2012 Legacy review by long time strat owner

[cigblues9]

Legacy...even though it is heavier, its a superior guitar in all aspects. I compared it to a Fender Robert Cray which is the best strat I've ever owned. I can do so much more on the Legacy. Cannot put it down. Tone to the bone.
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[blargfromouterspace]

Nice and succinct. Weight isn't necessarily a bad thing either. I own a couple of heavy ASATs and one featherweight and prefer the heavy ones.

[jonc]

I've owned my share of both vintage and not Fender Strats. A good number were pretty good, some were dogs, a couple were really great. The best current production Strat imho is the Eric Johnson, and the best Custom Shop is the Rory Gallagher. The nicest new Strat I had was a Masterbuild 1954 when they did the commemorative run in 2004. that was one stellar guitar. but it should be for close to 5k. how many do i have left? zippo. for the most part i would take any G&L over any Fender any day.

[darwinohm]

My heaviest G&L is an Ash Blonde Legacy. It is also a great playing one. I have owned a lot of Fenders and have unloaded a bunch of them.-- Darwin

[ravelleman]

I also owned a Robert Cray Strat in the past and, while it was an excellent instrument, I definitely prefer my Legacy. They are quite different on the S-style scale though so ideally I would have liked to have kept them both. Unfortunately I had to sell the Cray Strat to fund the Legacy. I suppose that it was ultimately worth it but it would have been cool to keep them both.

One of the main differences, besides the weight, is the pickups. The Cray Strat was a lot 'quackier' than the Legacy - one might expect this given Robert Cray's love of the in-between positions - but I found the bridge pickup a little too shrill when used alone. The PTB controls on the Legacy make the bridge tones a lot easier to managed but, regardless, the bridge pickup is a lot more mellow anyway.

[cigblues9]

The Cray is special, but I really use position 2 and 4 like you said the quack is great. I like the quack on the Legacy too. Its why we have Gibson, Fenders, and G&Ls.

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[NickHorne]

I would also take a G&L in preference to a Fender, generally.
One the most important virtues of G&L's, IMO, is the slight extra neck width at the heel; makes a world of difference.
And the neck options, pups and overall quality are just great.