Hi friends, I took delivery on the below Indonesian ASAT Classic Tribute yesterday 9/7/16 and am putting it through it's paces today. The bridge pickup is trebly in the extreme and has far less oomph than the neck pickup. The neck pickup sounds fantastic b/t/w but the bridge alnico has no "there, there". Three allen wrenches were provided and I surmise that the middle one in size is to raise or lower the poles or the pickup. The pickup has three holes but that allen key doesn't seem to fit anything down inside there.
I really don't want to have to ship this back or to some third party, and talking with MF on the phone, the alternative is to ship it to the warranty place. As you can imagine, I'm not in a mind at all to turn around and send this off anywhere. I absolutely love the sound of the neck and both pups together. But the bridge pup has no presence at all by itself. I can do chicken pickin' and the treble is usually a good thing to have but this is too tinny. I have considered getting a Seymour Duncan Broadcaster bridge pickup but I'd rather not pull that trigger until I get some opinions and/thoughts from experienced G&L aficionados like your good selves. The sustain on this ash guitar goes on forever. Thoughts? What about the allen key? Thanks big time. Jim
The bridge pup should raise with the three phillips head screws surrounding the pickup.
I'm pretty sure those are fixed polepieces, the holes are just there to tempt you
If you can't get more punch by raising the pickup, and like the everything else about the guitar,
swapping out the bridge pup for something a little beefier sounding makes sense.
You can also add a capacitor to the bridge pickup to lower the resonant peaks.
Elwood is spot on. Also, the middle size (2mm) allen wrench is used for the control knobs set screw.
The G&L Alnico pickups for the ASAT Classic Alnico models were designed to model the late 50's/early 60's Tele pickups. See this post in our G&L Knowledgebase:List of pickups used in G&L guitars.
Craig wrote:Elwood is spot on. Also, the middle size (2mm) allen wrench is used for the control knobs set screw.
The G&L Alnico pickups for the ASAT Classic Alnico models were designed to model the late 50's/early 60's Tele pickups. See this post in our G&L Knowledgebase:List of pickups used in G&L guitars.
Ahhhh! That's thr only hole I missed. (I know--that's what she said).
Actually the pickup height seems to be no higher or lower than it should be. I'll, toy with the other screw that Elwood mentioned (Thanks Elwood) for the heck of it. I don't expect that to really KO the issue though. BTW, I once owned the Fender '52 reissue Tele for a while and had no such issue. But I needed a used car and it had to go. I did however scour YouTube for information while waiting for delivery. I was impressed with the SD Broadcaster demo. Thanks Craig, I'll check the link directly. Jim
Well, I ordered a Seymour Duncan Quarter Pounder for the bridge just now (Friday evening). S/B here midweek. I had hoped my local GC would have something (especially the Broadcaster model) but nay. GC was a bust for all but humbuckers and sound hole pups for acoustics. I bought a pack of .047 capacitors though. I'll put one in and try before making the final switch. Sweetwater will take the Quarter Pounder back should something miraculous happen with this shrill and empty-sounding nascent bridge pup.
