He Left Fender For This 

There was a time before G&L 'Custom Shop' was a thing! I placed a 'custom' order with G&L in 2004 for a Legacy Special (from the UK) for a 2 piece Swamp Ash body, rosewood board, butterscotch blond etc - when the guitar arrived 12 weeks later it was beyond special - G&L had used premium birds eye maple for the neck (which I hadn't requested) and the guitars build and quality was every bit 'Custom Shop' they had gone above and beyond! - On G&Ls before they started using CNC machines you could even see the dowel rod marks (through the finish) from the same assembly jig used by Leo and visible on the earliest Fenders The very same Jig!. Still my keeper guitar! Unbelievable quality for just over £1000 in 2004. with a.G&G hard case! Love sonic blue too!

I'm with you on the single coil in the bridge. I hugely prefer a single coil in the neck position over a humbucker, but rarely want one in the bridge. I don't want to say it sounds bad in the bridge, but it's not a tone I want very often. A splitable humbucker is waaaaaay more useful to me.

You said you hate the neck pickup as you switched to the bridge at 4:50 -ish. Assuming you meant you hate a single-coil in the bridge, I 100% agree. The humbucker is where it's at!

Yes I do. My dream guitar was always a Fender Strat with Sunburst. I put off buying one for years and wasn't playing enough previously to justify the cost of buying one (playing my cheap acoustic or borrowing my brother's epiphone les paul). On my wedding day, my brother and best man, gifted me a MiM Fender Strat with Sunburst. A dream come true to get that and even more sentimental that it was from him on my wedding day. hard to put into words how much i love this guitar and it plays amazing (upgraded the pickups to SD SSL-1 a year later and changed the pickguard to mint for a more 62 style). It plays amazing and is one of my most prized positions. I'll never get rid of it. I even have a hard time justifying a purchase of another guitar because I know I'll also go back to the strat and play that.

I have a March 1982 G&L S-500, first month production. It has the body shape that is now the Skyhawk. Ash body and maple neck. It’s a awesome guitar. If you stop by I’ll let you play it.

I left it because the function didn’t have Hennessy

Mike, I have Korean made Tribute S-500 and Tribute Legacy, and I'm quite pleased with them, especially since I know little more than cowboy chords at the moment. So I can only imagine how much everyone with Fullertons and Custom Shops must feel about theirs.

My last guitar I bought was a G&L thanks to you brining it to my attention. Love that what seems to be an underrated or unappreciated company.

If you include the Comanche, G&L make three s-style guitars.

I got my first G&L off of Facebook marketplace. It is a 1991 sc 3. It is absolutely amazing. The tone, playability and the tuning stability are top notch. That two point tremolo is fantastic. I got my second G&L about a month ago off of reverb. I hate buying a vintage guitar unseen and played but I just had to have it. It’s a 1993 legacy. Sunburst with light wear on the finish. It’s an absolute beast. Best S style guitar I’ve ever owned. I have a legacy tribute in frost white and for the price that guitar far exceeds expectations the tone control system on the tributes is very cool. Rock on George and Leo!

I'm a lefty and I've been a huge fan and proponent of G&L for a long while. I've been playing them primarily since 2016. My very first one was similar to your experience - I got my white USA Legacy brand new in 2016 for $950, discounted because it had been sitting around for so long. After that one I went on a G&L obsession and over the past 7 years I've owned numerous other ones from all different eras and decades of the company's history, and a few years back I custom ordered a candy apple red RMC that is just glorious (a normal option-order USA, not a Custom Shop branded custom order). I've played tons of shows with my original white one and taken it on numerous tours, it's been nothing but great for me. Their prices have gone up quite a lot the past few years (like everyones). Personally, I don't find the ultra expensive custom shop idea all that appealing. My main attraction to USA G&L's over the years has been the price to quality ratio, and there are options I'd like to be able to have with a full on custom shop that G&L doesn't seem to offer. The regular USA option orders are perfectly high end for me, and they're even better buys on the used market. My tastes are starting to change now and I'm getting back into more extreme guitars and different superstrats, but G&L's are fantastic all around.

I have a US-made S-500. Not a custom shop mind you, but It's about 25 years old, and I'm pretty sure that back then ALL G&Ls were US-made. The MFD pickups sound wonderful, and I play it at least as much or more than my American Deluxe Stratocaster with N3 pickups.

I've played G&L guitars for close to twenty-five years now, and I've had my G&L Custom Shop ASAT Special - Arctic White with ebony neck - for fifteen years; basically the person who ordered it ended up not liking the finish, so the rep was desperate to unload it. Consequently, I picked it up at a hefty discount. To your question: there are times when I like the single coil sound in the bridge, but the MFD pickups in the ASAT and Doheny models are the absolute cream of the crop. And Leo's later designs - like the z-coil variations on the Espada and Comanche - plus the end-to-end humbuckers as seen on the V12 - are utterly amazing. This company is the best! And great job with the videos, Mike; keep 'em comin'!

