Before I go any further, I should explain that my G&L recently belonged to another member of the forum: I bought Ottavio's S-500, serial number CLF33002. I would edit the Registry to reflect the sale, but the Registry doesn't like the password I used for my forum account.
I am a guitar newbie, learning via Mel Bay's “Modern Guitar Method” (Extended Editions, Grades 1-7). Make no mistake, I am kicking Page 12's butt...in the first book. I learned to read music, keep time, and the rest when playing trumpet in junior high school; guitar is a little different (that's sarcasm), but it's good to already have the basics down. I have also started learning some theory via Justin Sandercoe's “Practical Music Theory” (my prior music education makes this more understandable than it might otherwise be to a neophyte like me).
I play through a Blackstar Studio 20 head and a speaker cab I assembled from parts, including: a Seismic Audio 2x12 cab, an Eminence Wizard speaker, and a WGS HM75 speaker. It is wired such that both speakers can be used together as a 16Ω load or independently as two 8Ω loads. If anyone is interested, I'll post the amp settings I use.
Here are some highlights from a post I wrote on a different forum, for someone who's interested in a G&L S-500:
The guitar got here this morning, and I just finished about two hours' worth of tuning, practice, and goofing around (which is a great way to learn the feeling of a new guitar).
“Barely played” was actually less true than it could've been, but for my benefit. The plastic film was still on the pick guard, the strings hadn't stretched yet, and everything was so clean I could've eaten off of it. The best thing about the age aspect of this guitar is that the rock maple has already yellowed in a way that looks beautiful with the gold/brown/red/black sunburst coloring of the finish (of course, I hate the white appearance of new maple on a guitar).
The neck geometry instantly made me a better player, and the sound is unbelievable. Turns out I didn't need to retrain my ears, I just needed a better guitar. Played clean it is as jazzy and crisp as anything I can imagine, and overdriven—with the sorta-Santana settings on the amp I set up with my old guitar—it is Carlos Santana: the MFD pickups really do have the heat to feed tube overdrive without losing tone. To say the tonal range of this thing has legs (a Southern saying meaning something has years' worth of use) would be a gross understatement.
The strings stretched out with about 20 minutes' worth of tuning and retuning, and they stayed perfectly in tune once they'd finished stretching. I don't know anything about locking tuners, but I have to assume they're engaged. The whammy bar hasn't been installed yet, so I'll have to tell you about the dual fulcrum bridge some other time.
Subjectively, the weight difference is night and day. Two hours of tuning and playing caused me none of the usual discomfort. I now see playing everyday as a possibility. Putting my old guitar away (as in moving the loaded case) used to threaten my balance; I can do bicep curls with the S-500. Also, the shaping of the body makes it infinitely more comfortable to play seated than any ES-335 clone I've seen.
I am so happy with this guitar is feels fake, like I used a cheat code in real life...I can't put into words how much more this feels like actually playing guitar. A true glissando and a few bends in practice, and I'm almost writing emo poetry. Most of that sensation is due to the fact that my fretwork improved by miles as soon as I started playing this guitar: the times I've experienced that kind of improvement in my body can be counted on the fingers of one spastic, uncooperative hand.
