One (of a few) that got away . . .

[jeff sutton]

Life is complicated sometimes, I've been incredibly lucky overall but had a moment where i needed to let some stuff go . . .

Here's one that I wish I still had . . .



Notice the name of the salesperson . . . never saw Dale happier than when he was writing up a sales receipt.

~j

[verybestal]

Does that really say G00058? Since they started at G00050, this would've been one of the very first G&Ls ever built. Very special piece, indeed.

Oh well, at least it passed through your hands. That's how I measure my gear. It's mostly about the memories anyway!

Thanks for posting.

[Elwood]

Does that really say G00058? Since they started at G00050, this would've been one of the very first G&Ls ever built. Very special piece, indeed.

...yet the date on the receipt is '90(if I'm seeing it right) , there must be a small story there (in Dale's stash for ten years until he found a deserving player? ) .

The serial numbers weren't pulled out of the box sequentially, so the neck pocket dates are the best way to nail down the first ones. Or the Logbook I guess.

[KenC]

The official "first" F-100 was G000500. Some plates with lower serial numbers existed, but they didn't generally show up on production guitars. I remember reading something where George Fullerton said they were reserved for instruments G&L presented as gifts or made as special builds. I think that was in "Guitars by George and Leo". There are a few serial numbers below G000500 in the Registry. Of course, with G&L in the 1980s just about anything was possible with parts. Maybe they were running low on neck plates one day and went to the stash...

FWIW, the lowest serial number in the Registry that's above G000500 is G000504. It's an F-100 that I traded away last year. It had neck and body dates from September and October 1980, so there's no way it was the fifth guitar to leave the factory.

My L-1000 has pre-production dates on the neck and body, but the serial number is fairly high.

Ken

[jeff sutton]

It's SN G00584, and Dale described it to me as a "salesman's sample".

It was a real early one, never pulled the neck on it but if you know the instruments it's easy to see. It came from the so-called "showroom" behind Dale's office so I never felt the need to investigate further. Besides, this was well before there was even a notion of "leo era" G&L's, and I bought it cause it was a cool early G&L, didn't think too hard. I got that the cashflow was important to Dale -- those were lean days for G&L, and he seemed grateful whenever I'd buy something in those years.

The paint on this guitar is pretty unusual - I've only seen one other G&L with that particular paint, and it was on a L-1000 bass I used to own, SN B00502. That one is in the gallery here, but when the instruments were side by side it was hard not to agree that they were painted on the same day -- the finish has a lot of orange peel in it, and they were identically weird.

Here's a picture of the bridge:



Used to love visiting Dale and that showroom; I bought a lot of guitars for friends from him and always enjoyed hearing stories about the business.

Best,

~j

[Elwood]

way cool !!
thanks for the recollections and pictures.
I'm really enjoying them.

[Fumble fingers]

Jeff thanks for posting !! ..... this is great stuff to those of us that are new to G&L , thanks again

Eric