My sentimental guitar is a $180 Ibanez black top acoustic guitar that my dad got me when I was 15 years old. Being from a small town in south Alabama, when I was in high school, $180 was a lot of money back then. I played the hell out of it for many years. I’ve got nicer guitars now as an adult. Most people may not would want it, but for me, it’s one I’d never get rid of

We bought a '16 G&L ASAT for my last-born son's 1st birthday. We might pick it up once a year around his birthday... but, it plays so fine when we do. Nice Alder body, hard maple neck and fingerboard, sweet pick-ups. We also appreciated the swag paperwork, e.g. Specifications Sheet, Certification from Phylis, Care and Maintenance Instructions.

I have one that is super sentimental: My first guitar, a Peavey Patriot hardtail that my parents bought me in 1987 when I was 14 and that I kept ever since and went many years barely touching but eventually gave rise to my love of playing music. I also have a G&L S500 USA which is amazing. I didn't really realize how unusually spec'd it was until I started looking at other S500s. It's a honeyburst on swamp ash with black plastics and knurled black metal knobs and an ebony fingerboard. It's one of the older ones (i got it in 2014 or 15) with the 12" radius.

My 2001 Fender American Series was signed by Dick Dale on the headstock. He encouraged me to keep playing and to be my authentic self. Although it has been supplanted by a HSS Stratocaster, it's still my favorite S-style.

First G&L I owned was a American ASAT Blues boy. I started getting into Telecaster type guitars back when I bought a 72 Telecaster custom. I even had the frets replaced by Fender custom shop builder Fred Stewart with dunlap 6105 vintage tall frets. Then I replaced the bridge pickup with a vintage noiseless. It had a problem, I talked to the man that developed the pickup Bill Lawerance. He told me to send the pickup in, he would check it out. When he found out I lived in Corona, real close to the factory he told me to get over there. I got the “iron guard” at the front desk, Bill heard me talking to her, he got to the loft hand told her to let me in. We went into his lab, he plugged my guitar in, couldn’t figure out why it sounded terrible. He said he would go get another one from the production floor. Told me I could pickup and play any of the 30 or so guitars in there. He came back and said he couldn’t find one. He looked around the room, said “oh the hell with it” he grabbed the guitar that had HIS first pickup in it and installed. It worked perfectly. The people at Fender are great people. But I have gone to the G&L factory as well Dave was SUPER COOL, as well as the guys building the guitars. I never went back to playing Fender guitars. There good, but, G&L normal production guitars are like a Fender Custom Shop guitars.

I got a custom ordered G&L made to spec years ago from a shop that needed to have an order by end of year to keep their status, so it was a US made ASAT for a little over six hundred. They were willing to do a sunburst to black over a solid candy apple red so I was a happy little goth. I'm mostly a bassist now, but that guitar is still very special to me.

Stars is one of the greatest rock rifs of the early 2000s! Im also a G&L guy but i play their offset stuff. Love it

They actually have 4 S-type guitar models, the 2 others being the Comanche and the Skyhawk. Plus all of their Made in Fullerton variants (custom shop guitars at mass production prices), and totally custom Custom Shop models. The available neck shapes alone are mind boggling.

My big brother had a G&L invader with a Kahler back in the late 80s. It is one of the best guitars ive ever played and ive always wanted one of my own. It still hasn't found it's way to me yet!

G&L Black Ice Tele with Swamp Ash Body, 12" chunky Neck and Humbucker in the Neck Position. Looks gorgeous, plays and sounds great. I loved it, since I picked it up in a small guitar shop many years ago and strummed a few chords. Problem was I could not afford it. Then two years ago I was again looking for a Tele. I was told the guitar was gone, just as I expected. Randomly called again and the Tele they described was exactly that guitar. It's like it kept waiting there for me over the years. So it's sentimental and G&L Custom Shop at the same time. For a reasonable price ;)

Ive been using G&Ls since early in my playing career. 81 F-100, 82 S500, 93 Legacy, 2001 Comanche and a S500 tribute i got thru a trade. Love them all. School Fenders i pickup for sure.

My dad used to have a G&L guitar and then he sold it for a 1991 American Fender Strat but he still regrets selling the G&L he had to this day.

