Ascari GT-90s still being made?

[ewe2]

Hi all, I'm currently paying off a Tribute Ascari GT-90 (a 2015 guitar no less) and I was under the impression they were discontinued. However, I'm still seeing the guitar as being available to order, is there still stock left at the Cort factory in Indonesia perhaps? They're lovely guitars and I hope they bring all the Tribute Ascaris and Fioranos back too if that's the case!

[Craig]

Hi all, I'm currently paying off a Tribute Ascari GT-90 (a 2015 guitar no less) and I was under the impression they were discontinued. However, I'm still seeing the guitar as being available to order, is there still stock left at the Cort factory in Indonesia perhaps? They're lovely guitars and I hope they bring all the Tribute Ascaris and Fioranos back too if that's the case!

They were discontinued in 2017, see: Re: Ascari/Fiorano - Disappeared?.

Where are you seeing that they are available to order?

[ewe2]

Craig, it's the very shop I'm laybuying the Ascari from, an Aussie shop in Canberra. I don't know why they think it can be ordered, I will ask them, it might be a mistake.

[Proliant]

Its a bummer that these were discontinued. I have a GT-90 and personally I think its great. The P90's and set-neck give it a nice "junior" vibe and the Strat type body shape makes it a bird of a different color. I was enjoying the idea that G&L were pushing the boundaries. Gagon got the pickups to balance far better than most P90 guitars do. Were they just not selling well?

[Danley]

Eager to hear if Craig has insight on why they were discontinued. Only a guess but the obvious observation is they didn't closely match the rest of G&L's product line. That was maybe sort of the point anyway (although attempts were made to link the design to blueprints found at the factory from the '80s if I remember correctly) - but for a company touting itself as 'the birth of bolt-on' to cater to the Schecter/PRS SE market was a bit unusual in my eyes.

Perhaps G&L decided those weren't the easiest 'gateway drug' to a US-made G&L - never mind they actually made them to be great guitars on their own. At the same at this cultural moment G&L's more traditional models are probably more in fashion than the Fiorano and Ascari; HH/TOM double-cut guitars with flame tops are what every band used when I started playing guitar (early '00s) but nowadays the vibe seems more toward quirky or retro/traditional models anyway. Not even Fender really has an equivalent model to that any more.

[Proliant]

Yeah ..... they certainly didn’t fit the mold. That’s exactly why I like it. I can understand that they weren’t a “gateway drug” to USA G&L’s but they had a niche of their own. Funny enough, a USA Comanche was the “gateway drug” to the GT-90 for me. LOL ..... Glad I got one while the getting was good.

[ewe2]

I thought that the decision was at least partly to do with CITES; also no great impetus to resume production because as great as they are, they weren't selling in big enough numbers to warrant a retool of the necks. I hope they can bring them back one day, I would have bought a GTS or a Fiorano had they been available when I was looking for a short-scale humbucker guitar.

[ewe2]

Well as of today there's still an order option on the website for an Ascari GT-90, perhaps they have a stock of them that escaped, I don't know. I asked about it and didn't get a straight answer and I want to keep my good relationship with them so I won't pry further. Anyway here she is, even better in the hands than the photos, plays like butter, really classic sound; is even phase inverted in the middle position for hum cancellation and sounds quite sweet and not thin like phase-cancelled humbuckers often do. The build is practically perfect, couldn't ask for better.

[Craig]

Well as of today there's still an order option on the website for an Ascari GT-90, perhaps they have a stock of them that escaped, I don't know. I asked about it and didn't get a straight answer and I want to keep my good relationship with them so I won't pry further. Anyway here she is, even better in the hands than the photos, plays like butter, really classic sound; is even phase inverted in the middle position for hum cancellation and sounds quite sweet and not thin like phase-cancelled humbuckers often do. The build is practically perfect, couldn't ask for better.

That is a fine looking Tribute Ascari GT-90. It was built in 9/2015 and you must have found a dealer with some NOS Tributes.
Again this model officially was discontinued by G&L in 2017.