Legacy Special Blade Gotoh vs. Paul Gagon

[Zippy]

Hi y'all.

Studying on the G&L website, I read the new Legacy Special has it's blade buckers designed by Paul Gagon.

I have a '94 LS and my blades are made by Gotoh. I'm quite accustomed to this tone but still curious as to improvements on the Bill Lawrence original design.

Is there a difference in the pups or just the same Gotoh blades with Paul's name on them? Are there differences tonally? What changed if anything?

If you don't know anything about these, just say something funny. That'll work.

Thanks y'all

[sam]

Hey Zippy,

Rumor has it Paul Gagon was watching the movie Blades of Glory and had inspiration of improving the Gotoh blade pups after hearing the line from Stranz Van Waldenberg:

"Not only did we embarrass Marky Mark, we let down the Funky Bunch."

No clue about the difference.

[Fumble fingers]

I use a pair of dual blades when I shave ......

[Craig]

Hi y'all.

Studying on the G&L website, I read the new Legacy Special has it's blade buckers designed by Paul Gagon.

I have a '94 LS and my blades are made by Gotoh. I'm quite accustomed to this tone but still curious as to improvements on the Bill Lawrence original design.

Is there a difference in the pups or just the same Gotoh blades with Paul's name on them? Are there differences tonally? What changed if anything?

If you don't know anything about these, just say something funny. That'll work.

Thanks y'all

AFAIK, the LS blade pickups were designed by Paul Gagon and built by Gotoh. I did forward your question to Paul and hopefully he
will have some time to reply with the details. Stay tuned.

Also, see this post: http://guitarsbyleo.com/FORUM/viewtopic ... 697#p42697

[Craig]

Hi y'all.

Studying on the G&L website, I read the new Legacy Special has it's blade buckers designed by Paul Gagon.

I have a '94 LS and my blades are made by Gotoh. I'm quite accustomed to this tone but still curious as to improvements on the Bill Lawrence original design.

Is there a difference in the pups or just the same Gotoh blades with Paul's name on them? Are there differences tonally? What changed if anything?

If you don't know anything about these, just say something funny. That'll work.

Thanks y'all

AFAIK, the LS blade pickups were designed by Paul Gagon and built by Gotoh. I did forward your question to Paul and hopefully he
will have some time to reply with the details. Stay tuned.

Also, see this post: http://guitarsbyleo.com/FORUM/viewtopic ... 697#p42697

Here's Paul's reply:

Hi Craig,

Let's see if I can shed a little light on all this. Gotoh has always made our G&L Twin Blade pickups for the Legacy Special. They have always made these pickups to my specifications, which are different from the pickups they make for themselves. There are actually two different models of these pickups. They are the TWB-2 and the TWB-2A. You can find these part numbers on the bottom of our Twin Blade pickups. The pickup specifications have been the same since the early 90s, when I first gave the specs to Gotoh.

Here are the winding specifications for each of the two pickups.
TWB-2 = 5,000 turns of 42ga wire on each bobbin wired in series Humbucking.
TWB-2A = 3,800 turns of 42ga wire on each bobbin wired in series Humbucking.

As you can guess, we use the TWB-2 for the Bridge position and the TWB-2A for the Neck and Middle. To address the comments of the post you sent me I would just say that these pickups are not really trying to be an improvement on any ones designs and I certainly wouldn't say that only ours sound good. For me it was just about trying to get a sound that worked well with the instrument. I went around and around with number of turns of wire, wire gauge, series wiring vs. parallel wiring, who's bobbin height dimension worked best, and so on. I settled on Gotoh's bobbin but went with a different wiring scheme, number of turns, and wire gauge to give me what I wanted. As I said, the pickups specifications have never changed on these units.

I hope this helps Craig. I always feel like I ramble on too much. Anyway, take care my friend.

Paul

Hope this helps.

[Ray Barbee Music]

I was quite curious about that to since I recently ordered a new LS. Thanks for getting that reply. It's confusing because now the description says "designed by Paul Gagon" and it didn't say that "in the old days" so a lot of us wondered what the difference was. I guess it was just never stated that Paul designed them from the get go.

[Boogie Bill]

I've been wondering about this too.

The Gotoh Blades are wonderful pickups. If you've ever played a Legacy and wished for more powerful pickups with a darker PAF-ish tone with decent clarity...this is your dream guitar. I love that I can use a Legacy, S-500, Comanche and a aLegacy Specialn, all with the same ergonomics yet with vastly different tones. If you play a lot of different genres, as I do, this is powerful collection of guitars.

I gig with a Legacy as my Number One, doing about 60% of my songs with it. I'll do 12--15 songs on a 2HB guitar like a Les Paul or 335. I use the Legacy Special to back up both the Legacy and the 2HB; I can do that thanks to the PTB controls. And there are a few song that the LS is perfect for in its own right.

Glad this is cleared up. I have three Legacy Specials, and I love them. I highly recommend these pickups, and the Legacy Special.

Bill

Psst.....Paul! Bet these would sound great in an ASAT!

[Craig]

I was quite curious about that to since I recently ordered a new LS. Thanks for getting that reply. It's confusing because now the description says "designed by Paul Gagon" and it didn't say that "in the old days" so a lot of us wondered what the difference was. I guess it was just never stated that Paul designed them from the get go.

Yes, not until last year, was it stated that Paul designed them. Paul is responsible for designing and/or speccing all of G&L's Alnico pickups.
Check out the Bio on Paul Gagon located on the main G&L website.

[Zippy]

Paul, Craig, and the rest of the board, again, thank you so much. I never knew Paul designed those pups. Oh and Craig, pretty much the entire guitar playing world knows who Paul is but thanks for the bio anyway.

I love the Strat sound, but the Legacy Special had been my number 1 for over 10 years easily. I can make it do just about anything thanks to Paul's pups and the PTB system. I am so in tune, if you'll pardon the pun, with this guitar and how it interacts with my rig.

I'm so happy I may turn it up a notch this morning, when/if I finish these guitars waiting in queue.

[Ray Barbee Music]

"pretty much the entire guitar playing world knows who Paul is but thanks for the bio anyway".

Well, I don't think so. I had no idea who he was other than some guy who's name G&L started using in their promo material a few years ago, and no one else I know did either. The LS pickups are great though, and his P90s are truly outstanding, I put them right up there with Lollars and that is saying something.