I have a 1985 MIJ Contemporary Stratocaster HSS that was my HS graduation gift in 1986 from my mom. She told me I could get any guitar I wanted under $700. For comparison, a Les Paul standard was about $1100 back then. Total surprise. I was already making money in music and that was my love and my direction, she totally supported it. I had a 1970s Les Paul Custom Sunburst, and I wanted a Strat. It plays and sounds massive. The MIJ Fenders back then we’re made by FujiGen, the same people who now build the top end Ibanez. I drug it, the Les Paul and a number of Charvel/Jackson guitars all over the planet with a Mesa half stack in my metal (old school 80s-90s metal) career, made a living playing guitar for a long time and had a blast. My mom is still with us, but she’s now 82 years old. These guitars are being discovered and I’ve seen them dramatically rise in price - but I love it for its tone, its playability and its history with me, but especially because my mother supported my music in a tangible way and changed my life. If it came down to it and I had to eat, I still wouldn’t sell it, I’d sell my #1 PRS Limited SC594 Semi-Hollow first, and that’s a magic guitar.

You absolutely have to try the G&L Commanche. Leo Fender considered it his greatest S-style guitar.

Great channel Mike! At the moment I’m more of a Tele guy, but P-90s have been singing their song in my ears… so many delicious flavors! Steve (another church player)

Mike I can't speak about the mini switch on a S500 with a HB but on the original models with 3 single coils, the switch gives different pickup combinations. One position, all of the pickups are one; another position has the neck and bridge pickup on to give a Tele-like of tone. Fender probably used it as the foundation for their S1 switching system. You can do a search for the Comanche expander switch to get the diagram from G&L, S500 works the same way.

I built a guitar with my dad. There was a lot of problems along the way but everything can be fixed in one way or another and now I have a pretty awesome guitar with the memories alongside.

My new Squier CV50 might be my special guitar....cheapest of many....but I did all the upgrades myself and it sounds/plays great. Grab it 90% of the time now.

I’ve got two. They are fantastic instruments. I have the Legacy with a SD in the bridge and G&L hand wound middle and neck pickups. I also have a Will Ray signature model. Swamp ash, special hotter Z pickups, b bender with skull inlays on the neck. They will customize any instrument for you. Almost forgot, I also have the ASAT Bluesboy.

Love when you bring up G&L! Do you think you can do a comparison between the Fender Special Edition Custom Telecaster FMT HH and the G&L Tribute ASAT Deluxe? They're both incredible Tele-style guitars with flame maple tops and humbuckers but Fender's is $1k and G&L's is $550!

love that you threw some switchfoot in there! guitar sounds great!

I saved up for a long time and in 1992 I bought my first G&L S-500 in Fireburst. I believe it was just under $800, and I had to wait several weeks for it to be built. Still have it and still love it.

I love the S500, I considered modding the tribute I owned time ago, but I ended trading it for a Ibanez Archtop, and then for a CV Telecaster with a nice hard case (which I still have and adore). If I could I would buy another one, I am sure the USA made ones are just amazing. I would buy one if I could afford them. Leo nailed this one, much better than a regular strat. PD. Team sonic blue!

My man! You nailed this in so many ways. G&L might be the best kept secret in modern guitars. Wish I could have scored a new one for $700. Great vid.

I have a G&L Legacy I bought new in 1996. It’s been my primary guitar since. Love it. I haven’t played one of the custom shops yet, but would love to check one out. Also, I spend 99.99% of the time on the neck pickup. 😂

Yes, I've played a G&L custom shop ... I custom ordered it! LOVE IT! Wide neck, dark blue burst RMC S-500. Half the price of any other custom shop! It would be my second to last guitar I would sell ... because my Suhr would be the last.

Clean tones and coil split. I hope you learn to love it. Using the tone pots to add unbelievable variables.

i have a yamaha EG112.. yeah.. the one on my profile pict.. it's 2 decades old with me.. acquired it on 2002.. the Gigmaker package of Yamaha.. loved it to bits! learned A LOT from it.. GIG a ton on it.. had it setup by me at first.. got my thumb burned from soldering (noob).. changed bridge and etc.. basically brought it EVERYWHERE... the dings and dents.. i loved it! wil never sell it.. but now I play more on my PRS McCarty SE. :)

My 1st guitar was a 2004 Squier fat strat HH standard. I still have it. Still love it. The neck is what sold me. At the time I could have afforded a USA fender but it was a spinal tap moment. Knew nothing about guitars. Have had it cleaned up. Seymour duncan pickups and it's still plays and sounds amazing now. Not in the brand definitely in the hand.

I don’t know maybe it’s just the way I’m hearing the recording, but it just sounds muffled or like there’s a blanket going over the cone

Hey Mike! What camera do you use for your videos?

My Fender Telecaster Modern player plus. It has never gives me a hard time and I get the sounds that I really like. I love it and care about it. The neck pickup is creamy but clear at the same time. It does not have those medium frequencies that make a muddy sound.

Love your vids!

So Mike if the mini toggle is for coil splitting does that mean you can no longer get the neck and bridge or all three pickups combination of the regular S500?

I picked up a custom BTO S-500 used for 900 in 2018. It's my favorite guitar.

