The story is that back over the summer I was looking for a versatile guitar to use as a backup for my Fender Tele Deluxe. I investigated and tried quite a few different makes and models before discovering that G&L had released a Tribute series Fallout. Amazingly, the guitar was selling at a ridiculously low [actual price removed by Admin] and to make it even better, it was available in Sonic Blue (one of my favorite colors) with a vintage tint gloss maple neck & fingerboard (also my preference). There weren’t any stores near me that had the Fallout in stock and I couldn’t find any online demos either but since I am very familiar with the high level of quality control on the Tribute models (I own an ASAT Tribute Special and I’ve played some Tributes that are comparable or better than many $1000 plus models from other companies), I figured for [actual price removed by Admin] it was worth taking a chance.
I placed my online order with The Guitar Store in Seattle and got the guitar 3 days later. When I picked it up, I was blown away by the light weight (a little over 7 lbs.), the comfort of the body contour, the smoothness of the neck/fretboard and the incredible all around weight balance. When I plugged it in, I was even more blown away by its sound and versatility. The G&L humbucker in the bridge absolutely howls when pushed with some overdrive or distortion and shimmers when played clean. The push/pull coil split turns it into a very representative single coil with the requisite snap we all love. The Paul Gagon P90 in the neck is an amazing piece of work. It’s got great P90 punch, but if you dial back the volume and/or tone just a little bit, you get incredible mids without losing the bite that allows you to cut through any mix. And it has little to no buzz even when the switch is set to the neck PUP and you play the P90 by itself! This thing is so versatile, just by tweaking the volume and tone knobs as well as the 3 way pickup switch, I was actually able to remove several effects settings on my pedalboard. I’ll bet if I could do a blind test with a knowledgeable pro guitarist and told them that the Tribute Fallout was a $1200 USA built model, they probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
I was so impressed that the Fallout Tribute immediately became my #1 guitar. So I’ve gone and sold my Tele Deluxe and Gretsch Electromatic and put in an order for a USA Fallout (vintage tint gloss Quartersawn Maple neck and fretboard, white neck binding, locking tuners, Belair Green with matching headstock). If the Tribute is that good, I can’t even imagine how good the custom USA model is going to be.
To me, the Fallout is a truly unique, versatile and wonderful instrument and I feel that it needs to be mentioned in the same breath as some other classic guitars such as the Tele, Strat, Les Paul and SG. Maybe I’m a little nuts because the guitar suits me so well, but maybe there’s a bunch of other players who feel this way too. If so, I’d love to hear about it so I know I’m not the only one with a Fallout obsession. I guess time will tell. Meanwhile, the new Fallout should be here in about 6 weeks, so I’ll put up some pics when it arrives.
It was a telling moment for me,& a large reason why I jumped on the LE-2 express .
