G&L will be offering some recent Prototype instruments

[blargfromouterspace]

Woohoo! Can't wait (but will....) for the "if/when" this CCD model is released!

[Theguitarstore]

So, many of these just came in this week. Most of those sold. I have another 9 instruments that shipped from Fullerton today. So far only one of them, the semi hollow has been claimed. I will let you guess who needed another G&L. Hint he may be the only person who owns more G&L than me.

[blargfromouterspace]

So far only one of them, the semi hollow has been claimed. I will let you guess who needed another G&L. Hint he may be the only person who owns more G&L than me.

I look forward to hearing a full report on and many pictures of that guitar from both of you!

[zapcosongs]

Jos?????? - ed

[yowhatsshakin]

Jos?????? - ed

Of course Ed. My birthday is around the corner so would you expect otherwise?? Hope I get it in before the end of my LR stint next week.

- Jos

[zapcosongs]

As I suspected ;+)

Have a great birthday! I'll try to tune in next week. I've kind of "fallen out" (ha!) of late for reasons beyond my control..... - ed

[Its_Him_Again]

That is really nice. It should be light. I love the pine body Asat I have. I would also like to try a pine neck. That is a nice transparent Red. I will bet the grain shows more in person.-- Darwin

Tonally, it's a GREAT f***ing guitar! It weighs 6.8 lbs. Beautiful too. I would like to spray a gloss coat on the neck, however.

There are significant quality problems, though.

- The nut is poorly cut; the high strings "ping" when tuning, and go out of tune badly when bending. (Yes, they are the original spec strings, and the slots are clean.)

- The bridge is positioned a bit too far to the bass side, so the low E slides off the frets sometimes. The high E is too far from the edge. It isn't a matter of tweaking the neck or sliding the saddles a bit to the side. The bridge is simply in the wrong place.

- The neck cutout on the pick guard doesn't match the neck pocket, and that sharp corner of the guard is bent up about 3/32". The guard is pressed so tightly against the neck that that little corner can't be pressed down even with extreme force.

- There are a few badly beveled fret ends (and I do mean bad), and significant fret "sprout" that could not have been caused by humidity changes.

- The neck plate was screwed down too hard, cracking the finish. Makes me wonder if the assembler partially stripped the neck holes in the pine too.

- The quality of the hardware and its platings seem to have gone downhill. It looks and feels cheap. Not what I expected, based on my '96 L-2000 and my old Skyhawk.

- The hole for the intonation screw on the 6th string saddle is off kilter. So the saddle sits at an angle, angled slightly outward, exacerbating the problem of the incorrect bridge placement.

- The neck sculpting is screwed up in a few places. There is a very, very noticeable flat spot on the back where the neck shaper took off too much wood, and then tried to cover the mistake. There is also a wonky spot on the back edge of the head where too much wood was removed. And the peghead is also noticeably thinner than standard.

In fact, in G&L terms, I'd call it a quality control nightmare. Even though it's a prototype, it's a guitar that never should have left a self respecting factory like G&L's. It's just plain embarrassing. But in strictly tonal terms, I'm very glad that it did! I love the guitar; it's easily a top fiver in my life, and I own, and formerly owned, scores of very nice guitars. But I'm very disappointed with the quality itself, and the Q.C. As for those things, it's easily the worst G&L I've ever played, Tributes included. I would not let anyone pry it from my hands, though! I do all the work on my own guitars, so I won't actually have to put much out of pocket to get the thing squared away. It's all labor, and minimal materials; no parts. And with the [what I consider] low price I paid, it's not anything to throw a fit about. I will just ignore the unimportant issues (like the finish cracks and sloppy neck sculpting) and deal with the important ones (nut, bridge placement, and fret ends).

[Theguitarstore]

I have a few of these left . Just updated the site.

[gothink1]

Any chance of getting that page updated with new prototype guitars?

A great marketing idea: Sponsor a prototype guitar, you get the guitar in the end. G&L gets to experiment at a much less cost to them....

[JagInTheBag]

Any chance of getting that page updated with new prototype guitars?

A great marketing idea: Sponsor a prototype guitar, you get the guitar in the end. G&L gets to experiment at a much less cost to them....

That sounds like a great idea!