJones Filtertrons if I felt like an easy change. What do you guys reckon?

Cheers,
Tony

[AnthroTony]

Ok - one silly question answered. The pickups can be bought through the G&L online store although i only found the neck position - $100. But most of the other USA specific hardware from pots to knobs and even pcikguards area also available. So in principle it would be easy enough to buy a Tribute body that meets 90% of the needs and then add the extras - even the Z-coils if something different were desired! Have to admit that I don't yet quite understand the difference between these and the jumbos!

[Tooslowhand]

I recognize that this is none of my business, but if your need is not financial I would encourage you to keep the ES-335. A good 335 has a beautiful tone that in my opinion can't be reproduced by any other guitar. Very versatile as well. I couldn't afford a Gibson, so I purchased a nice used Epiphone Dot and replaced all the electronics. I really enjoy that guitar. Obviously your decision, but just my opinion.

[AnthroTony]

Yeah, my wife told me tonight that i'd better not sell anything i'll regret It's walnut, mint, and yep, plays like a buttery 335 should play like. It probably won't be the first to go up for sale! Oh and I couldn't afford it today either

[WitSok]

Semi-hollow ASAT Specials in the Tribute line do exist. No affiliation... for example:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/G-L-ASAT-Speci ... SwwRRd9drg

Can't really help on whether to wait or do a part-caster. Lately, I have had an itch to do a part-caster but usually back out as it seems like the cost is running me more than buying a new guitar with similar specs.

For me, the Jumbo MFDs are the quintessential G&L tone. I haven't heard anything else quite like them. To me they are full, rich, articulate and precise (actually a humbling character for a hack like me)... But they are the tone that most resonates with me... I never liked a neck pickup until I tried the Jumbo MFDs. I initially started with HBs and would almost exclusively play the bridge position. To me there is something magical with that jumbo MFD neck position.

Cheers, Dan

[WitSok]

Semi-hollow ASAT Specials in the Tribute line do exist. No affiliation... for example:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/G-L-ASAT-Speci ... SwwRRd9drg

Can't really help on whether to wait or do a part-caster. Lately, I have had an itch to do a part-caster but usually back out as it seems like the cost is running me more than buying a new guitar with similar specs.

For me, the Jumbo MFDs are the quintessential G&L tone. I haven't heard anything else quite like them. To me they are full, rich, articulate and precise (actually a humbling character for a hack like me)... But they are the tone that most resonates with me... I never liked a neck pickup until I tried the Jumbo MFDs. I initially started with HBs and would almost exclusively play the bridge position. To me there is something magical with that jumbo MFD neck position.

Cheers, Dan

[AnthroTony]

Hi Dan,

I'm really going to have to listen to those jumbo MFDs for myself one way or another. I also managed to find a used guitar with the Special specs in the UK, so yes, they perhaps exist as part of a previous model line. That certainly simplifies the idea of redoing all the electronics. But thanks for that. Oh, of course. I'd like it in surf green as well, but...

And Ive gone back and forth with a parts build for a few months now, but it really seems that to do it right, with really top-notch components, we very quickly get up into to G&L customers shop prices or even new prices for PRS giuitars for example (I don't like them at all but can respect their build quality). So I don't get it. I've just watched a video comparing the Tele body from Warmoth vs from GFS and I can see that it would be possible to build something of a MIM quality quite easily, but again, probably by spending more than I would on just buying one - certainly a used one! So as I've said, resale isn't really an issue, but at the end of the day, I suppose it is if it costs $2000 to build a fab guitar only t be able to sell it for about half of that if lucky. There are any number of smaller guitar builders if not proper luthiers who can do that for me for considerably less! I know of a few here in France who will build a custom T-style with whatever pickups and hardware I want, from scratch for perhaps $1500 or so. I still might prefer the G&L but nevertheless,

But we guitarists do love to go down these various rabbit holes don't we?

But its comments like yours that really make me want to listen to those jumbo pickups.

[john o]

To me there is something magical with that jumbo MFD neck position.

Cheers, Dan

I'm with you on that, Dan!