A new member and G&L owner

[jenrg]

Hi!

A new member and G&L owner here from northern europe. A few years ago I accidentally acquired a couple of G&L guitars without even knowing at the time what I had run into. I have a G&L Tribute ASAT Classic and a rare but pretty beaten pink SC-3 which was a pile of parts when I got it. I knew nothing about G&L guitars but found the ASAT to be a pretty good instrument and it has served me well as a backup guitar for gigs, my main guitar being one I've built myself. I only recently found this forum and the wealth of information it contains and I'm trying to find out how much of the original parts my SC-3 has and if I can make it playable again.

[bigjim711]

Hey there.

Post some detailed photos if you can and I'm sure there are some pretty knowledgeable folks around here that can help you know what you have or need. You have to host the photos somewhere like imageshack or photobucket or something and just link them here. There are instructions for doing that if you need them.

[sam]

Hi jenrg

Welcome and do post some pics. We love seeing G&L’s in the wild and I’m sure we can identify all parts of yer SC-3.

Remember, you can never have too many ASAT’s!

[jenrg]

Here are a couple of photos of the SC-3.

First the obvious one, it's missing the ogirinal back cover plate. The neck plate in the picture is not original but sourced from Ebay so I do not know the original serial number.


Front side. I think the bridge pickup has been swapped.


This is the worst part. The truss rod has been snapped. I did get a replacement bullet but there is not enough thread left. Does someone know how these are constructed, could one use something like the StewMac truss rod saver toolkit to fix this one? I could always try to take the fretboard off and fix it properly but there's always the risk of the fretboard being damaged and at least I could not save the original paintwork...

[DanDoulogos]

Here are a couple of photos of the SC-3.

Welcome jenrg. (I'm going to pronounce your username as though it rhymes with "energy").

Your images are not showing up, though you likely can see them. I suspect you need an account on the site that hosts them in order to see them. Check out the Tutorial: Posting photos - that'll probably help.

You could try Pickguard Planet for the missing tremolo cover. I think there are othre places too.

The same pickups that are on the S-500 were used on the SC-3. See List of pickups used in G&L guitars. You can order them directly from the G&L online store here.

A snapped truss rod can be replaced, though it typically means melting the glue that holds the fretboard down on the neck with an iron or something similar to get at the truss rod. Not going to sugar coat it - that's a bit more involved than most are willing to attempt as an at hope project - but with diligence and courage it isn't an impossible fix. Most people would just find a replacement neck.

Those old hot pink SC-3s looked slick with the black pickups. I was a teenager in the 80's, but I wasn't into 80's pop. I liked blues influenced rock bands from the late 60's and most of the 70's. So I wasn't progressive enough to even consider buying a neon green or hot pick bodied guitar. To me that was not the instrument to play "when the levee breaks" on.

I hope your able to get that guitar back up to spec. Even though I wouldn't have been caught dead playing a guitar like that in the 80's, I wouldn't hesitate to pick one up today, if I saw one reasonably priced somewhere.

[jenrg]

Your images are not showing up, though you likely can see them. I suspect you need an account on the site that hosts them in order to see them. Check out the Tutorial: Posting photos - that'll probably help.

Yes, I can see the images just fine. They are hosted by myself in Amazon S3 / CloudFront so there shouldn't be any problem. They are however in PNG format and served via https so I could try to use http and JPEG there.

Thanks for the suggestions on where to find parts. When it comes to the fretboard rescue, I am building my own electric guitars and have successfully rescued a neck in the past by removing the fretboard and then replacing the truss rod followed by crafting a new fretboard on top but it's a lot of work which is why I'm wondering whether it could be saved by removing some wood and turning new threads to the rod. Pink SC-3s seem to be quite rare and at least with a quick search I wasn't able to find a replacement neck for sale.

I liked blues influenced rock bands from the late 60's and most of the 70's.

My teenage years were in the 90's but that pretty much describes my music taste too at the time. I must admit I'm not a huge fan of the color and in the end I might end up selling the SC-3. But first I would really like to get it to playable condition and as original as feasible to be able to properly judge the instrument.

Here are a few images of the guitars I've built. I'll post them as links, let me know if you're not able to open them.
The first one is pretty much a copy of a 90's Ibanez RG with a few added details but the rest I've designed myself.
https://resources.pilvi.cc/images/guita ... shed06.jpg
https://resources.pilvi.cc/images/guita ... shed01.jpg
https://resources.pilvi.cc/images/guitar03/final-02.jpg
https://resources.pilvi.cc/images/guita ... _front.jpg

[DanDoulogos]

Here are a few images of the guitars I've built. I'll post them as links, let me know if you're not able to open them.

I wasn't able to open them on my work computer, or see the original images. So I tried on my phone, and I could see them.

In other words, My bad. I am behind a pretty high firewall (government) so the problem is on my side I think.

[Tooslowhand]

I remember a long detailed thread that was posted on this site a few years ago by a fellow who replaced the broken truss rod in his vintage G&L. I think it might have been a Broadcaster. Try searching on the forum to find it.

[jenrg]

It's been a while and I'm finding it difficult to find time among all other projects to try and restore this one. I'm starting to lean towards selling it for parts but I have no idea whether there's a market for G&L parts or what they might be worth. Any ideas? I'm not looking for huge profit, it would just be a waste to let it sit gathering dust.