Finish: Natural
Body: Swamp Ash
Neck: Maple
Condition: Excellent +

G&L ASAT Classic, Seymour Duncan Humbuckers/F.A.A.S.

This G&L is just plain set UP for gigging! For starters, it's a rock-solid ASAT, with a great feel, and a really resonant body - gorgeous Swamp Ash, but lighter than a lot of ash ASATs I've played. Then, instead of the standard dual single coil pickups, this instrument has been fitted with a Seymour Duncan "59" in the neck position, and a Little "59" at the bridge. In a really smart move, the Little "59" is also coil-splittable by pulling up on the volume pot. Finally, there's also a Graphtec F.A.A.S. piezo pickup system installed, with an active preamp onboard as well. There's also a HipShot drop "D" tuner installed on the low E string. This incredibly handy device lets you drop the low E string a whole step with the flip of a lever, and with another flip you're right back up to E. If you do a lot of playing in drop-D, you will soon wonder how you lived without this device. The original standard low E tuning peg is included, but not installed.

Controls on this guitar are as follows. The volume and tone pots operate as you'd expect, although as mentioned above, the volume pot can be pulled up, giving you a single-coil tone from the bridge pickup. And what a sweet tone it is, especially when combined with the '59 at the neck. And the tone pot is a dual-concentric - the outer knob controls overall tone of the magnetic pickups, while the inner knob controls piezo signal level. The piezo knob sits a little "wonky" on the shaft - it needs a small shim to sit on the opposite side of the set screw, I think. Works great, and is solid to the post, just a little off-axis as you turn. There is a three position switch to select magnetic pickup (again, functions as expected), but there's also an extra toggle switch. This allows you to select magnetic pickups only, magnetic/piezo together, or all piezo. I have not messed around with it too much, but I believe that one of these settings allows you to run the mag and piezo out on separate L/R channels using a stereo cable.

The neck is Maple, with a Rosewood fretboard. The pickguard is three-ply, white/black/white, and looks really sharp. Overall, this guitar is in excellent condition - the only two things need to be mentioned. The first is a check in the finish, near the neck/body joint inside the cutaway. Very minor, and again, finish-only. Second, there is a ding on the neck, just high of the 12th fret on the bass side. My friend, who also happens to be a woodworker extraordinaire, said this was an easy fix - apparently the wood can be raised back to surface level with the application of water, and eventually, a bit of heat. Consult a pro if unsure (as I would if I were going to fix it) but it's apparently fairly easy to do.

Going by serial number, this guitar was likely manufactured in 2000. It originally retailed for around $1,400, and the various mods would run you around $500. A G&L gig bag is included.

I won this guitar on ebay about a month ago - saw it, saw the killer feature set, and had to give it a shot. Since then, I've bought two other ASATs - that's three in a month! I've been on a hunt for an ASAT I can love and call my own, and I thought this was going to be the one. But I just found myself an '86 ASAT - first production year - and I had to have it, so I am selling this one and one more early 90's ASAT that I just bought - yet another killer guitar, in a custom green color. Check my other auctions for that one!