This is my first post!
I've just bought a s/h G&L Tribute S-500, made in Indonesia, S/N 150313*** (which I think makes it March 2015...?).
It's had a few tweaks:
- Black Gotoh ratio locking tuners
- Back of neck sanded/sealed (so it's faster/less sticky)
- Lace sensor Red/Silver/Blue loaded tortoiseshell scratchplate - so new pots, switch and pickups
Photos attached/linked below.
It's literally just arrived and I've barely had 1 minute with it, only acoustically. Looking forward to getting it plugged in this evening, but my initial impressions are very favourable. Plays really well. I bought this thinking that it might replace my Eric Johnson strat and I think that likely. It's definitely a different flavour of strat, but is more up my street spec wise (satin neck, rosewood (?) fingerboard, prefer the trem and the locking tuners, etc).
I am am likely to:
1) Replace the pickguard and trem guard (probably with black pearl ones). I gather the standard 11 hole strat ones won't fit as the screw hole locations are different. G&L suggested google search and having a specialized pickguard maker trace the existing pickguard and make it to my specs.
2) Strip (sand?) the body back to a natural finish. Any thoughts/steers/tips/advice greatly appreciated. G&L's records say the body wood is poplar, made in Fullerton California
3) The push/pull pot was removed , so I'll either add that back (neck+bridge is my favourite stat pickup combo), or possibly consider a 10 way switch for additional series/parallel options.
4) Replace the screws with black ones. Not sure of the right spec for the pickup and the selector switch ... ?
5) Replace the knobs with black metal ones. Again, not sure of the right spec ... ?
Best,
Dan
www.danburne.com