Guitar recognition

[Pavao]

Hy everyone...Though I am G&L legacy owner for more than 20 years now, this is my first attempt to comunicate over it on this site. As obvious my name is Pave, I live in Croatia.
The guitar I own is G&L Legacy made in USA, and not just made but bought in Norfolk, Virginia Beach and I believe it was bought around 1994-1995. My father who is sailor bought it for me, and it is my first electric guitar. However, I know nothing about this guitar...
I see G&L has tons of models, including numerous models of legacy as well so I would like to know if anybody can recognize the guitar I own...
I am not quite sure how this forum functions, I just made a profile on photobucket and uploaded couple pictures of guitar here, I will try to copy the URL but I am not sure it will be visible...
The serial number of my Legacy is G041659...

http://s1175.photobucket.com/user/pavao ... sort=3&o=0
http://s1175.photobucket.com/user/pavao ... sort=3&o=1
http://s1175.photobucket.com/user/pavao ... sort=3&o=2

Can anyone help me in sense of what finish this is, I see it is rosewood, but got no idea about wood...the thing is local luthier told me the body is made of swamp ash, but when I read about it, somehow it just doesnt fit...the sound of this guitar is quite brite...somewhat thin too...was thinking about changing the pickups...but I would like to go step by step about this...

So if anyone could give me any info I would be really greatfull.

[SouthpawGuy]

As a solid colour it is most likely an alder body. Hard to tell from the photos but the fingerboard does look as if it might possibly be ebony, but I'd guess it is rosewood. The pickups are G&L alnico V CLF100s, the logo is just visible. From the fretwear it looks like you have put a lot of miles up on it in the last 20 years

[Pavao]

Hehehe SouthpawGuy its my main instrument over last 20 years so...however, not sure what to do... I love the feel in this guitar...really do...everything is just where it needs to be...but I am not happy with the sound of it. Since day 1 I cant get it right...I play it over 40W combo tube amp-Marshall JCM2000, DSL 401, and it simply has no bite... I play in a band where my coleague has Fender Stratocaster from 1979...great instrument, and with only stock pickups and not even tube amp but Marshall valvestate (which is hybrid) he simply "eats" me... I tried many stuff over the years...had DS1 by boss, then went to multiprocessor-ME30, and later Digitech RP1000... now I am on Carl Martins pedal and it sounds ok, but no bite out of it... sustain is weak, and when I unplug the guuitar it sings with 009 strings great. Then, a friend of mine gave me his guitar to try it out...its hand made strat made by local luthier, and actually great guitar, however if I compare the signals it is twice signal of my Legacy... On the other hand, that guitar has active pickups: red, blue and silver lace sensors, plus mid boost...that guitar does not need distortion at all... And in the end I am thinking of maybe changing pickups on this Legacy....it seems to me it was disigned to play chicken pickin-country style, and while I like that kind of music I dont play it...I play classic rock...you know sort of Brian Adams, Tina Turner, ZZ Top, and I just cant get the sound I need... Anyone changed original pickups on Legacy?

[SouthpawGuy]

I have changed the pickups on two Legacys, and kept a third stock. One has DiMarzio Areas, the other has DiMarzio Injectors with an Area 67 in the middle. The Areas are low output, lower than the stock Legacy pickups. The Injectors are higher output that stock Legacy pickups, great for rock or heavy blues ( they are the DiMarzio Paul Gilbert signature model ).

Also both the Areas and Injectors are hum free, no noise even with high gain. I retained the G&L PTB tone controls on both, I find that way more useful than normal strat tone controls.

Youtube demo of the Injectors

[youtube]y5QWODzgEq0[/youtube]

[Pavao]

I wrote to Dimarzio, Seymour Duncan, as well as Lace Music...with pictures of difference in signal between my two guitars (first one is above on pictures, and another is hybrid with baswood body of charvel and G&L maple neck...looking great but still no bite...and then this friends guitar with lace sensors....its signal is so hard that drives my amp to distortion if I turn gain on clean chanell over 2 of 10...latelly I am thinking of changing an amp too...now I am awaiting for their response...so you are saying Dimarzios?

[SouthpawGuy]

DiMarzio usually respond very quickly, I've even had a reply from them on a Sunday morning.

Their email address is tech@dimarzio.com

[Pavao]

I wrote to sales and tech department...thank you for info!