Paul Gagon designed pickups

[dhgleaves]

Hello. On another G&L group, someone made the comment that if pickups are described as being "designed by G&L" or "designed by Paul Gagon" that means that they are made in Asia rather than the USA. I'm sure the guy was right about the "designed by G&L" comment, but I would not have thought the same about the Paul Gagon comment. Didn't he design a good many of current G&L pickups? Is it correct that such a description means that the pickups are not made in the USA?

Thanks
David

[Craig]

Hello. On another G&L group, someone made the comment that if pickups are described as being "designed by G&L" or "designed by Paul Gagon" that means that they are made in Asia rather than the USA. I'm sure the guy was right about the "designed by G&L" comment, but I would not have thought the same about the Paul Gagon comment. Didn't he design a good many of current G&L pickups? Is it correct that such a description means that the pickups are not made in the USA?

Thanks
David

I have updated the notes in this post in the Knowledgebase forum >> General G&L Questions sub-forum: List of pickups used in G&L guitars.

Notes:
Dates given are approximate.
Impedances given are in ohms; these figures are approximate and will vary since the 1980-2005 (aprox.) G&L pickups were hand wound.
The 2006-present G&L MFD and Alnico pickups are machine wound at the G&L factory for the US models, except for the Custom Shop G&L pickups, which are hand wound.
Tone is dependent upon factors other than pickups such as circuit, body wood, body type, and fingerboard wood.
G&L built Alnico pickups use Alnico 5 magnets, except where noted.
For details on decoding G&L pickup part numbers see: Decoding the various G&L pickup part numbers.

Paul Gagon designed the G&L Alnico pickups which are built at the G&L factory for use in the US models.
Psul also designed the G&L Dual Blade and Power Blade Humbuckers, which are built by Gotoh in Japan to G&L's (Paul's specs).

Hopefully, this will help clarify this.

[dhgleaves]

Thanks, Craig. So, it seems that if a pickup is described as being designed by him, it may or may not be a USA pickup but it doesn't necessarily mean that it's NOT made in the USA. Many Tributes are listed as having "Gagon-designed pickups" for example this http://glguitars.com/product/asat-deluxe-carved-top/ one. I believe those pickups are only used in Tribute models, so I assume they are not made in the USA, but again you can't conclude that just from the fact that it says they are "Gagon-designed". Would you agree?
David

[Craig]

Thanks, Craig. So, it seems that if a pickup is described as being designed by him, it may or may not be a USA pickup but it doesn't necessarily mean that it's NOT made in the USA. Many Tributes are listed as having "Gagon-designed pickups" for example this http://glguitars.com/product/asat-deluxe-carved-top/ one. I believe those pickups are only used in Tribute models, so I assume they are not made in the USA, but again you can't conclude that just from the fact that it says they are "Gagon-designed". Would you agree?
David

See this post "Note About G&L Tribute Series Guitar Pickups" in the List of pickups used in G&L guitars:

-The Tribute Series instruments (including Limited Editions/Exclusive Models) that use MFD pickups are the same USA pickups made in Fullerton, CA.
-The single coil Alnico pickups (CLF-100) used in the Tribute Series Legacy are also the same pickups used in the USA Legacy and are made at the Fullerton factory.
-Other single coil Alnico pickups, humbuckers and P-90's used in the Tribute Series instruments are made to G&L's specifications at the Cort facility in Indonesia.

Note: Most of the Tribute Series MF/GC Exclusive Models have pickups which are made to G&L specifications at the Cort facility in Indonesia, see: 2015-present MF/GC Exclusive Tribute Models.

The quoted post covers which pickups are Fullerton factory built used in the Tribute Series model and which pickups are made to G&L specifications at the Cort facility,
regardless of whether they are listed as Gagon designed or G&L designed.

Hope this helps clarify this confusion.