Tribute S-500 models discontinued?

Hi All,

I put in an order for a Tribute S-500 Natural - Rosewood fingerboard back in early May. At that time the dealer gave a ship date of June 1st. I checked out a number of other online dealers and they all had the same date or close to it. Since then, June 1st has come and gone and the ship date has been move 3 times; June 11th, June 20th and now the 22nd. I checked out some online dealers again today and I see that it has this particular model now listed as discontinued.

Can anyone shed any light on what is going on with the S-500 Tributes?

One other question while I'm at it. I had put in an order for a replacement tremolo bar on the G&L website back in April and I don't think anyone has even looked at it. I contacted the BBE contact listed at the bottom of the page via email and never received a reply. Is that standard operating procedure for the customer service?

Thanks,

Phil

Hi All,

I put in an order for a Tribute S-500 Natural - Rosewood fingerboard back in early May. At that time the dealer gave a ship date of June 1st. I checked out a number of other online dealers and they all had the same date or close to it. Since then, June 1st has come and gone and the ship date has been move 3 times; June 11th, June 20th and now the 22nd. I checked out some online dealers again today and I see that it has this particular model now listed as discontinued.

Can anyone shed any light on what is going on with the S-500 Tributes?

One other question while I'm at it. I had put in an order for a replacement tremolo bar on the G&L website back in April and I don't think anyone has even looked at it. I contacted the BBE contact listed at the bottom of the page via email and never received a reply. Is that standard operating procedure for the customer service?

Thanks,

Phil

Hello Phil,

I have brought your post to Dave McLaren's attention. The Tribute S-500 model was not discontinued and was
recently (June 1, 2012) updated. See the G&L website for the latest specification on all the current Tribute Series models.

Hope this helps.

Hi Phil,

That particular combination on the Tribute Series S-500 has been discontinued, though at the time you ordered that one your dealer wouldn't have known that we were making big changes to the Tribute Series line.

The S-500 is still in the lineup, but now it's got a mahogany body and choice of Tobacco Sunburst or Vintage White. These are just starting to ship and the first dealers to get a crack at them are the folks who had other S-500s on order that will not be filled. Frankly, this is the messy part of a big transition and I apologize for that. Here's the page showing the new T/S S-500s:

http://www.glguitars.com/instruments/TributeSeries/guitars/S500_new/index.asp

I see a couple of our dealers (Amp Shop and Portland Percussion) have new T/S S-500s in Natural Gloss/Rosewood listed on eBay so one can be had. If you're intrigued by the new ones, definitely contact your local dealer to see when they expect to have some. My guess is they'll start showing up in decent numbers in about three weeks.

About that vibrato arm, if you'll email me at dmclaren at bbesound dot com I'll see what's going on. Please include your full name and email address you used for the online store purchase.

Best to you,

Dave

Craig and Dave,

Thank you both for the response, much appreciated.

Dave, can you confirm whether there will be a change in price and if there will be any type of case? I actually made the purchase taking advantage of a holiday discount so I may have to stick with the original vendor although I suspect the others you mentioned would probably match it.

However, I am intrigued by the new models! What would be the tonal difference? I tried an S-500 and it seemed to have a nice tone with the Ash body although I was playing at low volumes so couldn't really give it a good workout. The only other mahogany body I've played is a Les Paul style but with a maple cap.
Vintage White or Tobacco Sunburst....decisions, decisions..

Thanks again,

Phil

Last edited by pvan on Wed Jun 13, 2012 4:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The S-500 is still in the lineup, but now it's got a mahogany body and choice of Tobacco Sunburst or Vintage White.

Wow, that's really cool and makes the Tribute S-500 an animal of it's own.

Hi, have you recieved the S-500 with mahogany body wood yet? I am looking for one myself, what did you think of it?