S-500 Owners

[chuckster722]

How many S-500 owners are out there? I've had mine about 2 months. I love it!!!!!

[Tom Valentine]

Same here, about 4 months .. in fact just updated my avatar pic here with it last night .. a red '82 S-500

Was playing it again earlier today and it sure is a beaut, quickly becoming my favorite 'player' ... great action, killer tone ... just goes wholly out of tune when I bang on it, but that's due to the floating vibrato which can be blocked and I don't use anyway

Enjoy your S-500, I know I'm enjoying mine


-- TV

[StratsRock]

I've got a Tribute S500 and really enjoyed it. It's now the kids guitar. A USA S500 is definitely on the list of primary acquisitions.

[MrRoundel]

I've got a Tribute S500 and really enjoyed it. It's now the kids guitar. A USA S500 is definitely on the list of primary acquisitions.

I have two S500's. One old body/pickup style, in maple, from 1987. The other is a transitional year model from 1992, in ash. Tone-wise, I'm partial to the maple body. In addition, the pickups in the newer models do get progressively hotter. My '92 is a great guitar but much brighter than the earlier model, and believe it or not, heavier than the maple. To be honest, I don't play my strat bodies that much, relative to my tele/ASAT bodies. I just find the ASAT more comfortable ergonomically. The is especially true when sitting down, which is the way I play most of the time. If I gigged, of course it would be different.

Stratsrock: If you haven't seen GGJaguar's ad, he's got a couple of early S-500's for sale in the Marketplace. They don't come up that often so you might want to consider one of them if at all possible. You can trust that you're getting what is described, at a fair price. As you may also be aware, there is an '82 S-500 in a very nice blue transparent on Ebay. The visible drawback might be the amount of rust on the chrome parts and pole pieces. Your son should be stoked with his S-500, yes? Good luck.

[Tundra]

Very interesting about the maple body S-500. Gonna keep an eye for one. I guess a natural finished ones will be ash so they can be ruled out. So the silly question of the day is how would you tell if its a solid finish body? I don't have the luxury of trying them out prior to committing. I guess I could kind of tell if the wood is showing through. Then, maybe at the end an early 80's ash S-500 would be okay.
Thanks

[Kodor]

Here's my old school '82.

[Tundra]

Nice!! For what's is worth, I think the old school body profiles are nice. At least they fit me better than the F style body. At least I ran across a couple in the net, but both were natural as well.

[CRAIG4FSU]

[JonL]

I'm waiting very impatiently for the S-500 I bought on eBay to arrive. If anyone was watching eBay, I bought the sunburst S-500 that looked like it had been played hard every day of it's life and then left in a hot car so the pickguard got distorted. It looked pretty dirty too, but I think (hope) it will clean up nicely.

It'll join my '86 F-100, my early Legacy, and my vintage Strat. If I love the S-500 I'll be looking to sell the Legacy.

[Umphreak]

If by s500 you mean deluxe........
Had it now for about a month, love it.

[Tundra]

I was just wondering what the ratio was between the ebony and maple necked was for the early 80's S-500 guitars? As I understand it, maple is brighter sounding than ash so would the MFD's sound a mite brighter? I also have read the ebony board is between rosewood and maple in terms of tone/attack... so a maple bodied S-500 with a maple board will be "fairly" bright than a ash bodied with either ebony or maple fingerboard. Somebody needs to set me straight if I've been fed a whole lot of hogwash!!
Thanks!!!

[sirmyghin]

I was just wondering what the ratio was between the ebony and maple necked was for the early 80's S-500 guitars? As I understand it, maple is brighter sounding than ash so would the MFD's sound a mite brighter? I also have read the ebony board is between rosewood and maple in terms of tone/attack... so a maple bodied S-500 with a maple board will be "fairly" bright than a ash bodied with either ebony or maple fingerboard. Somebody needs to set me straight if I've been fed a whole lot of hogwash!!
Thanks!!!

I think the entire tonewood thing is hogwash, by the time you plug a guitar , into an amp, and substitute your style. Along with the great variances of density of any type of wood. It will not be the thing you notice. As for fretboard wood, that falls in the most ridiculous of the claims by far in my books. Acoustic guitars are different animals, but who plays 'Grandpa Guitars' anyway.

[suave eddie]

I think the entire tonewood thing is hogwash, by the time you plug a guitar , into an amp, and substitute your style. Along with the great variances of density of any type of wood. It will not be the thing you notice. As for fretboard wood, that falls in the most ridiculous of the claims by far in my books.

