Authenticating a G&L ASAT S-3

[BigBob]

Is there any way Authenticating a G&L ASAT S-3 ? I bought off E-Bay and didn't have paperwork. Pickups are Custom for sure , But I am hoping rest was factory done. Serial Number is CLF38011. It has a Birdseye Maple 7 1/2 neck, Rosewood Fret Board, Semi Hollow Body Painted in Cream White with ASH Back with Flame Maple top with wood Bindings.The Pickups have Alnico 5 Magnets, The bridge is a Humbucker 12 ohms and the other 2 are Single Coils around 7 ohms to 8 ohms in the neck. I have a ASAT Classic and thought it would be nice to have. Thanks for any help. Fixed the seial Number. Thank You.

[Craig]

Is there any way Authenticating a G&L ASAT S-3 ? I bought off E-Bay and didn't have paperwork. Pickups are Custom for sure , But I am hoping rest was factory done. Serial Number is CFL38011. It has a Birdseye Maple 7 1/2 neck, Rosewood Fret Board, Semi Hollow Body Painted in Cream White with ASH Back with Flame Maple top with wood Bindings.The Pickups have Alnico 5 Magnets, The bridge is a Humbucker 12 ohms and the other 2 are Single Coils around 7 ohms to 8 ohms in the neck. I have a ASAT Classic and thought it would be nice to have. Thanks for any help.

The serial number is likely CLF38011, not CFL38011. The body looks to be one of the Trinity Special Editions model.
It's possible that someone replaced the neck with an ASAT neck. The Trinity headstock has a special Trinity decal.
See the Rarebirds section of our G&L Registry for the Trinity model for details. Does it have the
"Special Edition" neck plate. If so, that's another clue that it might have been a Trinity model with a swapped out neck.
Another possibility is that the guitar was an employee built guitar, and if so, likely to have been built around the same
time as the Trinity.

The pickups are definitely not stock G&L ASAT Soapbar MFD pickups (nor the specially wound version set for the Trinity).

Hope this helps.

Also, please do register it in the G&L Registry, too.

[yowhatsshakin]

Hi Big Bob,

I have seen that guitar on eBay where it was available for quite a while. This is the one with the rosewood pickup covers constructed by one of the previous owner, isn't it? The serial number is in the '04-'05 range. The Trinities have later serial numbers in the CLF43000 range and do not have maple caps on ash but rather complete maple bodies. Furthermore, all 26 Trinities built, including Greg Gagliano's Trinity destroyed in a flood (CLF43509) and its replacement (CLF54115), plus the one that was built with wrong color binding amd sold as an "S-3" without COA by Buffalo Brothers (CLF43528) are accounted for in the registry. So for sure, it is not a Trinity. You either have an ASAT S3, although these were built earlier, or more likely a modified ASAT Special. To find out more about your guitar yourself, you would have to take off the neck and inspect any date stamps in either the neck pocket and/or the neck heel and also peek under the pickguard to inspect the pickup rout. ASAT models are not supposed to have a bathtub rout which should be easy to detect.

Hope this helps,

- Jos

Edit: Corrected name of owner of destroyed Trinity. See Craig's post below.

[BigBob]

Thank You for the replies, I will try to get that info this week and post it.

[Craig]

Hi Big Bob,

I have seen that guitar on eBay where it was available for quite a while. This is the one with the rosewood pickup covers constructed by one of the previous owner, isn't it? The serial number is in the '04-'05 range. The Trinities have later serial numbers in the CLF43000 range and do not have maple caps on ash but rather complete maple bodies. Furthermore, all 26 Trinities built, including Gabe Dellevigne's Trinity destroyed in a natural disaster (CLF43509) and its replacement (CLF54115), plus the one that was built with wrong color binding amd sold as an "S-3" without COA by Buffalo Brothers (CLF43528) are accounted for in the registry. So for sure, it is not a Trinity. You either have an ASAT S3, although these were built earlier, or more likely a modified ASAT Special. To find out more about your guitar yourself, you would have to take off the neck and inspect any date stamps in either the neck pocket and/or the neck heel and also peek under the pickguard to inspect the pickup rout. ASAT models are not supposed to have a bathtub rout which should be easy to detect.

Hope this helps,

- Jos

Not all Trinity instruments have an owner listed in the Registry and it is quite possible that the owner of one of them
swapped out the neck with an earlier built ASAT neck and then later sold it or a new owner replaced the neck. I will
be interested in knowing if the neckplate is a standard one or one like the Trinity instruments have.

