The place to discuss, post photos, video, and audio of the G&L products (US instruments, stomp boxes, etc.) produced after 1991, including the amps & gear we use with them.
Check out this Legacy in Honeyburst over Empress, pearl guard, white covers and knobs, rosewood board, clear satin neck finish. Serial number CLF072042
We scored a little stash of killer 2-piece Empress and we're building some instruments we're interested to see made out of this wood. This Legacy is ridiculously light, just 6.6 lbs.
We just completed it, and no, it's not sold yet. Probably will be very soon : )
the wood we bought was grown in the US and we bought it from one of our regular suppliers. We're not dinging anyone hard on these;
price in a store will probably a few bucks more than the same guitar in swamp ash.
The trick is getting nice wood, selected and matched. As with alder, ash, mahogany etc., there is a range of quality. We don't know when we may able to score this quality again,
but we'd sure like to.
Last edited by Craig on Mon Apr 27, 2015 7:25 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason:fixed photo link
I'd be interested in trying an Empress/Paulownia G&L to hear whether its amplified tone is perceptibly different from that which we typically expect to hear out of alder or swamp ash electric guitars, especially since I've found that the company's solidbodies tend to run somewhat heavier than comparable models from other manufacturers (i.e., heavier than I, for one, like -- especially in a "T" or "S"-style instrument). That one up there sure has a nice, simple beauty to its grain!
It would be nice to see them use Empress if the tone and build quality is consistent with other woods they use. Empress is considered a sustainable wood resource because it only takes 5-7 years for the tree to mature. They should likely call it "American Empress" to distance G&L from Paulownia's reputation for being used mostly in cheap Asian import models and DIY kits. Paulownia is also soft, but with G&L using poly finishes, I am not sure that will be much of an issue. This one has a strong grain structure, which is remarkable given the lack of hard growth rings and strong cellular structure of harder, slower growing woods like Swam Ash.
