SeriesG&L USA

I'm in an alternative rock band, and I've been playing guitar for about 18 years. I found this guitar at a pawn shop in early 2000. Luckily, the pawn shop owner knows nothing about the value of guitars...so I bought a $1600 guitar in near-mint condition for $300. I love the sound and the stability of the guitar. Most of the time it's set on the bridge pickup through my Vox AC30 at low-medium gain, which sounds like a beefed-up Telecaster or a slightly brighter Les Paul. These single coils have very little noise, which is great for playing at high volume. The neck joint feels rock solid, despite only having three bolts. With some knob tweeking, I can make the ASAT sound like almost any guitar I want. It is very versatile and very solid--an all-around AWESOME axe. Not much...It's kinda ugly and the jack needed to be replaced, but that's what you pay for when you get a guitar from a pawn shop. That, and it's kinda pricy if you aren't as lucky as I am. It came with a bad output jack, but everything else is still just as solid as when I bought it about 6 years ago. If you're thinking of buying a high-end Telecaster or a Les Paul, definitely consider the ASAT Special. G&L makes amazing guitars, and this one is definitely no exception. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

For months, I was looking for a quality sounding guitar that was not going to break my bank. I found my G&L Tribute Legacy at Manny's Music (NYC) -- just walked in after deadheading my 9-5 and walked out with a $370 classic. In my quest for that mellow, growling twang, I tried various Fender Stratocasters (through various amps) ranging from the "standard" Mexican-made models, to the Jimmy Vaughn, a 50's reissue, a Powerhouse Strat, and an Antiqua model (made in Japan) with vintage pickups. Although I liked the sound the Fenders, they sounded a little thin to me, especially in the bridge position, and surprisingly, in the neck position. Since I have never been a fan of humbuckers (sorry folks), so the prospect of upgrading pickups to humbuckers or stacked coils was not an option. The pickups on the G&L Tribute Legacy give me that classic sound that is distinctively Stratocaster, but also packs an added warmth and tonality that few Fenders Stratocasters could never offer without complete upgrades. This guitar suits my playing style (mainly blues and 60s R&B as in Beatles, Stones, Cream, etc.) and sounds deliciously awesome through a overdriven tube amp. IMHO the neck is considerably more comfortable than some of the other guitars I have tried (including a Les Paul and Epi Casino). This guitar OOZES quality, despite the fact that it is made in Korea; besides I never bought into that "be American, buy American" crap anyway. The fit and finish are perfect. The fact of the matter it was made with the same high quality basswood, manufactured to the same specifications as its American-made G&L counterpart and contains the same US made G&L pickups. And yes it is gig-worthy, and I will gig with it. What is there not to like? Construction is very high quality and G&L has full control over the production process. G&L's choice of wood and expert craftsmanship for the Tribute line speaks for itself. You'd be hard pressed to find a Fender Stratocaster that had the same overall quality. Did I mention that it's made in Korea? Bottom line: Very high quality, excellent sound from G&L pickups, very appealing price. Highly recommended. This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Found this bass on ebay..when I got it was less than 6 months old and had been played sparingly. Got it for $395 Great sound!! This bass has more settings than I have time to reach down and switch while playing. 2 big fat humbucking G&L pickups sound beautiful thus far. I'm running this bass through a Yorkville amp that I picked up dirt cheap. I have friends who play Musicman, Warwick, Fender ect.. and when they play this bass they don't want to put it down. No real complaints...the action was a little high upon purchase and it needed to be adjusted, but it could have been the guy I got it from and not the factory. Swamp Ash body with Rosewood fingerboard G&L Saddle Lock bridge, G&L Tri-Tone active/passive electronics, 3-way mini-toggle pickup selector, series/parallel mini-toggle, preamp control mini-toggle (off/on/on with high end EQ boost) If I had to do it over again, I would go as far as to pay full factory price ($1200) for this bass. Sweet! This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

