Slow to love my S-500, but...

[de Valcourt]

...now you'd have a fight to the death trying to take it from me.

Hello everyone. I should have introduced myself sooner, but I went straight to asking questions. Now I'm trying to play by the rules.

I've been a casual, non-pro Fender Strat (1959 with a '61 neck) lead player in various types of bands all over the world for about 25 years (I'm 42 now and I do not make money as a guitarist). Nonetheless, I know very little about the working "details" of electric guitars beyond what the pickup switch does. In fact, I went for about a 5 or more year stretch without playing electric guitar at all. In the last three years, I've been playing more than I ever did before.

A life-long friend who I have started recording with again in a state-of-the-art studio he built in the last year, collects guitars and bought me this one for a very early Christmas present about three months ago. He says it is a "custom shop" S-500 USA model and I have seen from this site that it is either a "see through" honey or orange finish. Also from info gleaned here along with a response to my registration from Craig, the guitar is probably a 1995 production with the three-bolt neck.

The scale of the fretboard is considerably larger (longer) than my strat and it has jumbo frets which are also new to me along with a solid Maple rather than my other guitar's Rosewood (slap) fretboard. Now that I've been playing it daily and have broken myself from the previous guitar's differences, all I want to do is play the G&L and learn about the unique features available to me with the S-500.

So please bear with my questions, many of which most of you have probably heard before several times, and try to help me understand this new phenomenal musical instrument. Just from the point of view of natural sustain, I am amazed.

Phillip de Valcourt
Lafayette, LA

[sirmyghin]

Welcome Phillip

I am a little confused by your comments on scale, as the strat and the S-500 should both have the same 25.5" scale as far as I know. Albeit G&L does not list the scale on the website. I am a big fan of jumbo frets however.

[de Valcourt]

Thanks for the welcome. I suppose I need to explain everything about the guitar I played exclusively for most of my life, so hang in there with me so I can get all the info on the table and hopefully everything will be clear(er).

First, I am still getting used to the jumbo frets. Sonny Landreth's guitar tech is the one who is setting up my S-500. He is the one who also did a complete re-fret on my old strat and the one that pointed out a few things that I never knew about either guitar. He's out on a short tour with Sonny right now so I can't ask him about specifics about scale.

I was so content with my "old" Fender that I never really bothered with even playing other guitars. I simply trusted the guy who sold it to me in 1985 without really checking anything for myself. [There is a point to all of this, I promise.] I started playing on a recording project seriously again a few years ago and finally admitted to myself that the frets were shot on the Fender rosewood fretboard and bought a US 2007 Strat Deluxe. It felt strange in my hands even though it was supposed to be made to the same specs as the original pre-CBS strats.

When the guitar tech - he only works on vintage guitars and newer classics like G&Ls - agreed to do a complete re-fret and set up, I was just waiting to get my old baby back in playing condition. However, when he took it apart he made a number of discoveries. One, it isn't a strat neck, but a 1959 Jazzmaster neck that someone put an old (or new) sticker on when they attached it to a 1961 strat body (I was up way too late this morning when I wrote the other post). So whatever scale a '59 Jazzmaster neck was is what I got very used to.

Regardless, my old Franken-strat is in better playing condition than ever and I still prefer my G&L (I traded the new Fender and got the better end of the deal by far). I've played a friend's G&L Legacy and the scale is also different (shorter) and does not have the jumbo frets. I don't know much about scale on necks (as I said, I only played one guitar for two decades and never did any sort of technical research until now).

So, all I can say is the following:

-Vintage Jazzmaster necks have a noticeably shorter neck than the S-500 I have with a closer distance between frets;
-Even the Legacy had a slightly smaller distance between frets - and they were not jumbo.

That is all the information I have and it is based on direct experience rather than technical knowledge.

I guess the gist of all of the above is that I am finally enjoying the completely new feel of the longer neck and the maple rather than rosewood fretboard. The range of tones is much wider than the Fender "whatever-it-is" and it could just be me, but the sustain is much better too (even without plugging it in).

I never thought I would change guitars, much less to one that is very different from the one I've been playing on for so long, but I'm hooked.

Phillip

[bassman]

So, all I can say is the following:

-Vintage Jazzmaster necks have a noticeably shorter neck than the S-500 I have with a closer distance between frets;
-Even the Legacy had a slightly smaller distance between frets - and they were not jumbo.

That is all the information I have and it is based on direct experience rather than technical knowledge.

Welcome to the G&LDP, Phillip.
I think that the neck you have on your old Strat may be a re-labeled Fender Jaguar neck since the Jaguar was the only shorter scale, "top of the line" Fender guitar. Of course Mustangs and Duo Sonics were shorter scale, but the Jaguar neck would fit your strat body and not look too awkward.
A Jazzmaster neck would be a perfect match since it is a full 25.5 inch scale length.

Fret wire will make a big difference in how big a neck may feel but it is not indicative of a different scale.
Enjoy your S-500. It will be worth getting used to.

-bassman

[sirmyghin]

So, all I can say is the following:

-Vintage Jazzmaster necks have a noticeably shorter neck than the S-500 I have with a closer distance between frets;
-Even the Legacy had a slightly smaller distance between frets - and they were not jumbo.

That is all the information I have and it is based on direct experience rather than technical knowledge.

Welcome to the G&LDP, Phillip.
I think that the neck you have on your old Strat may be a re-labeled Fender Jaguar neck since the Jaguar was the only shorter scale, "top of the line" Fender guitar. Of course Mustangs and Duo Sonics were shorter scale, but the Jaguar neck would fit your strat body and not look too awkward.
A Jazzmaster neck would be a perfect match since it is a full 25.5 inch scale length.

Fret wire will make a big difference in how big a neck may feel but it is not indicative of a different scale.
Enjoy your S-500. It will be worth getting used to.

-bassman

Did the jaguar neck work as a conversion neck or was the scale wonky as heck after something like that? (frets in the wrong places etc).

[yowhatsshakin]

Hi Phillip,

Welcome to the board! And great story. Did you have travel enough in your saddles to get the intonation right if the replacement neck was not the same scale as a Strat proper?

- Jos

[de Valcourt]

Did you have travel enough in your saddles to get the intonation right if the replacement neck was not the same scale as a Strat proper?

All of those years I played it, I never knew it was not "as advertised" and figured when I played other people's newer strats the differences I didn't like (the thickness of the newer necks, diameter, scale, etc. - before I knew these differences had specific names) was because they were the "evil" CBS strats. I was a snob about that old guitar until my mid-30s.

The thing I like(d) most about the "saddles" on mine are the tiny wheels that would roll when using the tremolo bar. However, what I found more useful and practical was the way the wheels kept the strings aligned perfectly without the slightest chance of any of the problems that often cause string breakage. In fact the only time I ever broke strings was when using ridiculously light ones, but with those EMGs, you didn't need heavier gauge to get sound. I still don't know what I'm going to do about that pickup situation since I've been almost exclusively playing the G&L.

I messed with the saddles and intonation often without a clue as to what I was doing just to get the strings down closer to the fretboard. Remember: I have only been learning about the workings of the instrument in the last year of my playing. In fact, after bouncing around the world and just taking that old Fender with me as a diversion (I was not an internationally gigging musician; just a fellow who got asked to "sit in" with various types of musical groups - though I have to say I had the most fun with the Russians and everything from formal big band/swing groups to (literally) street musicians playing Nirvana and Pearl Jam on the Arbat - a street similar to Bourbon or Beal sts. in Moscow because of the artists and musicians - but that's another long, crazy story... ).

Phillip