The place to discuss, post photos, video, and audio of the G&L products (US instruments, stomp boxes, etc.) produced after 1991, including the amps & gear we use with them.
I rescued another G&L from an unappreciative and unloving former owner. This time she's an '06 Legacy in vintage white that was advertised on Gumtree, an Aussie version of Craigslist.
I picked her up from an international student who bought her in Kuala Lumpur. She came without a case or any papers, but she's basically unplayed and shows all the indications of being shoved under a bed for the last 6 years..... nicotine stained body and sticky gunk (beer?) in the tremolo cavity. For $600 I couldn't argue. The fretboard also has gunk crusted up around frets and will require a good clean with steel wool. The body cleaned up really well with auto wax.
The set up and fret work etc. is perfect - no work to do there - but the electronics are scratchy and the pickups are noisy. I haven't dared looking under the hood to see what's going on there. I'm expecting more evidence of nicotine and beer. She's a fraction over 3 kgs (about 7 lbs) and is the lightest solid body guitar I own.
I thought my wife would divorce me for bringing another stray home, but she LOVES it. She asked if she could learn to play it and I think she's serious. It's light enough and well balanced enough to be chick friendly. I was intending to put a mint green guard and cream pickup covers on her, but the black and white is growing on me. It's cool in a rock 'n' roll sort of way.
I like the pickups. They're bright and definitely not vintage sounding, but I can get all sorts of beautiful tones out of them by tweaking the PTB tone knobs. In fact these pickups seem better suited to the PTB system than the MFD's in my S-500.
blargfromouterspace wrote:Glad you got it Phil. It looks much better in your photo than in the ad. And what a price!
Yep, the low res flash photo in the ad did the guitar no favours at all. In fact looking at my photo full scale, it's not so great either! White objects fool the meter and AF on my ageing camera. After she's cleaned up I plan to take some better shots.
By the time the wheeling and dealing was finished and I found my car again (another story) I didn't have time to drop around to play your ASAT Jr. Sorry 'bout that!
Philby wrote:By the time the wheeling and dealing was finished and I found my car again (another story) I didn't have time to drop around to play your ASAT Jr. Sorry 'bout that!
No worries, another time Lets hear about the lost car thing!
blargfromouterspace wrote:Lets hear about the lost car thing!
I had a 1hr window of opportunity before the seller had to go to work. But I had to find a student dorm at the top end of the city right near Vic Market. There was no parking to be found anywhere, so I parked about 500m away on a side street off a side street off a side street in Carlton. I'm not familiar with Carlton. At all. It was raining cats and dogs, and in my haste to make the appointment I forgot to take visual bearings. i.e. the name of the street I was parked in.
Anyways, after the deal I get half way back to where I think I'm parked and realise none of the surroundings look familiar. Thereafter began a forensic trawling of the side streets around Carlton until I finally found my car 40min later, with an expired parking meter, but no ticket thankfully.
The fretboard also has gunk crusted up around frets and will require a good clean with steel wool.
Before you take any steel wool to it (and have to hassle with protecting your pickups from stray iron bits) try just using a rag and some naptha (lighter fluid) to clean the gunk buildup on the fret board. It won't harm your board and it will probably do a good job cleaning it--after which you can use a bit of lemon oil (or your favorite fretboard conditioner).
Philby wrote:...none of the surroundings look familiar. Thereafter began a forensic trawling of the side streets around Carlton until I finally found my car 40min later, with an expired parking meter, but no ticket thankfully.
Carlton is a maze of one-way streets and dead ends. I feel the same around South Melbourne - all the streets and intersections are identical
Philby wrote:I rescued another G&L from an unappreciative and unloving former owner. This time she's an '06 Legacy in vintage white that was advertised on Gumtree, an Aussie version of Craigslist.
I picked her up from an international student who bought her in Kuala Lumpur. She came without a case or any papers, but she's basically unplayed and shows all the indications of being shoved under a bed for the last 6 years..... nicotine stained body and sticky gunk (beer?) in the tremolo cavity. For $600 I couldn't argue. The fretboard also has gunk crusted up around frets and will require a good clean with steel wool. The body cleaned up really well with auto wax.
The set up and fret work etc. is perfect - no work to do there - but the electronics are scratchy and the pickups are noisy. I haven't dared looking under the hood to see what's going on there. I'm expecting more evidence of nicotine and beer. She's a fraction over 3 kgs (about 7 lbs) and is the lightest solid body guitar I own.
