93 Legacy Plus Prototype

[crookednose]

Hello! I'm a newbe here. Just acquired a 93 Legacy Plus, USA made prototype from what I have been able to gather so far. I've attached a link to my facebook album containing the images and am looking for any info I can get on this geetar.

Thanks!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10200988012603652.1073741827.1266840968&type=1&l=917fb3be8b

[Elwood]

Nice set of pics,
here they are inline...

You came to the right place...welcome,

Really cool ax IMO ( what's up with the 'F' neck plate )

















elwood

[crookednose]

Thanks, Elwood. This really is a sweet guitar, effortless to play. As for the heel plate, not sure on that. Probably swapped out by someone post-facto. That said, seeing as how this guitar has no serial, Gotoh tuners, etc, maybe it was something G&L threw together really quickly as a prototype with stuff they had layin' around?

Question: have you ever seen a Legacy with the 3 pup switches like this?

[Craig]

Thanks, Elwood. This really is a sweet guitar, effortless to play. As for the heel plate, not sure on that. Probably swapped out by someone post-facto. That said, seeing as how this guitar has no serial, Gotoh tuners, etc, maybe it was something G&L threw together really quickly as a prototype with stuff they had layin' around?

Question: have you ever seen a Legacy with the 3 pup switches like this?

After reviewing your photos and searching our site here, I think this is definitely a parts guitar
and not a prototype for the Legacy Special (Legacy Plus). It could be an employee built or put
together by an owner (or owners). However, without a serial number (it would have been stamped
on the G&L neckplate) we cannot trace it and determine it's true identity.

The neck is definitely a Legacy Plus neck, but the body looks to be a late '80's Invader body, which
has the three toggle switches for pickup selection and the Leo Fender Fine Tuner bridge.
Here's a 1987 Invader from our Gallery:


As you mentioned, the tuners, neckplate and string tree are not parts from the G&L Factory.

We have four Legacy Plus prototype guitars listed in the G&L Registry and two of them each indicate
the pickups being blade type single coiled size, while on the other two, I had attempted to contact the current owners
asking for photos, but never heard back.

In the Introductions sub-forum there is this post: G&L legacy plus.
Unfortunately, most of the photos are no longer viewable. Here's is the only one I have of the OP of that post which just show the body:


Here is some of the description on that eBay auction post:

This is a VERY RARE G&L for the collector. It is a G&L Legacy PLUS. Look around, you cant find out much about them. Here is What I learned after quite a bit of research. The G&L Legacy PLUS was the prototype or sample for the G&L Legacy Special. Only a handful of them were made and then they decided to call them the Legacy Special. The legacy plus never made it into production. It has the same specs as the Legacy Special.

It has definately been played, but I didnt do anything to it because I didnt want to do anything to the original finish. It has the clear crimson finish over the swamp ash body. It is made in the USA with locking Tuning pegs. It looks like someone may have replaced on of the pegs. It is the exact same style of locking peg, but it is more of a shiny finish than the other pegs.

It also has a very unique Trem-lock. It says by Leo Fender Pat Pending

It plays great. It has the blade pickups that went on the Legacy Special. I tried to find out as much as I could about the guitar, so I was directed to the website guitarsbyleo.com A former G&L employee responded to me with the following information:



Legacy “Plus” was a name we were thinking about using for a derivative of the Legacy with blade pickups. Ultimately, we named the model “Legacy Special.” If I remember correctly, at that point we just clipped the “Plus” from the decal for the Climax Plus and applied it next to the Legacy to see how we liked the name. Anyway, looks to me that you have a guitar we built in the development phase of the Legacy Special.

The Leo Fender trem-lock was common on mid-‘80s models, but we stopped using them. I can’t remember exactly when but it may have been the late ‘80s. I remember we still put them on a few guitars into the early ‘90s, but once we settled the Fender’s lawsuit against Leo over the use of his full name (which includes “Fender”, their trademark) in ’91 that would have been the end of the use of that trem-lock on regular production guitars. We still may have put it on a development guitar here and there.

While I don't know who the former G&L employee who is attributed to providing this information, I do believe that the information is accurate.

So, my conclusion is that this is just a "parts guitar" and not a prototype for the Legacy Special.

Just my $0.02.

[crookednose]

Craig, thanks so much for the detailed response! I think what I am going to do at this point is to see if I can get a G&L 3 bolt plate and trem and controls covers for this to get it at least back to being as close to all g&L as possible. I'll probably keep the Gotoh's on it.

It really is a wonderful guitar. I'm glad to be part of the G&L community.

[JagInTheBag]

Sweet dual vibrato Fine Tuner bridge!

[maverick927]

Resurrecting an old thread here. I'm curious about that Leo Fender Pat Pending trem-lock. Do those lock the trem in place for both directions? Are there any manufacturers that make something similar on top of the body that is easy to access? I use the floating trem a lot, but it would be handy to have a concept like this for the songs that have alternate tunings.

Mav

[Craig]

Resurrecting an old thread here. I'm curious about that Leo Fender Pat Pending trem-lock. Do those lock the trem in place for both directions? Are there any manufacturers that make something similar on top of the body that is easy to access? I use the floating trem a lot, but it would be handy to have a concept like this for the songs that have alternate tunings.

Mav

See this post: Leo's Trem Lock.

Hope this helps.

[maverick927]

Resurrecting an old thread here. I'm curious about that Leo Fender Pat Pending trem-lock. Do those lock the trem in place for both directions? Are there any manufacturers that make something similar on top of the body that is easy to access? I use the floating trem a lot, but it would be handy to have a concept like this for the songs that have alternate tunings.

Mav

See this post: Leo's Trem Lock.

Hope this helps.

Great! Thanks for the link, Craig.