Is this a stock Leo Fender signature ASAT Bass?

[astoni]

Greetings! Another G&L bass owner and I have been having a private conversation on Reverb about a Leo Fender Signature ASAT Bass for sale now on Reverb (neither of us is selling this bass -- it is being offered from Italy). The bass in question is purportly a 1980 Leo Fender Signature ASAT. It has a body feature neither of us has ever seen before, namely a flat beveled contour at the bridge where the player's right arm drapes across the bass, sort of like my 1982 Wunkay, but not rounded or curved at all, just a simple flat bevel. Is this some sort of special custom shop sort of thing, or possibly a modification made by an owner prior to a refinish job, or something else...?

The bass in question is at https://reverb.com/item/36690389-g-l-as ... leo-fender

Thanks for your thoughts and help!

Yours in the groove...

[sam]

Hi astoni,

There appears to be a little skullduggery going on here, partscaster maybe. Use the link below for a little history on the ASAT Bass and signature models. Hope this helps.

http://www.ggjaguar.com/asatbass.htm

"The ASAT Bass was introduced in 1990 and remains in G&L’s current catalog. It is essentially an L-2000 with a Telecaster style body and a Jazz Bass style neck. The early versions of this bass have a non-contoured slab body which most players found uncomfortable. When BBE took over production, they contoured the rea of body on all post-1992 ASAT Basses. Another interesting feature of some early ASAT Basses is the jack plate. This plate is the same unit used as a pickup toggle plate on G-200s! This particular bass is a Signature series model and sports Leo Fender’s signature on the body. The series ran from 1988 to early 1992 and was limited to a just a few models. The use of Leo’s signature, however, brought about a damaging lawsuit from Fender Musical Instruments Corporation which owned the rights to the Fender name. Hence, the Signature series instruments are considered somewhat more collectable. While most ASAT Basses had an ash body, this particular bass was ordered with an optional maple body and, although the it sounds very good, the maple body adds a substantial amount of weight."

[Craig]

I emailed a contact at the G&L factory and sent him the link and serial number to get details, here is Memo's reply:

Hi Craig,
Looks like the contours are legit, it doesn’t specify that in production log but judging from the color description (Black) it doesn’t appear like it has been refinished. The production date is July 3rd 1990, have a great day.

Hope this helps.