G&L Update - Please!

[Lefty]

I currently own 4 G&L guitars. I love them all!! However,

Enough with the “Classic” already! Personally, I would like to see G&L update some models.

7 ½ “ radius necks should be an option, not standard. I think 10-12” radius is much more appropriate these days.

How about a Blues Boy with a “modern” Bridge? Or a Saddle Lock bridge? The Ashtray bridge is outdated.

How about Compound radius necks? A 7 ½" radius would work on the low end if we had 10-12” radius at the 12th fret.

Update the controls with better pots!

Redesign ALL current models so they can be offered without a pick guard installed. Most pickguards detract from the natural beauty of wood! Look at the ASAT Special Deluxe – It’s gorgeous!!

I really want to own more G&L guitars!

Does anyone else have suggestions?

[LiquidSmoke]

ASAT Special Semi-hollow + ASAT Special Deluxe = ASAT Special Deluxe Semi-hollow!

[Darth Invader]

Hi guys,

I hear you. There's a balance between us pushing what we'd like to do and listening to the ideas of dealers. The ASAT Classic platform does quite well so it's natural that dealers will focus more on what can be done there. The ashtray bridge is a key part of the sound and feel, so that's kind of defining element to it. As for me, I'm much more into the Saddle Lock, that is until I'm in the mood for that classic flavor, then it's got to be the ashtray. Are we creatures of habit? I suppose most of us are to some extent.

Your points about the radius are well taken. In fact, the 12" is becoming standard and I expect the website to be updated soon. We're also looking at other possibilities for radii and back shapes.

Main thing is there are things in the works of a more progressive sense, but I always like to hear what you guys think.

Dave

I currently own 4 G&L guitars. I love them all!! However,

Enough with the “Classic” already! Personally, I would like to see G&L update some models.

7 ½ “ radius necks should be an option, not standard. I think 10-12” radius is much more appropriate these days.

How about a Blues Boy with a “modern” Bridge? Or a Saddle Lock bridge? The Ashtray bridge is outdated.

How about Compound radius necks? A 7 ½" radius would work on the low end if we had 10-12” radius at the 12th fret.

Update the controls with better pots!

Redesign ALL current models so they can be offered without a pick guard installed. Most pickguards detract from the natural beauty of wood! Look at the ASAT Special Deluxe – It’s gorgeous!!

I really want to own more G&L guitars!

Does anyone else have suggestions?

[repoman]

Lefty -
I'm with you on the necks and bridges. I've longed for a 10" radius neck on the USA models.
And a saddle-lock bridge on a Bluesboy? As the kids say these days: that would be the bee's knees!

I suppose it would take a little CNC programming but why not offer saddle lock as an option? You can special order some models with a saddle-lock or DF. Why not the option of ashtray or saddle-lock? just sayin'

Jeff

[LiquidSmoke]

What attracted me to G&L in the first place was that I could get a T-style guitar with a 1 3/4" nut. I had been looking at different Fenders, but I found I liked one model's neck contour, but a second's frets and a third's rosewood FB -- I couldn't get it all in one model. I think the options G&L offers on USA models is a huge win, but then we see those options and want even more. For example, I'd like more neck contours options with 1 3/4" nuts, like a fatback or a boatneck.

Also, would getting a neck with no fretboard inlay (just side dots) be possible? (I like the look of a blank ebony FB, like on a classical guitar.) Since it involves *not* doing something, I hope the price attached to it would be small, too.

I should mention that when I tried out a couple models, I really like the jumbo MFD pickups and saddle lock bridge on the ASAT Special. Now if only I could decide on a colour...

[NickHorne]

I couldn't agree more about how good the current options are, but also about these wish-lists that are getting an airing here!
I personally would love an Asat Classic with a saddle-lock, and of course it could be done. The bridge pup will need to live in a large STEEL surround if it's to sound right, so this would just need a different routing plan to accomodate both the saddlelock and the T-type pup in separate holes, and then a flat steel plate on the top to hang the pup in.
I just did something a lot like this for a friend's Gibson L6-s this summer. The guitar had been wearing a pair of Strat pups since the 1970's, but the bridge pup died. It had always been too close to the bridge (angled into the original humbucker hole) and had been pretty shrill. After some discussion, we agreed to try a Tele back pup in it. I enlarged the rout neckwards, to get the pickup into the right position, and then made a thick steel mounting plate for it, on top of a 3mm black perspex spacer (for the Gibson bridge height - not an issue on an Asat, and which also covered the edges of the old humbucker rout). The steel plate was just a steel version made for a USA tele, with the saddle end sawn off, some mounting holes drilled, and then re-plated.
The Strat pup at the neck (actually closer to the bridge than a regular Fender location, due to the L6-S's 24 frets) was retained. We wired the guitar like a Jerry Donahue Tele, and the results were really excellent. I really liked this guitar for the first time since I met it 40 years ago, and I now like it a lot; I was quite sorry to have to hand it back.
Saddle-lock Classic? YES PLEASE! Failing that, how about a cutaway T-bridge, like a Callaham, so we can fingerpick on the treble side without getting caught up in metalwork?
Mustn't forget how valuably ace G&L's are, way above Fenders (and most of the "boutique" makers too), and not mutate them into something less good.

