New to G&L

[Dick Fanguy]

Looking for information on a G&L Classic that I just picked up. I know very little about these guitars other than I love the one I have. My question is did you have to special order a birdseye maple neck or was that a standard offer. Mine has a beautiful neck and looks and plays great. Thanks for any information you can give The serial numbers starts with CLF.

[KenC]

Welcome to the G&LDP. Is your guitar an ASAT Classic, or one of the less common ASAT models with "Classic" names (Classic Custom, Classic S, Classic Blues Boy, Special Collection Classic, etc...)?

What you can tell from the "CLF" serial number is that it was built after 1997. The digits can get you into a rough ballpark of the production year, but the only way to know for sure is to check the dates in the neck pocket. You could also try looking your serial number up in the G&L Registry (see tabs at the top of the page) to see if a previous owner entered it. That could include the neck and body dates if he knew them. If it's not already registered, please consider doing so.

A birdseye maple neck would have been an option through most of the post-1997 production. If you have one of the less common "Classic" models, it could have been standard for that build. Forum rules prohibit listing prices for new G&Ls, but it's safe to say the upcharge for a BEM neck would have been around a couple of hundred dollars.

Greg Gagliano's website has photos and descriptions of his extensive G&L collection, and is a great guide to the features and evolution of many G&L models over the years. I know there is some ASAT Classic content. The URL is http://www.ggjaguar.com/gnl.htm.

I hope this helps!

Ken

[Dick Fanguy]

Thanks for the reply. All I know about this guitar is that I love it. The sales man at the store could tell me little about it other than the fact that it was made in the USA and he thought it was a better buy than the
American Standard Strat that I was looking at. I know it felt better and I would like to know as much as possible about it. Guitar is just a hobby for me but I enjoy it even though I'm not too good at it. Just another thing on my bucket list. I have 3 Strats, but this guitar feel better to me. The tone I get out of it is great out of a Deluxe Rev. I will just hang out and try to learn all I can from this forum. Thanks again.

[KenC]

Guitar is just a hobby for me but I enjoy it even though I'm not too good at it.

Same here. Bass is my main instrument, but a '98 ASAT Classic opened the floodgates for me. I'm at 21 G&Ls at the moment, but the ASAT Classic is my go-to guitar. The quality of materials and craftsmanship is far beyond anything Fender has put out in several decades (including Custom Shop builds), but then again, these were George Fullerton's and Leo Fender's final creations and incorporated everything they had picked up along the way. Up until a couple of years ago, everything was done by hand.

If you can post a couple of pictures of the guitar - especially the headstock and front of the body - a lot of the regulars should be able to give you plenty of information about your instrument. It's a bit of a tradition around here to post pics...some may claim that the guitar doesn't exist without evidence, but really we all just like drooling over them. One of the neatest things about G&Ls is the amount of customization they have coming out of the factory. Unlike the big manufacturers' models, they all have unique mixes of features, finishes, body and neck woods, etc.

The history of the ASAT line is pretty interesting. They started with a couple of student models in '82 (the SC-1 and SC-2), but the large MFD pickups were popular enough with Tele players that the Broadcaster was created in '85, with the large pickups in a Tele-shaped body with all black cosmetics. Leo personally signed the neck pocket of every Broadcaster, until Fender sued over the use of the Broadcaster name. The model was renamed "ASAT" (after the Anti-Satellite Missile system) and went into regular production in early '86. Almost all of the SCs, Broadcasters and '86-'87 ASATs had maple bodies, which gave a bit of a different sound than the modern ones in swamp ash or alder (some mahogany examples exist as well). The ASAT Classic debuted at the end of the 80s, to expand the G&L market to people who wanted the traditional Tele looks instead of the large MFDs. Plenty of variants came and went from the 90s until today, but the design, pickups and electronics of the ASAT and ASAT Classic have remained the same for about 25 years. They are definitely winning combinations that George, Leo and Dale Hyatt got right the first time around...

Ken

[Dick Fanguy]

I will post pictures as soon as I can figure out how to do it. I'm very old but very new to this.

[KenC]

If you go to the G&LDP Board Index (look for a link in the upper left corner of the screen) and scroll almost all the way down, there is a tutorial on posting photos. Basically you have two options:

1. Upload your photos to a hosting website such as Photobucket, and use the "timage=" button to insert a link into the post; or,

2. Put it in the registered users section of the Gallery (see buttons at the top of this page) and link to that.

If it doesn't format correctly on screen, somebody will usually post a response with the problem fixed. It took me a couple of tries to figure it out.

BTW, I just noticed that we're in the G&L Knowledgebase forum. That's the one we use for permanent posts with technical info, production lists, etc. - generally reference materials. Not to mention that people are probably missing this post since it's a bit out of the way. You might want to move this thread over to the Introductions or General G&L.

Ken

[KenC]

I just tried to figure out how to move posts, but can't find a way. If you PM Craig (the Site Admin), he would be able to move this to one of the main G&LDP forums.

Ken

[Dick Fanguy]

Thanks for the info. I will.

[Craig]

If you go to the G&LDP Board Index (look for a link in the upper left corner of the screen) and scroll almost all the way down, there is a tutorial on posting photos. Basically you have two options:

1. Upload your photos to a hosting website such as Photobucket, and use the "timage=" button to insert a link into the post; or,

2. Put it in the registered users section of the Gallery (see buttons at the top of this page) and link to that.

If it doesn't format correctly on screen, somebody will usually post a response with the problem fixed. It took me a couple of tries to figure it out.

BTW, I just noticed that we're in the G&L Knowledgebase forum. That's the one we use for permanent posts with technical info, production lists, etc. - generally reference materials. Not to mention that people are probably missing this post since it's a bit out of the way. You might want to move this thread over to the Introductions or General G&L.

Ken

If the photo is no bigger than 1000 pix wide by 1300 pix high, you can use the "img" tag. Read the Tutorial: Posting photos
for details.

Regarding the G&L Knowledgebase forum see READ THIS FIRST - G&L Knowledgebase.

Hope this helps.

[NickHorne]

It sounds like you have met a guitar that is going to support your music-hobby-journey better than most. These guitars are deeply nice.
G&L's, to this day, have special attributes that add up to a lot of positive; you'll find out lots of good stuff about them here.
My personal favourite two great things are the slightly wider 2 1/4" heel width - just enough to make everything feel better, yet hardly anyone else does it (it makes the guitar feel so good; Fender tends to be tight-feeling for me now since I've had G&Ls) and also the lovely musicality of the pickups. Necks are really good too, and there are lots of good neck / fingerboard / fret options. Fender Custom Shop is not great value set against G&L's well-considered choices. G&L have their custom options well chosen; they supply seriously great guitars without through-the-roof pricing.