G&L USA ASAT. Any love here ?

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goddardo

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I've been looking for either a LP or Tele type guitar for a while now & a G&L ASAT appeared on my radar.
Vintage white, tortoise shell guard, R/W fingerboard. in other words, my favourite features.
I know the basic history with these & their quality, but never played one, so I'm checking if any guys here can tell me a thing or two. I reckon I could get it with a Fender case for ?500 ish.

Cheers :D
 
I would love to own one of Leo's last guitars, but the G&L range never did it for me. I don't like the feel of the necks, & they always sounded a bit sterile.

I did read that Leo's hearing was going towards the end of his life, & his ability to hear high frequencies was compromised. So he was constantly trying to improve his earlier designs, & frequently failing! He listened to the early Tele pickups, & thought they sounded awful - not a smooth range of tones, but all kinds of resonant peaks & stuff that Leo hated. Trouble is, lots of players love the sound of old Teles - even if they are "wrong" in theory. I guess we grew up with the sound of his early guitars, & that's what our ears expect to hear.

Probably not a lot of help to you, I'm afraid!

:(

Mike
 
I have a '96 ASAT III and can't fault it from a build quality point of view - the neck joint's perfect, finish is flawless and the hardware is top notch. The three G&L s/c pickups give the range of tones that you'd expect, but are a 'deeper' and 'rounder' version compared to my Tokai Strats and '52 RI Tele. Wouldn't say sterile though - have to disagree with Mike on that one. The soap-bar pickups on a standard ASAT have a character all their own and you'll either love it or not. If you like it enough, then ?500 with a non-G&L case for an ASAT seems to be about right as long as the condition is OK.

It's all personal in the end though 8)
 
Cheers for that guys.
My main reservation might be that the neck could be too slim, but I can't tell until I've seen it.

Will post some pics of it later. It does look great
 
If the necks on the G&Ls that I have tried had been thin, I probably would have liked them!
 
Chunky compared to what I like, possibly quite average to most people. It's been a while since I tried one though.
 
Here's some pics.

DSCF2962.jpg
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