New to the forum...ASAT lll greetings from St. Louis

[steveman]

Hello everyone. I've been dropping in from time to time to catch up on all things G&L. The knowledge of this group amazes me!

I sent Craig a picture of my ASAT lll a few years back to see what he could tell me about this Tele body / Strat PUPs guitar I picked up from a friend of a friend in 1995. The seller had purchased the guitar (his first!) new and had taken a couple of lessons before giving up. They showed me a picture, I thought it was cool and I bought it without playing it. What a wonderful surprise - it plays and sounds great!

So Craig tells me it's considered 'rare' and asks me to add it to the registry. At the time, I was not willing to pull the neck so I did not have the dates to add. I now have photos but I'm not sure what the dates mean.

Any knowledge you guys can share about this guitar is greatly appreciated!

(I apologize if this is the incorrect forum for the question.)

http://s61.photobucket.com/user/stevema ... sort=3&o=0

[yowhatsshakin]

Howdy steveman,

Welcome (back)!

That is a great looking ASAT III Signature. As you can see the neck has 2 dates: OCT 27 1988 and JAN 04 1989. After work was done on the neck in October 1988, apparently something else needed to happen and the somebody took care of that on the 4th of January 1989. The neck pocket doesn't seem to show a date stamp; instead there are some washed out Sharpie markings. But for the pocket not to have a date stamp is rather common. Also not that necks were always critical path at pre-BBE G&L. Bodies could be made months, sometimes more than a year) earlier and they were easily stored. But necks were almost always used right away when they came out of the shop; G&L did not keep a stash of those. So almost without exception the neck stamp (if present) is of a later date than the body stamp (if present).

Yours in the end would be 1989 one.

Hope this helps,

- Jos

[steveman]

Jos - thanks for clarifying the neck dates. I'll update the registry. Nice collection you have there!

[FZTNT]

Jos, if I am not mistaken, isn't this guitar the rearer of the years these were made? I don't see them discussed here too often and didn't realize they made a signature version, or, were they all signature?
If I am correct, Steve, you have a quite rare guitar. It's an ASAT with s-500 pickups and it plays incredibly. So many tones available from mellow jazz kind of stuff all the way to straight up Stevie Ray Vaughn and beyond. They re-ssued it in the latter '90s but made more of them. Yours is one of 150. I have a '97 and love it.

Welcome back and great find, play it often!

Tom

[yowhatsshakin]

Jos, if I am not mistaken, isn't this guitar the rearer of the years these were made? I don't see them discussed here too often and didn't realize they made a signature version, or, were they all signature?

Tom,

Couple of things.

All ASAT Classics produced from their moment of inception until the BBE transfer were in principle Signatures. All I'm stating here is that all price lists in my possession dated between January 15, 1990 and January 15, 1991 only list the ASAT Classic Signature and not the ASAT Classic.

As far as the 3 pickup variety goes, the ASAT was "Available W/3 Single Coils & 5-way Switch" starting on the price list dated September 1, 1987 until the one I have dated January 15. 1991. It is not included in the January 1, 1992 price list in this configuration. A Signature version of the ASAT was offered ever since the same January 15, 1990 price list referenced above. Any and all Signatures were not mentioned (or built?) prior to that date. On the line item for the ASAT Signature it is not mentioned it was "Available W/3 Single Coils & 5-way Switch" (for an additional $60.00) but I do not see any reason you would not be able to get an ASAT III Signature from 1991 onwards. As an example, my 1991 ASAT III HSS is a Signature model. Incidentally, that HSS configuration does not show up on any (pre-BBE) price list at all! You now may ask yourself how dealers were aware that pickup configuration was available in the first place ...

Hope this helps,

- Jos

[glvourot]

Welcome Steve and nice guitar ! Great looking finish too.

Paul

[steveman]

Thanks guys - I appreciate the info!

[KenC]

One of my ASAT IIIs is a Signature model that dates to October 1988.

I've been fortunate to try this model with all three of the pickup configurations (three S-500 pups, three Skyhawk pups, and an HG plus two Skyhawk pups). To my ears, they are very different instruments. They don't quite sound like an S-500 or Skyhawk, either.

Congrats on a gorgeous guitar!

Ken

[y2kc]

St. louis is a great town and a great place to find G&L's. I live only 300 or so miles to the north so turn that thing up and lets hear it!

That is a great looking Asat III !

y2kc

[steveman]

St. louis is a great town and a great place to find G&L's. I live only 300 or so miles to the north so turn that thing up and lets hear it!

That is a great looking Asat III !

y2kc

Thanks y2kc! I really like the ASAT lll unfortunately my playing doesn't do it justice. This was a great find as I'm fortunate (?) not to suffer from GAS. I always limit myself to 1- Electric and 1-Acoustic at a time. When I think back on a couple of the guitars I've sold thru the years...

The guitar is currently in for some setup work and the shop wants to know if I'm looking to sell. I told them to make me an offer as I haven't seen any of these for sale in awhile. I'm interested to see what they think it's worth.

300 miles north of St. Louis sounds like Chicago area latitude?

steveman

[steveman]

One of my ASAT IIIs is a Signature model that dates to October 1988.

I've been fortunate to try this model with all three of the pickup configurations (three S-500 pups, three Skyhawk pups, and an HG plus two Skyhawk pups). To my ears, they are very different instruments. They don't quite sound like an S-500 or Skyhawk, either.

Congrats on a gorgeous guitar!

Ken

Ken - I just have to ask...
"One of my ASAT IIIs..."
Exactly how many of these fine guitars are you lucky enough to own?

[y2kc]

Yes Steve I am just north of the city. I went to school in St.Louis and my wife is from Washington Mo. Let us know what the store offers because I am sure someone here would buy that guitar.

Take care,

Y2kc

[themikeaustin]

I second y2kc. I've seen ASAT IIIs recently on eBay and Reverb for $1100 - $1500. Someone on this site has one for sale for $1495 (last I checked).

If you're going to sell it, post it here first and avoid the commission.

Mike