Close to the end of the year 2000 I became interested in buying a new bass guitar. It had been a while since I looked at basses but I happened across the G&L website. After one look at the beautiful ASAT Bass, I knew I wanted one. It is the Leo Fender creation which uses the Telecaster style body with the narrow Jazz Bass style neck. After checking many online music stores, I decided to buy mine from Buffalo Brothers. They offered the best price. I paid $895.00 for the guitar which was basically a stock model but I added the matching painted headstock. This extra cost a pricey $100.00. The ASAT Bass is a stunning visual design. The telecaster style body makes for an awesome looking bass guitar. The design without a horn on top sets it apart from almost every other bass guitar on the market. The ASAT Bass is also blessed with the same electronics package as the G&L L-2000 Bass. This design incorporates two of Leo's super hot MFD bass pick ups. Coupled with active electronics and switches which allow a wide variety of pick up configurations, the ASAT is one of the most versatile sounding basses you can buy. Add the thin, narrow super fast satin neck, and you've got one hot axe! The ASAT Bass does have a problem though. Many examples suffer from a tendency to be "neck heavy". This means that as you wear the guitar, if you remove your hand, the neck will slide down toward the floor. This has to do with the absence of the horn on top of the body. Don't fret too much though, because this problem (at least for me) was easily fixed. I simply bought a wide, rough texture leather Levy's strap and problem solved. No more neck dive. The construction and quality of the ASAT Bass is superior. G&L instruments are hand made in Fullerton, California. Many of the tools used to build G&L guitars are the very same ones used in the Fender Factory in the 1960's. Most enthusiasts believe the average G&L instrument to be equal to or better made then a Fender instrument made in Fender's Custom Shop. G&L instruments contain many innovations dreamed up by Leo Fender himself such as the bi-cut neck. This Leo patented innovation eliminated the "skunk stripe" found on the back of the neck on most other guitar brands. He sawed the neck in half. routed a channel for the truss rod and glued the two halves back together resulting in a much stronger, more stable, and more beautiful neck. The ASAT Bass is a winner. It looks great, it plays great, it sounds great, and it is an incredible value for the money. It is also made by Leo Fender. What else could anyone want? This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I bought this bass from Rutland Music in Valdosta, GA for about $1200. This is my second 2500; I use my older one (swamp ash figured top, birdseye maple neck) for gigging. This one (cherry burst with a quilt maple top and gun oil maple neck) stays at home! This bass is extremely easy to play, and you can get nearly any sound you want out of the dual humbuckers with active electronics. I also have a Fender Precision Bass (with Jazz Bass neck) and a new Rickenbacker 4003, but I always go back to the G&L. You can't beat the 2500 for a 5 string bass. I can't think of a thing I dislike. G&L offers many configurations and options. This one has a gun oil maple neck which is a little darker than the standard maple and gives it somewhat of a vintage look. It has a quilt maple top with a cherryburst finish. The scale length is 34", the neck width at nut is 1 3/4". It has 21 jumbo frets and G&L Ultra Lite tuners. G&L makes great basses! This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

This is a cream colored G&L guitar made by the Leo Fender company in California, USA. This was a limited run of 70 reissue guitars made to Jerry Cantrell of Alice In Chains specs in 1999. This was a "Cantrell sig" model before the new run of Cantrell sig models. Guitar comes with a Kahler pro trem with a Floyd type locking nut, one volume control and one Seymour Duncan TB-4 pickup. Alder body, maple neck and ebony fretboard with 22 frets and Schaller tuners. These guitars came in a very nice gig bag made by Chevy. UTILIZATION The guitar was light weight and had great balance and had the nice ergonomics of a strat type guitar. Access to the upper frets is that of a typical strat type of guitar as well. It has a very sweet unfinished neck that plays fast and is just the right size. Since it only has one humbucker pickup and a volume control the sound options are limited. It is easy to get a nice sound - just set your volume to taste and you are ready to go. SOUNDS I used this guitar with custom built Peters amplifiers, which are kind of a cross between a Peavey 5150 and high gain Marshall/VHT with a little Boogie thrown in. It was also used with these amps: Marshall TSL, Mesa DC-5 and Peavey 5150II. The amp was paired with an Avatar 4x12 that had Celestion G12h -30's and a Splawn 4x12 with Governor/ManOWar speaker combo, and a VHT FB cab. I usually go for a nice thick Jerry Cantrell AIC tone, to use with my modern rock/metal band. The guitar had a very open sound to it and all frequencies were represented evenly. It was tight and crunchy under high gain playing. Pretty much Jerry Cantrell's sound. The cleans were just ok because I had to rely on the TB-4 humbucker only. My favorite sounds with this guitar were the high gain tones - both lead and rhythm playing. Least favorite tones were the limited cleans. Overall it was a very nice, but limited, sound. OVERALL OPINION I really liked just about everything concerning this guitar, except for the lack of a second humbucker for different tones and no hardshell case. The playability, low weight and sounds it did do were great! I bought this at a nice price and now it would be a price on par with the reissue Charvel San Dimas strats, so the appointments are fairly comprable. The guitar's value has more than doubled since I owned it, but I sold it at the right time - well before the JC signatures came out. Knowing what I know now, I would buy it again and probably would have done the exact same with it - hold it and sell. In fact, as an investment, I should have bought five of them :) I have owned many guitars and had a number of years where I would buy, try and flip, which enabled me to have many guitars around to try out. This guitar has ranked right up there with the best of them in overall satisfaction.

