Just got a new Fullerton Comanche.. NGD!

[ritchie]

NGD!,,, UPS delivered a new and immaculate Fullerton Comanche this afternoon. I bought it ( in Europe) on EvilBay, as used, however the case, and the guitar both looked totally unused and brand new. Maybe unsold stock sitting on a shelf for 5 or 6 years... All paperwork is immaculate.

I have a lot of Strats, of which my main guitar is a Strat Plus, and I also have a Music Man Sabre 1. (Leo Fender and his excellent designs have influenced my life, a lot.)
The Comanche is very different to all of my strats, and also to the MM Sabre 1. The neck profile is superb, the fretwork immaculate, (Plek'd?) and the fulcrum trem excellent functionally.

All chrome-work is perfect, and the satin body finish is great. (I have the sunburst with rosewood board, and tortoise scratch-plate)
The tones are interesting, and the dynamic range is excellent and nothing like Lace Sensor Golds, and nothing like the Sabre 1 active pickups (of course)
The only negative is that the trem fouls the selector switch a bit much, but I shall learn to park it before using the 5-way.

This is the first G&L guitar I have ever played or owned, and I am well impressed!
Maybe there's a Comanche 6 out there somewhere, with my name on it.!
They look very interesting as well. Superb work G&L. I cannot fault it.

[SUaPYG]

Congrats on the NGD!

Let us know how long it takes before it becomes your favorite guitar. (Won't be long)

[sam]

Hey ritchie!

Welcome and congratulations on yer new Comanche, sweet guitars.

Post some pics, would love to see it.

Keep all in the loop on impressions and favorite features of the guitar.

[DanDoulogos]

Hey! I bought a Comanche off eBay as well, and it is not only a superb and functional tone factory - it is quite fetching in the looks department. I too have a Strat Plus with the Gold Lace Sensors - I prefer the MFDs in the Comanche - clean, and all signal, no fuss.

The biggest adjustment you'll need to get used to is the fact that your Comanche (or S-500, which is wired similarly) is not wired like your strat.

Strat knob configuration:
- front = volume control for entire circuit (treble cut)
- middle = tone (treble cut) for "neck pickup" or "neck+middle pickups" position (selector at 1 or 2 position)
- back = tone (treble cut) for middle (by itself), bridge (by itself) or middle + bridge

Comanche knob configuration:
- front = volume control for entire circuit (treble cut)
- middle = treble cut to all selected pickups
- back = bass cut to all selected pickups



Here is my advice, and I ask others to jump in if they think otherwise:

For the first little while pretend you don't have a bass knob - just leave it wide open (no bass cutting at all) and treat your Comanche as if it only had a volume and just one tone (i.e. treble cut) knob.

Play the hell out of the guitar, trying all the variations of the selector switch using the volume and the middle (i.e. treble) knobs only. See how the guitar responds to the various tone setting/pickup selection configurations - paying particular attention to configurations that don't use the neck pickup - because this is where you'll see how the middle knob affects the bridge pickup etc. On a strat you'd be using the back button to adjust the bridge pickup. Getting used to this up front will really save you a lot of frustration and time as you learn how to dial in tone settings you are familiar with, in a way that you're not yet familiar with.

Depending on how often you play it, it may take a few weeks (at least) to get really comfortable. Once you are, then start playing with the bass cut. Honestly, I didn't really care for it at first. It seemed an unnecessary "gimmick" to me. But I wasn't very subtle in my usage, and so I didn't really appreciate it at first. But you can really do a lot with just a little.

That's my advice at least. If you're past 40 yrs old, get a wide strap, it's a heavy guitar.




!!ADDENDUM!!

One final bit of advice: The Comanche does a much better job of getting rid of line noise than the Gold Sensors in the strat plus. So much so that it is unsettling at first. Single coils have an open and airy sound precisely because of all the ambient "noise" they pick up. It is a little off-putting at first to not hear that noise/hiss. I am not talking about when you're not playing, I am talking about getting so very little extra noise in your signal that the absence of it makes it sound squelched. It isn't, it just isn't picking up all that stray noise that you're used to have sitting atop the signal itself. This is why it is such a great guitar for recording - great signal, low, low noise. Be ready for it.

[john o]

ritchie, welcome, you've got something special there, enjoy!