I thought my wife would divorce me for bringing another stray home, but she LOVES it. She asked if she could learn to play it and I think she's serious. It's light enough and well balanced enough to be chick friendly. I was intending to put a mint green guard and cream pickup covers on her, but the black and white is growing on me. It's cool in a rock 'n' roll sort of way.
I like the pickups. They're bright and definitely not vintage sounding, but I can get all sorts of beautiful tones out of them by tweaking the PTB tone knobs. In fact these pickups seem better suited to the PTB system than the MFD's in my S-500.
great find. looks very nice. i am sorry to hear that the plan didn't work. maybe next time, eventually you are gonna get lucky.
suave eddie wrote:Before you take any steel wool to it (and have to hassle with protecting your pickups from stray iron bits) try just using a rag and some naptha (lighter fluid) to clean the gunk buildup on the fret board. It won't harm your board and it will probably do a good job cleaning it--after which you can use a bit of lemon oil (or your favorite fretboard conditioner).
Thanks for the advice Eddie. I'll give this a try and if I don't have any luck there's always the 0000 steel wool as a fall back.
Wow cool pick up and a great price for a USA model in Aus. I've never even seen any G&L's on Gumtree in WA let alone a bargain.
Philby wrote:I was intending to put a mint green guard and cream pickup covers on her, but the black and white is growing on me. It's cool in a rock 'n' roll sort of way.
No, No No. Leave it alone, the black on white looks awesome.
blargfromouterspace wrote:Carlton is a maze of one-way streets and dead ends. I feel the same around South Melbourne
Sounds like your old stamping ground ... Fremantle. I always get lost there. [Cue Twilight Zone music] I've heard folks tell of one way streets that cocerge on a single point and there's no way out!
cheers, Robbie
Aussie wrote:No, No No. Leave it alone, the black on white looks awesome.
Yup, you're right Robbie. The more I look at it, the more I like it. It's very 1980. Marty Willson-Piper from The Church plays a strat with the same colour scheme on the video for Unguarded Moment.
Aussie wrote:
blargfromouterspace wrote:Carlton is a maze of one-way streets and dead ends. I feel the same around South Melbourne
Sounds like your old stamping ground ... Fremantle. I always get lost there. [Cue Twilight Zone music] I've heard folks tell of one way streets that cocerge on a single point and there's no way out!
cheers, Robbie
I believe that single point is called the Fremantle Market. I made the mistake of exiting from a different door to the one I went in, and I had absolutely no idea where I was. On the up side, at least if you get lost in Freo there are some excellent pubs to rehydrate in!
blargfromouterspace wrote:Carlton is a maze of one-way streets and dead ends. I feel the same around South Melbourne
Sounds like your old stamping ground ... Fremantle. I always get lost there. [Cue Twilight Zone music] I've heard folks tell of one way streets that cocerge on a single point and there's no way out!
cheers, Robbie
I believe that single point is called the Fremantle Market. I made the mistake of exiting from a different door to the one I went in, and I had absolutely no idea where I was. On the up side, at least if you get lost in Freo there are some excellent pubs to rehydrate in!
Yeah, Freo must have used up Western Australia's entire quota of one way streets. Having grown up there it didn't even occur to me! There's an excellent pub inside the markets too, incase you never get out
PS: That finish will become even more handsome with age, and I like the guitar just as she is!
Hi Ed,
Yep, I've definitely taken a look under the hood. It wasn't beer and nicotine as I was expecting, but more like cooking oil in there. Anyway, it cleaned off OK and there's no scratchiness in the pots. I shielded it with Al-foil and now it's as quiet as can be. I took these shots before I put the Al-foil in.
The body is clearly from 2005 but the neck doesn't have a date on it. It isn't a bi-cut neck though and it has the newer style truss rod which people more knowledgeable than I tell me date it to around 2007. So I don't know how the neck and body consummated their union as it were. Maybe the body sat around the factory for a coupla years waiting to pick up. The frets and setup are also perfect so I'm suspecting a PLEK job somewhere along the line. I don't know why 'shiny' is written on the neck, but it has a high gloss finish. I also don't know what the extra drilled holes in the neck pocket and neck are for. I find these G&L markings cryptic to say the least!
How's Old Yella treating you these days? These newer Legacy's are excellent guitars. I'm definitely a fan.
