G&L Custom Shop light aged ASAT Special Solamente

[Craig]

From a post on G&L's facebook page (12/16/2024):

G&L Custom Shop light aged ASAT Special Solamente in nitrocellulose lacquer Butterscotch Blonde over swamp ash,
1-ply black guard, quartersawn 3a flame roasted maple neck with Clear Gloss finish and model logo delete.
Built for Sweetwater.

[tomanche]

Reverse control plate!

[sam]

This just keeps calling my name!

Those roasted necks look so cool.

If we could only put the old black crinkle hardware and guard on this, now that would be wicked!

[SUaPYG]

With only one pickup, what is the purpose of the selector switch?

[Craig]

With only one pickup, what is the purpose of the selector switch?

The tone circuit has three different selections. Here is the schematic for the ASAT Classic Solamente:


Also, see: List of Regular Production ASAT-style guitars (USA).

However, I do not know whether this is the same wiring for this Custom Shop ASAT Special Solamente.

I will contact James to find out the details for this guitar.

Stay tuned.

[Expert_Fretwork]

With only one pickup, what is the purpose of the selector switch?

Hi there! So this is wired the same way an old Fender Esquire is wired. Think of this as a very early "Rhythm/Lead Circuit" that Leo developed for the earliest versions of what we now know as the Telecaster back in the late 40's/early 50's.

Position 1 on the switch is just the pickup to the volume and the output, no tone control filter available. That would be your "Lead" position. You can roll the volume down, but that's it.
Position 2 introduces the tone control as an option. This makes it a selectable sound. You can pre-set your tone control rolled off slightly and be able to recall the sound quickly in the middle of a song without needing to turn the knob down. This could be a "Rhythm" setting for you, or just a tonal color change.
Position 3 takes the signal and filters it through a different capacitor with a significantly darker characteristic than the normal tone cap. This would be the primary "Rhythm" tone, much like people used old Gibson guitars for a long time, by selecting the warmer sounding neck pickup as the Rhythm tone, and the much brighter/punchier bridge pickup as the Lead tone.

Leo was able to accomplish that same dynamic shift with a single pickup by using different tone capacitors to vary the sounds in a simple but effective way, so when we make a Solamente Special, that's how we typically wire them, just like the old Esquire models of the early Fender days.

[Expert_Fretwork]

With only one pickup, what is the purpose of the selector switch?

The tone circuit has three different selections. Here is the schematic for the ASAT Classic Solamente:


Also, see: List of Regular Production ASAT-style guitars (USA).

However, I do not know whether this is the same wiring for this Custom Shop ASAT Special Solamente.

I will contact James to find out the details for this guitar.

Stay tuned.

For what it's worth, the diagram we use today on these is slightly different than this, with no .0223uF cap used between the tone control wire and the switch, it's instead a .047uF installed like a typical Tone Control cap directly to the pot. This is more in line with the way Leo originally wired Tone controls back in the early days. Modern guitars will typically use a .0223uF cap for the tone as it's a little less muffled sounding when rolled all the way off, and I will often do this on guitar builds for this reason, but this guitar has the Vintage vibe, so I went with a Vintage cap value.
The .0033uF cap is also changed to a .0047uF, which will make it slightly less muffled sounding in Position 3.

There is no longer a 1K resistor soldered to the Tone pot. And I also omitted the Treble Bleed resistor on the volume control.

[tomanche]

Excellent. Thanks for replying!

[Craig]

James sent me the wiring diagram for the Custom Shop ASAT Special Solamente and I added it to the Gallery.
Here's the link: https://www.guitarsbyleo.com/GALLERY3/i ... ng-diagram.

[SUaPYG]

Thank-you, Craig and James, for such an in depth and informative answer!