Anyway, enter the S-500. I wanted something that retained some of the aggression and brawn of the ASAT (MFDs) but was somewhat more versatile and offered a different flavour. Never been much of a Strat player, at least not for a long time. Make no mistake, the S-500 is not your grandpa's 50s Strat. I bought this guitar knowing that, so I'm not disappointed that it doesn't sound like a vintage Strat. It is its own animal. Sure, you can approximate Strat tones, particularly if you roll off some of the bass or use positions 2 or 4, but on the whole the guitar is a lot more thick and ballsy sounding - almost a Strat on 'roids, much the same as what the ASAT Special is to a regular Tele.
The neck pickup is a work of art. Beautiful clean and dirty, amazing clarity, just a sweet sweet pickup. Positions 2 and 4 are also superb. Quacky as you want. The middle pickup on its own...the jury's still out on that one. The bridge pickup - clean you can almost get some real spank going on but the pickup has a lot more grind/mids than I was expecting, almost reminding me of a slightly less honky P90. Am I unique in thinking that? Maybe I need to mess with pickup heights a bit, I hear this can really open up the guitar...right now it sounds a *bit* too mid-rangey, the bridge pickup that is. It's more noticeable with overdrive, clean and light drive it sounds pretty awesome. I guess that it doesn't quite have the aggressive high end bite, spank and general openness of that in my ASAT Special. This may be the rig I was using - a Marshall 2203 head, Paul Cochrane Timmy overdrive (generally a very very open sounding overdrive). It sounded less honky through a Roland solid state amp I have at home. Maybe the EL34s added more mids to the guitar, likely. Like to hear it through a BF Fender. But as I've come to expect from G&L, every pickup selection has huge clarity and detail. There is a lot going on there. You have to know what you're doing to get the most out of these guitars, I think.
Overall, I'm very pleased. Thought I might have had some issues going to a 12" board after playing so long on my ASAT's #2 neck, not so. Very comfy. Beautiful - flawless - build quality as per usual from the G&L factory. Previous owner had some wimpy strings on it so I put on some 10-52s which thickened it up considerably, and also gave the strings a little more room to breathe. The little switch does offer some cool tones, obviously with it engaged positions 1 and 5 are the same, right? Quite a cool tone though. The PTB system is a work of genius. Very glad I bought this guitar! I can only recommend it, especially if you need a guitar that will complement your ASAT, or a Tele yet don't necessarily want the vintage Strat vibe and need a little more power. I suspect it may be somewhat picky with amps/pedals? Anyone care to chime in on this? What are you using yours with?
Here's a pic for those of you that might have missed it...best of all I only paid just over $700, mint, shipped, OHSC.
