last Thursday I received my new S-500 Deluxe that I ordered early February, so I did not have to wait as long as jnnagel88 (see his post here).
This is my first G&L (and only my second electric. My first is an Ibanez Artist AR30 that I bought new in 1984, but that's another story...) and it took a while until I arrived here. I started out wanting to buy a Strat-type guitar, browsed countless online stores, looked at various brands, but - for one reason or another - didn't like any of them.
In a local music store I saw a couple of G&Ls and was told they were better than Fenders. I started to search for more information online and became more and more interested.
I quickly settled for the S-500, because after all, it's the MFDs that makes G&Ls different.
The local stores did not have any S-500s, so I ordered a S-500 Tribute online to see if I really like it... and I did. However, I wanted the US model and returned the Tribute (yes, in Europe you can order online and return almost everything within 2 to 4 weeks!). I wanted to have a guitar without a pickguard, but did not like the flamed maple top of the S-500 Deluxe. More searching and I found this forum. And saw Darrell Prichard's 2003 S-500 Deluxe that did not have a maple cap!
I started to post questions and I have to say you guys are really helpful! I contacted the Brothers and they checked with G&L if a S-500 Deluxe without the maple cap is still possible. And it was!
For ordering I contacted the German distributor, asked many more questions, quickly received all the answers and finally - in early February - placed the order.
First impression of the guitar: lucky me - I like everything about it. It looks better than expected. Great sound, great setup.
One big surprise: I wanted to have the output jack on the side of the body and not on top like on the S-500. G&Ls answer (according to the distributor) was that this is no longer possible as the CNC machines would have to be reprogrammed, tested, etc. and that would be too expensive for just one instrument. The end of the story: the jack is where I wanted it to be!
Thank you G&L for making such wonderful guitars!
To make a long story short, here are the pics!
Maybe the picture on the website is outdated like the one for the 
