New Tribute S500 - a few issues

[Steve]

This is my first post since my intro post where I was tossing up between a Tribute Legacy or a Tribute S500. Well, I went with the S500 in vintage white. Georgeous looking and beautiful, surprisingly wide range of sound and tone from this guitar.
Now, I'm relatively inexperienced with the setup and technical characteristics of guitars in general but I have noticed a few issues with my new guitar. Hopefully some you more experienced G&L owners can maybe share your opinions on whether I'm being pedantic or whether these are issues that should be addressed.

Firstly, the push/pull expander knob - I noticed it has a different torque to the volume and bass control knobs. It has little if any resistance when turned. More annoying is that the knob can be "wiggled" from side to side a bit. I pulled the knob off and gave the locking nut a little tighten but this made no difference. It is though the post in the pot is a little loose. Secondly, using the vibrato arm invariably leaves the guitar out of tune - usually the high E, B and G strings. Actually, just bending the strings can leave it out of tune. Thirdly, and I know this can be a common one in guitars of various types, the G string lacks sustain around the 12th fret and can sound a bit dead.

I am in Australia and had to order the guitar unseen from interstate so I didn't get a chance to see check it.

These issues aside, the guitar is everything promised and I am enjoying the playing experience. It's just that niggly, not quite perfect feeling that has prompted me to seek some other opinions.

Thanks in advance for any info or advice,

Regards,

Steve

[Craig]

This is my first post since my intro post where I was tossing up between a Tribute Legacy or a Tribute S500. Well, I went with the S500 in vintage white. Georgeous looking and beautiful, surprisingly wide range of sound and tone from this guitar.
Now, I'm relatively inexperienced with the setup and technical characteristics of guitars in general but I have noticed a few issues with my new guitar. Hopefully some you more experienced G&L owners can maybe share your opinions on whether I'm being pedantic or whether these are issues that should be addressed.

Firstly, the push/pull expander knob - I noticed it has a different torque to the volume and bass control knobs. It has little if any resistance when turned. More annoying is that the knob can be "wiggled" from side to side a bit. I pulled the knob off and gave the locking nut a little tighten but this made no difference. It is though the post in the pot is a little loose. Secondly, using the vibrato arm invariably leaves the guitar out of tune - usually the high E, B and G strings. Actually, just bending the strings can leave it out of tune. Thirdly, and I know this can be a common one in guitars of various types, the G string lacks sustain around the 12th fret and can sound a bit dead.

I am in Australia and had to order the guitar unseen from interstate so I didn't get a chance to see check it.

These issues aside, the guitar is everything promised and I am enjoying the playing experience. It's just that niggly, not quite perfect feeling that has prompted me to seek some other opinions.

Thanks in advance for any info or advice,

Regards,

Steve

Welcome, Steve!

The Tribute push/pull Tone pot does come that way and it does take some time to get used to it.

Here's a couple of posts located in the G&L Knowledgebase, G&L Tech Tip sub-forum to check out which might help dial in the guitar:

String alignment issues and a simple cure
Current Factory setup for G&L guitars with vibrato bridges

Also, checkout the other posts in both sub-forums of the G&L Knowledgebase.
There are some general setup posts as well as some specific setup tips.

Hope this helps.

[Philby]

Hi Steve,

Welcome to the forum. Sorry your S-500 wasn't as stellar as you'd hoped. I also have 2 Tribute models, both ASAT's. One was perfect and the other required a decent set up, but is now also perfect. I suspect you'll be able to get yours to meet your expectations with relatively little effort, and Craig's post should help get you started.

Here's some top-of-my-head thoughts on the issues you mentioned.

Push-Pull Pot: What you describe sounds par for the course with push-pull pots. I installed an Alpha brand push-pull in a Legacy to get the 2 extra S-500 configurations. It behaves exactly as you describe. Very low torque and a bit 'wobbly'. There are probably better pots out there to replace it with if you look on-line and are handy with a soldering iron.

E, B, G Tuning Issues: A lot of people immediately blame the tremolo system or tuners when this happens, but in my experience it is almost always caused by strings binding in the nut. Cheaper guitars often have poorly cut plastic nuts, but it is a lottery with expensive guitars too. You could try adding some graphite to the nut slots to see if that helps. Also check the trem to make sure it has been set up parallel to the body.

Dead G String: Strings normally lose sustain when they vibrate on an adjacent, higher fret. This causes damping. A decent set-up by a good guitar tech, possibly including a fret level and dress should fix this. It could be as simple as the saddle heights needing tweaking, or the truss rod requires adjustment.

I don't think any of the problems you mention are insurmountable, and with a bit of work you'll eventually have a nice sounding, easy playing instrument.

[Steve]

Thanks Craig and Philby for getting back so quickly.
Your advice has been very helpful and reassuring. I've checked the trem as per the link and it all looks OK as does string alignment. I applied some graphite but also restrung using a slightly lighter gauge set of Ernie Ball super slinkys and I think it's done the trick. So Philby, your tip about the nut maybe on the money. I'll wait until the new strings settle in but it's looking good. Aside from that, good to know that my push/pull expander knob is 'typical' and not a dud but a bit strange nonetheless. I will get a guitar tech (when I find one) to check out the frets and see if he can improve the resonance of the G string at the 12th. Otherwise, the S-500 is sounding (and looking) sweet.

Cheers and thanks again

Steve

[GeorgeB]

I bought a Trib S-500 a while back and I love it. Initially it had the same symptoms like yours. Filing (needed anyway for .011-.054 gauge I use) and lubing the nut fixed the main thing, together with rigouros stretching of the new strings. The knobs also were sligthly off axis but I could reseat them so it's much better now. The p/p knob has that slack ypu describe, can live with it, might intall a better one later.

For the deadspot on G 12th..14th, seems to be very common. I've test played about half a dozen of Trib Legacy's and S-500's and all of them seemed to be somewhat weak there (in contrast to the ASATs and very much in contrast to my latest toy, an Invader hardtail -- a hell of a guitar). I tend to think that's a body resonance thing, might also have to do with the pool routing under the pickguard which forms a big resonant air cavity and the pickuard can move quite a bit under vibration not having any center support, dissipating a lot of energy that's drawn away from the string.
Therefore, next time a restring is due I'll take off the pickguard temporarily and see whether that changes things. If so, the issue could be settled by adding support to it and/or fill the air volume with something solid (eg flush fit pieces of hard wood).

Loose "high" frets have to be checked for as well. Easily found by the tapping test (press a large coin firmly between thumb and index finger and tap it on the frets, between the string).

[Steve]

Thanks GeorgeB. What you say makes a lot of sense and I appreciate you sharing your experience. That's the great thing about a forum such as this.
Cheers, Steve