I think I need another guitar..
Yea man, thats a nice guitar!! I love ebony fretboards.....I was 18 when I got my first Las Paul Custom, sold the farm, never bought a fast car, or any car for that matter, like my friends did, I bought guitars!!kevzep - - nice collection of Gibbie's there! And an ASAT with a Bigsby -- verrrrrry nice. I lean more toward the Leo-era G&L's but have to say the guitars that BBE built and continue to build are excellent. Here's a closeup pic of Blues Blue #1 which was conceived by Tim Page from Buffalo Brothers guitars and later became a production model. The top was culled from a piece of quilted maple that Leo had in his office and never used. Seems he hated glued surfaces and kept pushing back on using it while he was alive. There it sat for many years until...
Seriously thought about it in the 1980's......Never going to happen now though!!Yes, an original 1959 Les Paul Standard. Don't we all?
Few more pics, these are my three favourite guitars, I play the Custom a lot, and yes its very heavy!! But I have mainly played Les Paul's so I don't really notice it....
The pickup switch is 6 positions, forward is Neck/All Three/Bridge, then Back is middle/neck out of phase, Middle (can't remember lol) and then Middle/Bridge out of phase. There is a coil splitter for the Bridge pickup, I was also going to add one for the neck as well, haven't got around to it yet, and I have had the guitar for 10years!!
The pickups on the G&L are actually fairly high gain, and you can get a very good Ritchie Blackmore type single coil sound....
I use bypass caps on the volume controls to retain a nice glassy clean sound when you roll the volume back...
I am old school, I push the front end of my guitar amps to a little bit distorted, push it over the edge with a double Hot Cake overdrive....Clean is rolling off the volume....
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Hahaha, yeah, its like a 6 speed manual transmission!!Cool axes, man. I remember Jimmy Page demonstrating the 6-position switch in that guitar. Sort of like rowing the gears in a sports car.
Beautiful and unique gear James.
Thanks for the very interesting information, I will have a look at that, those pickups are very surprising the first time you plug the guitar in, they are not what I was expecting, but rather a pleasant surprise!!kevzep - - I'm sure you're familiar with the Guitars by Leo site but if not it's a great resource. P90's are my all time favorite pups with Leo's MFD's being next up. While they look like P90's the structure and design are very different and really showcase Leo's genius with pickup and electronics design. As you mentioned they are fairly hot pups for a single coil but clean up nicely and can cover a wide range of sounds. Yours are somewhat different from the earlier Leo-era models but still with the same family sound signature, responsiveness and playability. Here's a link to the G&L pups and specs that you might interesting:
http://guitarsbyleo.com/FORUM/viewtopic.php?p=37
G&L Magnetic Field Design™ soapbar style single coils
4.4K - 4.9K (pre-1992); 4.7K - 5.4K (post-1991); 4.8K-5.3K ASAT Junior; 4.8K-4.9K 20th Anniv; 6.39K ASAT Classic Custom Neck; 5.4K-5.7K ASAT Super; 6.5K for the Neck, 7.25-7.3K for Middle RW/RP, and 7.25-7.3K for the Bridge on the ASAT Trinity Special Edition; 4.7K-4.8K CLF Centennial ASAT SC-1, SC-2, Broadcaster, ASAT, ASAT Special, ASAT Junior, ASAT S-3, ASAT Special Semi-Hollow, 20th Anniversary Model, ASAT Classic Custom neck pickup, ASAT Classic Custom Semi-Hollow neck pickup, ASAT Super, ASAT Trinity Special Edition, Tribute ASAT Special, Tribute ASAT Special Semi-Hollow, Tribute ASAT Special Deluxe Carved Top, neck pickup in GbL LE2
These pickups have given G&L its enviable reputation for great tone. The soapbars have higher output than the Strat style MFDs and are "ballsy". They have more midrange than Gibson P-90 alnico soapbars while reproducing the P-90's well-known harmonic complexity. They are great for cutting through a mix. The bass response is strong and well focused. In the neck position, the soapbar MFD produces fine blues tone. In the bridge position, it has excellent spank and clarity for lead work. The ASAT Junior, 20th Anniversary Model, ASAT Super (neck over-wound with 42 gauge wire; bridge over-wound with 43 gauge wire), ASAT Trinity Special Edition, and SC-2 (2008 and later-bridge only-same as ASAT Super bridge) pickups are over-wound. The ASAT Classic Custom and ASAT Classic Custom Semi-hollow neck pickup pole piece bushings are longer than the standard ASAT Special pickup. An extra 200 windings were added, but they stack up entirely differently and the magnet is further down under as well. They are warm and fat but still have tonal characteristics of the standard MFD single coil.
Didn't see until now that your ASAT is a semi-hollow. And the Black Tuxedo look is classic. So nice. Good call on the Hot Cake too. I've been using one for years and not only is it a great pedal, who can't love an effect created by a member of Split Enz?
I wish I still had some of my guitars too. And don't get me started on the ones I either sold off before the big spike in prices and/or let slip through my hands. Just 3 electrics left now. A goldtop LP with P90's, an Ibanez AM-100 that is really a stellar instrument and super comfortable to play and a 1981 G&L L1K bass (with the smoothest ebony board I've ever played on) that started me on G&L's in the first place many, many moons ago.
What do you think of the Guild Hartke aluminum coned speakers for bass?
Nothing too exotic here. Martin DCPA-3 for pickin', Gibson Les Paul Deluxe for grinnin'.
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You play a little Poco with those?