New Guy with Legacy Special ?

[MJ Slaughter]

So last month I buy a used Legacy Tribute for a project that I didn't want to spend much money on. Turns out I really like the guitar and thought I'd try a USA version. Found a used one for sale but I'm not sure what this is. It's in transit so I haven't had my hands on it yet but it's supposed to be a 2012 Legacy Special. I looked at all the new Legacy's on line but don't see anything like this. It has the rail pickups and the tuners are not locking. Split shaft type. Is this a prototype or a mistake? Thanks

[meowmix]

I think Legacy's are "what you see is what you get". Specs can change at anytime.
Looks nice, hope you enjoy it.

[yowhatsshakin]

Hi MJ,

You most definitely have a Legacy Special (see this description on the G&L site), with 2 G&L Dual Blade and 1 G&L Power Blade humbucking ups. Nice they black chromed the fins of the pups! Looks great with your color scheme and appointments. Locking tuners are an option on most models; your tuners come standard on practically all models.

Congrats with this great guitar!

Hope this helps,

- Jos

[Craig]

Hi MJ,

You most definitely have a Legacy Special (see this description on the G&L site), with 2 G&L Dual Blade and 1 G&L Power Blade humbucking ups. Nice they black chromed the fins of the pups! Looks great with your color scheme and appointments. Locking tuners are an option on most models; your tuners come standard on practically all models.

Congrats with this great guitar!

Hope this helps,

- Jos

Yes, that is a Legacy Special but it probably have the Kent Armstrong substitute pickups. See this post for details: Re: New Dual blade pickups are different than old ones!.

Hope this helps.

[MJ Slaughter]

Thanks for all the help. I've got to say that I'm not that thrilled that it has KA pickups in it and not the G&L. Had I known that I probably wouldn't have bought the guitar though I will try them for a while and see what they're like in this guitar. Anyone know if G&L has a pickup trade up program for this situation? I understand the need to find a new temporary supplier but Kent Armstrong? Isn't that a low end budget pickup similar to GFS?

What makes a Legacy Special any different from a regular Legacy if there isn't a standard? When I bought my USA Strat Deluxe I know what I was getting that made it different from the standard Strat. Unfortunately that Strat's truss rod got stuck and they replaced it under warranty. Two years later and the truss rod is starting to give me problems again. If this Legacy is what I hope for then I suspect the Fender may be going bye bye.

[NickHorne]

Are you minded to see if you just like the guitar mechanically? I mean wood-wise, playing feel, sustain, free of deadspots etc. If you do, then pickup changes are the easy bit. And not expensive when compared with trading whole guitars, especially if you like the fundamentals of what you've got....

[MJ Slaughter]

Are you minded to see if you just like the guitar mechanically? I mean wood-wise, playing feel, sustain, free of deadspots etc. If you do, then pickup changes are the easy bit. And not expensive when compared with trading whole guitars, especially if you like the fundamentals of what you've got....

I will certainly check out the guitar to be sure I can bond with it and it's not a lemon. It's just that I know I like other G&L pickups and would have preferred that G&L pickups were in this guitar. The guitar really isn't used other than who may of played it in the store and with the deal I got, store auction, I can deal with buying new pickups if I have to. I'll report in once I've had time with the guitar.

[Craig]

Thanks for all the help. I've got to say that I'm not that thrilled that it has KA pickups in it and not the G&L. Had I known that I probably wouldn't have bought the guitar though I will try them for a while and see what they're like in this guitar. Anyone know if G&L has a pickup trade up program for this situation? I understand the need to find a new temporary supplier but Kent Armstrong? Isn't that a low end budget pickup similar to GFS?

What makes a Legacy Special any different from a regular Legacy if there isn't a standard? When I bought my USA Strat Deluxe I know what I was getting that made it different from the standard Strat. Unfortunately that Strat's truss rod got stuck and they replaced it under warranty. Two years later and the truss rod is starting to give me problems again. If this Legacy is what I hope for then I suspect the Fender may be going bye bye.

Because you are not the original owner you would not be eligible for a swap, if they were substituted by the G&L factory.
It is not clear that these pickups were installed by the factory or by a previous owner. If you got the Custom Build
Specification Certificate with the guitar, it should tell you which pickups were installed by the factory.

The difference between a Legacy and a Legacy Special is the pickups.

You can purchase the stock Legacy Special pickups from G&L's Online Store. Here's the link: G&L Dual Blade Humbucking pickups.
BTW, these pickups are built for G&L by Gotoh in Japan to G&L specifications.

Hope this helps.

[MJ Slaughter]

If you got the Custom Build
Specification Certificate with the guitar, it should tell you which pickups were installed by the factory.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Craig. The seller sent me the Custom Build Spec Cert and it does say that the pickups are G&L Duel Blade for neck & middle positions, G&L Powerblade for the bridge. S/N is CLF60838.

[MJ Slaughter]

The guitar arrived and I've had it for 3 days and one band rehearsal. At first the pickups were not working correctly. Turned out to be cold solder joints on the middle pickup so a quick re-heat of the solder fixed that. G&L tech support was very helpful and attentive so bonus points for that. The pickups are pretty hot, almost as hot as my PRS Custom 24. Much hotter than my other single coils and a couple humbucker guitars.

So far I really like this guitar. It plays as easy as a hot knife through butter and sounds good as well. I may change the pickups later but I can work with them for now. Thankfully because of the treble bleed I can turn the guitar's volume down without loosing high end which helps reduce the high output when I need to. Now that I have a couple of G&L's I don't see me ever buying another Fender unless it's too good of a deal to pass up but I've got more guitars than I need right now.