Philby, I have a Legacy within a couple hundred numbers of the serial number on yours. I estimated that is was a 2004/2005. I haven't removed the neck. What do you mean by newer style truss rod? Are you referring to the hex size of the adjustment tool, 1/8 in or the 4 mm? -- Darwin
darwinohm wrote:Philby, I have a Legacy within a couple hundred numbers of the serial number on yours. I estimated that is was a 2004/2005. I haven't removed the neck. What do you mean by newer style truss rod? Are you referring to the hex size of the adjustment tool, 1/8 in or the 4 mm? -- Darwin
Hi Darwin. The truss rod on my '06 Legacy seems to be flatter at the end and noticeably countersunk into the neck compared with my '95 S-500, which has a bullet nosed truss rod which protrudes out of the neck by about a 1/4 inch. By sight at least, the truss rods and overall geometry seem to be different, but I don't have other G&L necks to compare them with.
What do you think was going on with the "cooking oil?" Quite a history there. She sure cleans up nice! Enjoy, I just put my new Yellow Fever Legacy down for the night (quite a storm going on here, actually). I am really falling hard for that guitar. Enjoy! - ed
Philby, the bullet truss rod will look different. Since then, the truss rods have looked pretty much the same other than a change made sometime shortly before or in 2010.
Here is a picture of my Legacy that is close to yours in serial number.
Here is a picture of a 2010 Legacy.
You will notice that the 2010 has the hole drilled out before the fingerboard is applied. The other difference is the size of the hex wrench. The 2004/5 is a 1/8 hex and the 2010 and later are 4MM.
Dave and Craig have talked about this before. The new ones, my most recent built in August and October of this year have the hole drilled like our 2004/5 holes. That is why I asked the question as there have been slight differences in how they look.-- Darwin
darwinohm wrote:Philby, the bullet truss rod will look different. Since then, the truss rods have looked pretty much the same other than a change made sometime shortly before or in 2010.
You will notice that the 2010 has the hole drilled out before the fingerboard is applied. The other difference is the size of the hex wrench. The 2004/5 is a 1/8 hex and the 2010 and later are 4MM.
Dave and Craig have talked about this before. The new ones, my most recent built in August and October of this year have the hole drilled like our 2004/5 holes. That is why I asked the question as there have been slight differences in how they look.-- Darwin
Thanks for the explanation Darwin. My truss rod looks just like the top photo of your 2004/05, so I guess the neck is 'period' with the rest of the guitar. Good to know! Cheers, Phil.
zapcosongs wrote:Hey Darwin. Just noticed the nut on your '10. Interesting. What is it and who did it?
And Philby, what do you think the oily substance was. I just can't imagine.... but man, she cleans up real nice!
- ed
I didn't taste it Ed, but I'm pretty sure it was cooking oil condensate - like the stuff you get around the extraction hood of your stove, or on your windows and other cool surfaces if you don't have a hood. The guitar came from Malaysia where (a) they do a lot of cooking in oil and (b) they may not have range hoods. I reckon the guitar lived in a room near the kitchen and was liberally coated in oil over time. Or the previous owner liked to practice while making noodle stir fry or beef rendang.
The exterior deposits were easily cleaned off for sale leaving the stuff on the inside for me.
Yes, it is an Earvana. It was installed by Dave Russan, a well know twin cities luthier, for the previous owner. This guitar was purchased by a guy who immediately had the Kinman Blues pickups and the nut installed, and had the frets dressed on a new guitar. He then decided that he was not a Strat type guy and was trying to recover his money. I traded another brand guitar for it. Musicman also uses this type of compensation on their guitars and basses.-- Darwin
ravelleman wrote:That's a great looking Legacy. The colour scheme looks a little Sid Vicious, albeit in 6-string form!
Thanks Ravelleman, though I'd just about swap it for the daphne blue / maple neck S-type in your avatar........ is it a Legacy or S-500 per chance?
The Legacy has a lean, wiry tone to match the Sid Vicious looks. Perfect for rock, but probably not round enough for blues or jazz. I'm still really digging it!
ravelleman wrote:That's a great looking Legacy. The colour scheme looks a little Sid Vicious, albeit in 6-string form!
Thanks Ravelleman, though I'd just about swap it for the daphne blue / maple neck S-type in your avatar........ is it a Legacy or S-500 per chance?
The Legacy has a lean, wiry tone to match the Sid Vicious looks. Perfect for rock, but probably not round enough for blues or jazz. I'm still really digging it!
Thanks. It's a Legacy. I ended it buying it from stock in a shop in States. I was really interested in the S-500 as well but nowhere seemed to have them at the time. One for the future maybe.
Lets hear about the lost car thing!
Yeah, my wife is pretty slow at taking hints. Maybe if I turn up with a $5K, 10lb black Les Paul covered in skulls that will do the trick?