The G&L Invader XL is another part of the Invader series. This guitar has a swamp ash body, maple neck with a maple fretboard, an original floyd rose, 22 frets, a 12'' radius, two humbuckers, one volume, one tone, a three way switch and a coil split switch. UTILIZATION The guitar is pretty awesome. For one, it has a floyd, and I'm a huge floyd rose fan. The construction of this guitar easily destroys 90% of the Fenders out there, too. However, this guitar is more comparable to an Ibanez or Jackson with the way it's designed. Upper fret access isn't too bad, and the fretwork itself is top notch. I really enjoy the 12'' radius as it works nicely for chording, but you can also achieve low action without worrying about fretting out. With a normal Fender radius, it's harder to get real low action. SOUNDS The guitar has some good bite to it thanks to it being a swamp ash guitar. The JB in the bridge has some strong treble, but the ash also helps give it some low end. You can do hair metal tones with ease. The neck humbucker is a Duncan '59, and it sounds perfect for this wood combo. It's clear, yet it's fat and smooth sounding. It seems to fit in the frequency spectrum perfectly. On top of that, there's also a coil split switch on this which allows you to split the coils for that single coil kinda tone. Great for clean lines. OVERALL OPINION Try to find one of these used if you can. They're great guitars with great fretwork, and they usually sound fairly resonant. The biggest issue with these guitars is the resale value thanks to G&L's awful marketing campaign. Trying them out in the store might be hard as there aren't many dealers, so you'll probably have to buy blind.

G&L is not just a company that makes strats and teles. They also make some pretty cool shred machines. This guitar has a swamp ash body, maple neck with maple fretboard, 12'' radius, 22 frets, original floyd rose, HSH configuration, volume, tone, mini toggle to split the bridge humbucker and a five way switch. UTILIZATION The guitar is pretty awesome. For one, it has a floyd, and I'm a huge floyd rose fan. The construction of this guitar easily destroys 90% of the Fenders out there, too. However, this guitar is more comparable to an Ibanez or Jackson with the way it's designed. Upper fret access isn't too bad, and the fretwork itself is top notch. I really enjoy the 12'' radius as it works nicely for chording, but you can also achieve low action without worrying about fretting out. With a normal Fender radius, it's harder to get real low action. SOUNDS The guitar sounds pretty killer. It has some nice bite in the treble thanks to the body being swamp ash and the pickup being a JB. It does that 80s metal tone in spades. The neck is a Seymour Duncan '59, and it's absolutely perfect for this guitar. It has some decent bite, but it's also fairly warm and smooth. That means it remains clear under solo lines, but it never feels too bright or harsh. I never really messed with the middle pickup as I'm not a huge fan of middle pickups, but it worked nicely in positions 2 and 4 for clean tones. There is also a coil split for the bridge pickup that allows you to get an almost single coil kinda tone. OVERALL OPINION These guitars are seriously underrated. Unfortunately, if you're buying new, they cost a good chunk of change. If you can find one used, I recommend buying one. Their resale value isn't the greatest, but these are some great playing guitars and a good alternative to the standard Jackson, ESP, Ibanez, etc.