Haven’t done this for a while but when it concerns Will Ray’s first ASAT, a post is warranted.
This guitar was advertised as a 1992 ASAT Special in Clear Blue finish but with its all black hardware, in those days it would be properly labeled as an ASAT. But more about that year later. Will sent it in a G&L gig-bag with some notes taped to it:
I still had a spare case floating around somewhere which has become its new home:
Let take a tour around the guitar:
Once upon a time, this guitar was equipped with a Hipshot B-Bender unit, which is still evidenced by the mounting holes on the butt of the body. But now it has a Saddle-Lock bridge. The pickups are the trusty wide-bobbin MFD pups with the neck measuring 4.73kΩ and the bridge 4.90kΩ DC-impedance, values right on the boundary between pre-1992 and post-1992 values. Will has changed out the Tone control knob with a numbered Legacy like knob and added grease pencil marks. In his words, this was to enable easy dial-in of his favorite tones. There is another mark at the Volume control but since there is no corresponding mark on the know itself, the mark is not as useful.
The headstock has the ASAT block logo but still the "by Leo Fender" decal. Note the roller string-trees and the additional round head screw as the string tree for the G-string, likely all installed at the same time as the Hipshot unit. On the back one finds some interesting scribbles. ”Plays great!", which is absolutely true. Definitely set-up by and for a true professional! “92?” likely is a guess for when the guitar was built. Will has stated that it was around that time he got in touch with an Artist Relations person from G&L after he had discovered how amazing John Jorgenson’s ASAT sounded. “Ch St" followed by “11-21-09” is a bit of a riddle and I haven’t asked Will about it. My guess? It’s either the last time the strings were changed and/or the set-up was adjusted.
But is S/N G030501 really a ’92? For that we have to look under the covers. The date stamps for both neck and body are from 1990! (The one in the pocket is at the very bottom and barely reads MAY 6 1993)
And although nothing is indicated under the pickguard, both controls are 250kΩ Audio Taper CTS potentiometers from 1990. You’ll also notice the tone pot neither has a 6.8kΩ resistor nor a .100μF cap, but rather the .220μF cap commensurate with the pre-BBE wiring for the ASAT Classic.
Although Greg Gagliano seems to hint on his site this transition took place after BBE took over, the Gallery has a schematic from 1990 drawn by George for the wiring as used in this guitar. So it might be there are ’90 and/or ’91 ASATs out there with this wiring already. The collection lacks ASATs from those years and I cannot verify this (yet). S/N G030501 does not appear in Dale Hyatt's sales log which has S/N G030001 as its last entry. So indeed, not withstanding all these earlier dates, it still looks like it was put together in the '92 time frame.
Finally, Will was nice enough to include a personal note and a certificate to prove the origin:
Hope you enjoyed it. This one needs to be played and sounds incredibly sweet. Somebody is calling ....
- Jos