I am of the same opinion regarding woods affecting tone to any major degree, although I am sure many will disagree.

but who plays 'Grandpa Guitars' anyway

What is a "grandpa guitar"? I assume you are being facetious.

[sirmyghin]

but who plays 'Grandpa Guitars' anyway

What is a "grandpa guitar"? I assume you are being facetious.[/quote]

There is a short on the cartoon networks adult swim portion called "Metalocalyopse" about a death metal band that is slowly taking over the global market. In one episode they had to banish a river troll by playing some instruments in a chest, that were all acoustics and the first thing one says on opening it was "Oh Noes , Grandpa guitars", at which point they all refuse to play them. It kind of stuck with me as I almost died laughing, the show is pretty much a ridiculous parody of death metal.

[SouthpawGuy]

couple of shots of my lefty S500s'






Deluxe

[JonL]

I'm waiting very impatiently for the S-500 I bought on eBay to arrive. If anyone was watching eBay, I bought the sunburst S-500 that looked like it had been played hard every day of it's life and then left in a hot car so the pickguard got distorted. It looked pretty dirty too, but I think (hope) it will clean up nicely.

It'll join my '86 F-100, my early Legacy, and my vintage Strat. If I love the S-500 I'll be looking to sell the Legacy.

My S-500 finally arrived today! I'll post pictures and make a registry entry tonight. Psyched to plug her in and let her rip later on!

[udithen]

I have one more then 10 years awsome guitar (as well as all the g&l that I have 89 asat sig model and 93 legacy)

just posted a clip with it on youtube if you want to check it out....and i will post more with a clean sound as well soon


http://www.udilevy.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ubnsz6I9kU

[just-a-guy]

Love mine! Custom built. Natural wood binding, 7.5" radius and saddle lock bridge.

[JonL]

Here's mine. It's been played some, I think. It was atrociously dirty when I got it, I took it all apart to clean everything. It still needs a pickguard, I cannot imagine how the guard got as warped as it is.

[jumboman]

Well, I just posted "Now I know what the big deal is..." and wanted to post pictures of my new S-500 with Rocketfire Total '60's pickups, but couldn't figure out a way to upload them here, so here they are in photobucket:
http://s943.photobucket.com/albums/ad27 ... w%20S-500/

I'm in love

[JonL]

To embed photos in your post, just copy the "img" link in the little box on photobucket, and paste the link as-is into the body of your post. Click "Preview" to make sure it worked.

[Miles Smiles]

Here's mine. It's been played some, I think. It was atrociously dirty when I got it, I took it all apart to clean everything. It still needs a pickguard, I cannot imagine how the guard got as warped as it is.

Just heat, I guess.

I've watched that guitar at Ebay too and decided to not bid.

What about the tuners, don't they need to be replaced?

[JonL]

Here's mine. It's been played some, I think. It was atrociously dirty when I got it, I took it all apart to clean everything. It still needs a pickguard, I cannot imagine how the guard got as warped as it is.

Just heat, I guess.

I've watched that guitar at Ebay too and decided to not bid.

What about the tuners, don't they need to be replaced?

The tuners "work" right now but not as designed. There's enough room on the post to get a couple of winds of the string to keep it from slipping. Allparts sells just the locking knob parts and I found a set very inexpensively on eBay ($5 including shipping... looks like a store is liquidating a lot of inventory). The Sperzel site says that the tuners can be damaged by removing the locking knobs, so I'm not sure what I'll have when I get the pieces. Hopefully I won't have to actually replace the entire set of tuners. The guitar also could use a grind and polish on the frets, so by the time I get a pickguard, the tuner locks, and a grind and polish the guitar will end up being less of a bargain. Still, I was very curious to try an S-500 without a big budget. My desire is to get a guitar that plays great and sounds great but isn't so pristine or valuable that I'm afraid to bring it to bars where it can get knocked into, knocked over, spilled upon, or - heaven forbid - stolen. I bought an early Legacy just before this but the Seymour Duncans don't do it for me. It's also in almost mint condition - way too nice for me! I'd like to try a Legacy with G&L pups too. I don't want to buy new, so my best option is to try and buy at a reasonable price from eBay so I can live with the guitar for a while and if I don't like it sell it at break-even or only a small profit or loss. I'm willing to lose a little money on the deal as part of the cost of trying the guitar for a while.