Breakfast
Another nice day up here. Windows open, coffee in hand, sandwich before me. Life is good. Post this thing, take a shower, and off to work while listening to the CSNY 1974 box set. Why did it take 40 years for that set to be released? Amazing music and intensity! And they played for more than 3 hours! When does that happen nowadays? Here in Seattle you see people leave the room at 10pm, I suppose because the baby sitter needs to get home by 11. Oh well ...
G&L stuff
Time to display another unique guitar. This time it is the ASAT 'Cavalier' or 'CavASAT', the name I gave it because it combines pickups from both. I could have used 'ASAT Interceptor' but the Interceptor came in 3 different variations; only one of these had this type of pickup. 'Soit', so be it! The ASAT 'Cavalier' it is!
This guitar came through me through Jon Chakin (jonc on this forum), who bought it from Tim Page (Tim GuitarsOnTheWeb). Prior to Tim, this guitar was allegedly owned by John Paul Daniel, who played in Eddie Rabbit's Hare Trigger Band in the late '80s. There are 2 versions on how John Paul got the guitar. What both stories share is that he got it when the band visited the factory. In version 1 Dale Hyatt sold it to him; in version 2 Leo gave it to him. Either way, this guitar is quite special.
Jon provided me also with the page in the sales log. You can see that S/N G21821 was entered on 10-9-'87 as (part of?) invoice # 3944 with a #2 neck with maple board and is marked as 'proto':
Here's what she looks like:
One thing struck me right away when I picked her up: you could feel the grain of the ash body.
Since this was never a production model it only has a sealer and was never finished in the literal sense! Gives this guitar an incredible tactile feel very much similar as what you'd experience on the NENA and Black Ice Collection guitars. And since there is no finish, the birthmarks on the body are also visible:
The neck pickup is your 'run-of-the-mill' wide-bobbin MFD single-coil pickup (although most of us know 'run-of-the-mill' is quite the understatement
)
The bridge pup though is a pickup you would find on the Cavalier is technically known as an HG-2R "Angled Offset" humbucker. And in true Leo fashion, this humbucker has a wide resonance curve retaining more highs than other buckers and an enormous amount of clarity. Incidentally, the bridge pickup is ever so slightly shorter than the bridge MFD pickup in an ASAT and it is also slightly less angled. This latter statement should also be true for their angle on the Cavalier, otherwise the strings would not pull straight over the pole pieces.
On top of that, this model also has unique electronics:
It may not be clear from the pics but the pickups are switched out-of-phase when combined using the 3-way pickup selector. I do not really have good words for what it sounds like. Magical? Soulful? Articulate? Guess one has to experience it in person. Otherwise, it is your standard single volume and tone control.
Here are the (pristine) neck pocket and neck heel with October 1, 1987, date stamp:
Neck, which is finished, plays great and this small blemish is of no consequence:
and the headstock is what you'd expect for an '87 ASAT still with the rectangular string retainer
Hope you enjoyed the tour of another fine example out of Leo Fender's kitchen!
- Jos
Edit: Change title to use new nickname, update picture links after rename.
John Paul said it was in Leo's lab and Dale showed it to him. Leo said he could have, Dale wrote it up. 
