I'll need to wait for a warmer day to get good outdoor photos, so in the mean time here are a few taken by the previous owner:
I purchased it from the original owner, who bought it new from a dealer in Southern California in late '92. The body is dated Mar 19 1991, which puts it at the absolute tail end of the Leo-era:
I've never seen pencil marks like those in a G&L neck pocket before. If anybody has ideas about the "3 3/8" and other scribbling, I'd love to hear them.
The circuit board is Rev 1.0, which places it in the BBE era:
Now for the interesting part...the neck is dated over six months after the Signature Series was stopped:
It's also 19 months after the body was completed. I'm not 100% up on my BBE history, but it seems like this would have been shipped out under the looming threat of lawsuit from FMIC. From what the seller told me, I'm sure this isn't an employee instrument (Greg and Larry - if either of you are reading this, I'd love to hear your opinions!).
I'm calling the body swamp ash in the Registry. It is the most perfectly flatsawn G&L I've ever seen, with the barest hints of grain when you look closely. I couldn't capture them well under indoor lights, but here are my attempts:
I thought from the lack of visible grain in the seller's photos that this would turn out to be a maple body, but the pores in the neck pocket are definitely consistent with ash. The neck is rift sawn, and has a gloss finish instead of BBE's standard satin.
As far as sound goes, all I can say is "wow". I haven't had time to dig into all of the switching combinations, but on a quick check-out with the B-15 they all sound very full.
That's all for now. Time to make the walls shake some more!
Ken