But the saddlelock Classic would surely be so good, and really popular too.

It would just need making sure that it gets a proper steel plate for that back pup, otherwise it'd be a waste of time. Can't be too costly to make, just sound out some good steel guys. Nice thick flat stuff like Callaham uses would be perfect.

And thinking about the neck Strat pup on my friend's L6-S, (and the Donahue Tele connection) how about the option to have an S-500 pup at the neck of a Classic??
I'd like a 1 3/4" nut on mine, please, quartersawn, stainless, ash, lemondrop, white guard (no guard?)...... where else on earth can you get anything like a G&L?

And no, the answer's not weremoth or their ilk; that's like the F only perhaps not as good. Not remotely close.

G&L gets my £.

And I've just realised I could drill the saddle-lock for guiding the B-string on its way to a Hipshot B-bender, and have a great break-angle at the saddle, and great stability and... this is all really too good, I don't want to wake up!!

[darwinohm]

I have thought about this for a couple of days.

As far as necks, I have some compound radius necks and see no advantage in them for me, as a matter of fact, I don't even notice them. The 12" suits me well.

The bridge on the ASAT classic is far superior to the Fender 3 saddle classic. Intonation can be set dead on. I agree the saddle lock would be a good option but then it is no longer an ASAT Classic.

I would like to see a no pickguard as a choice, (not an option) on all transparent models for sure. it could also be a choice on solid colors but the transparent finished woods are awesome. It would require the Seth Lover on the Bluesboy to be mounted to the body rather than the pickguard. An example of choice is on a Surh Pro S-type. You can get either an output jack in the pickguard like a Legacy or a barrel jack on the side of the body. A no pickguard body would save in production costs and materials. I am bewildered why that hasn't already been done. Maybe the cost of installing a loaded pickguard is considered cheaper.

There isn't much that I would change on the G&Ls, they are already above the others in value. --Darwin

[NickHorne]

Darwin, I do agree with you about compound radius; it doesn't do anything for me either. In fact, I'm pretty sure it makes bending in the first few frets worse. My engineering hunch says it should, as well.
As for the Classic bridge, of course, those of us who are bothered can go and fit a Callaham, and you are right about the superiority of the Classic over the Fender.
It just seemed to me that there have been a number of posts here about Saddlelock Classics, and it would surely be a popular and sound idea. I haven't had any reason to measure the string heights at the bridge, from the face of the body, on both a Classic and a saddlelock guitar, so as to be able to make a comparison, so I'm not sure; but something tells me that the saddlelock might be higher, with corresponding differences at the neck pocket. I may be quite wrong here, but perhaps it would in fact be a negative issue which would start messing up the pickup heights etc on a Classic chassis.
And yes, G&L well above the others, and I mean that at UK prices too.

[LiquidSmoke]

I've read guys going on about 4-way switches on guitars with two single coil pickups, so that you have two middle settings: the two pups in parallel and in series. Do the pickups have to be reverse-wound-reverse-polarity to begin with? Anyone done this with an ASAT (Special)?

[Miles Smiles]

Do the pickups have to be reverse-wound-reverse-polarity to begin with?

No, they don't have to, it doesn't matter how they are wound.

[LiquidSmoke]

Do the pickups have to be reverse-wound-reverse-polarity to begin with?

No, they don't have to, it doesn't matter how they are wound.

Great! In that case, has anyone rewired their ASATs with a 4-way switch. Would offering that wiring (as standard?) be a win?

[Craig]

I've read guys going on about 4-way switches on guitars with two single coil pickups, so that you have two middle settings: the two pups in parallel and in series. Do the pickups have to be reverse-wound-reverse-polarity to begin with? Anyone done this with an ASAT (Special)?

See the Gallery: Album: Instrument Manuals and Wiring Schematics for this wiring diagram: Album: SC-2/ASAT 4-Way Switching with revised Tone Control.

[LiquidSmoke]

I've read guys going on about 4-way switches on guitars with two single coil pickups, so that you have two middle settings: the two pups in parallel and in series. Do the pickups have to be reverse-wound-reverse-polarity to begin with? Anyone done this with an ASAT (Special)?

See the Gallery: Album: Instrument Manuals and Wiring Schematics for this wiring diagram: Album: SC-2/ASAT 4-Way Switching with revised Tone Control.

Sweet! I'm a dunce at modding, but that looks like a snap for a guitar tech.