Also, the Trinity that was replaced was not Gabe's (his has a Three-tone Sunburst finish). The one that was replaced had a Tobacco
Sunburst finish. You probably will be able to figure out who's it was.

Another thing that BigBob could ask the seller is if he knows whether it is a Semi-Hollow (without f-hole) body.
The wood binding on this body looks like it has been tinted just like a Trinity, but, of course, photos posted on a website
don't always represent the actual image color-wise. And with a non-transparent finish it will be difficult to confirm whether
the body is a Swamp Ash with a Maple cap. Though you might be able to tell by lifting off the control plate and see the
unfinished body wood under it.

If Tim is around lurking, perhaps he has some knowledge of this instrument. You there Tim?

[yowhatsshakin]

Also, the Trinity that was replaced was not Gabe's (his has a Three-tone Sunburst finish). The one that was replaced had a Tobacco
Sunburst finish. You probably will be able to figure out who's it was.

Hi Craig,

Thanks for that correction. For some reason I have always thought it was Gabe's instead of Greg Gagliano's. Which is funny, because Tim wrote me about that when I got Bob's Trinity, so I should have known about it. Oh well ...

- Jos

P.S. I corrected the name in the original post to not spread incorrect information.

[BigBob]

Here are a few more pictures. Inside neck pocket is 615 with a Green Dot, Body is Semi-Hollow and neck plate is a standard one. I will add neck pocket picture in a few. The Neck Pickup pocket says:
Ivory-
MO TGN # W
The Middle says:
????????????????
W/B Push Pull
The Bridge says:
????
TG/WB
25 6079-LA??????



[imghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v518/Galil1953/100_3838.jpg][/img]

[Craig]

Well, your photos do confirm that this was a body built just like the Trinity model and
may have been in the batch built for them. The body sure looks like Maple (the neck pocket photo) and the
natural wood binding is definitely gun-oil tinted. The six digit number in the bridge pickup pocket is likely the
factory's internal tracking order number. If Tim Page is lurking, he might be able to confirm the tracking order number.

So the question remains: is this an extra Trinity body and possibly built by an employee and then sold/traded
by that employee, or one of the original 25 which had the neck replaced with a previously built ASAT neck by
one of the previous owners?

The factory is currently on their annual shutdown (8/1-8/12), so any inquiring I could do about it will have
to wait until they return.

Hope this helps.

[BigBob]

Thank You for the info, I will be interested to see what it is.

[Craig]

Thank You for the info, I will be interested to see what it is.

Do you have a picture of the neckplate?

[BigBob]

Here you go. The guy I bought from in California said it was a Trinity Body, As for that I don't know I didn't buy it for that reason, I liked it. Must say I might get a new set of pickups though. Thank You all for the help and info.

[Craig]

Here you go. The guy I bought from in California said it was a Trinity Body, As for that I don't know I didn't buy it for that reason, I liked it. Must say I might get a new set of pickups though. Thank You all for the help and info.

Did he happen to say what happened to the Trinity neck and neckplate?
I sure would like to know the serial number of the Trinity this was.

You should be able to get the standard ASAT Special neck and bridge pickups from the G&L on-line store (currently closed).
But getting a middle S-3 reverse wound pickup will be harder to get. Of course, if you were able to get the original set of
Trinity pickups that would be what I would recommend installing.

So, I would characterize that what you got is a G&L parts guitar with non G&L pickups.
I have added this to our G&L Registry and you can edit the entry to add yourself as current owner.

[BigBob]

I talked to the Guy I bought it from, He dosen't have the neck plate, But says he has the neck and middle Pickup. I will try to get them and worry about a Bridge pickup later. Will post pictures if I do. Again thank you all for your time and replies.

[Craig]

I talked to the Guy I bought it from, He dosen't have the neck plate, But says he has the neck and middle Pickup. I will try to get them and worry about a Bridge pickup later. Will post pictures if I do. Again thank you all for your time and replies.

If you can get the serial number from the original neck, please do post it.

Thanks,

[BigBob]

I made it a Trinity clone, He had a neck and Bridge pickup and I bought a new neck pickup and had it Rewound for the Middle position. Had a Push Pull volume added with new Pick guard . Plays and sounds great. Like it so well I picked up a ASAT Classic .