Congrats on the axe!! And here’s a virtual fist bump for playing Stars!👊🏾😝

I shopped all over NYC for a strat. I always wanted one but being a gibson kind of guy, I thought that would be the Fender Holy grail. I played every single Strat in NYC and hated them all. One day, I was in guitar center to buy strings and decided to look at the wall. There in the middle of all the fenders was a 1998 Teal , clear coat, American deluxe custom corona Tele. I asked to try it and when I plugged it in, I knew it had to be mine. The maple neck, the noiseless pickups/ It played like a dream. When I asked the price , they said it had been there for years and they'd give it to me for 700.00. Now I was there for strings and I left the house without my wallet. I had 100 in cash and said I'd be right back. The manager said no layaways on used gear and refused my hundred. I handed it to the clerk and said I'd be right back. I then got called into work and totally forgot about the tele for 4 days. Then when I remembered, I ran down there and saw my clerk. He laughed and said : I knew you'd be back. He had hidden it on the Jackson wall and no one even looked at it. I took it home and its been my main guitar for EVERYTHING for 15 years. It will never ben for sale.

I have an S-500. It kills my Fender Pro ii. Concerning your neck pickup, I love mine! It's beautiful sounding! Have you tried adjusting your MFD neck pickup pole pieces? Mine came setup perfectly, but if yours isn't, if you didn't know, they can be raised or lowered via an Allen key.

I bought an S-Style Ibanez as my first electric guitar. I eventually swapped out the pickups with some ssl-1 Seymour Duncans. It plays so easy and sounds pretty good actually. Spent less than $100 on it lol

My Kiesel Delos with a gorgeous flamed koa top is one I will never part with. I waited excitedly for months while it was being built, then one day I happened to watch a kiesel live stream, and Jeff kiesel shows off the build of the week, featuring my delos. Seeing it in his hands, say my name, and show my stunning koa top was magical. And the guitar is the best playing instrument iv ever played

My sentimental value guitar is a US ASAT Classic. You mention the single coils being noisy but my ASAT is dead quiet. I’ve been GASsing for an ASAT Special or Z-3 with a dual fulcrum vibrato for a minute too. Love the brand

I mean this 100% sincerely, all of my guitars are. My Vantage lawsuit Les Paul copy is sentimental because it was owned by my father and uncle, big inspirations for why I became a musician. My Sonoran SCE, because I took it and played it everywhere and created most of my originals on it. My 1994 MIM Strat, because it survived the Mexican plant fire and was assembled in America, and because it helped me find my sound and help me stand out among my competition when I was working with a talent agency, playing shows almost nightly. And finally my most sentimental guitar, my silvertone U2 reproduction. My uncle passed away, and his friends and family held a tribute concert for him on the anniversary of his passing. I flew home intending to rent a guitar for the show but saw this and after playing it, realized it was a solid guitar. I finished the tribute song I was asked to perform on it, and I played the concert with it. Now I use it to teach students, and share the love and joy music brings me to others.

I am now a G&L guy. Pickwd an ASAT blueaboy and a Limitered Burled Comanche. Both feel great and sound great. It still blows my mind that Leo's best company is his least known. I ll be picking up a few more as time goes on. Ill have the other two forever....

The only reason i dont have a humbucker in my strat is because if the 2 'quack' phased sound. Im no expert but can you still get that sound from a strat with a humbucker?

G&L makes killer guitars! Love my ASAT “Tele”

Absolutely Love the chrome pickup cover look on an HSS strat. That guitar is beautiful. Definitely prefer the HSS to SSS like you. Do play an SSS config when the song calls for it though.

brought me back when you played Stars ahaha great video

Only played ONE stratocaster in my life. It was at the end of y first semester in this music school, we had a recital and I thought my strings would last, but last minute the B string broke and since it was my Ibanez GIO with a flying rose, changing the string right there and then wasn´t an option. My guitar teacher handed me the school´s red stratocaster which felt SO different. Wider c shaped thick neck compared to my ibanez super thin super narrow fretboard. I also had to tune it in less than a minute, and I´m so glad I noticed since that saved the show from being more crap than it was by itself. A few weeks later I got early to class and I saw it there, waiting to be played. Super smooth feeling, loved it. Learned a lot from that experience such as don´t wait for a string to break with a floyd rose, change all of the strings at an appropriate time. Always carry a tuner with you. And that not all guitars are the same, each and every one has a certain feeling, a certain sound, a certain demand of posture. You can demand as much things in a guitar as a guitar can demand things from you, the way you hold it, the way you change volume and get familiar with it. You change the way you play with every guitar you play, so you better try out as many guitars as you can to find one that really feels like you

I would gladly grab a G&Al before a Fender any day of the week!

My bridge tone knob is wired to blend in the neck pup in want position. It tends to pull back the ice picky bridge sound without the added power of a humbucker.

I absolutely LOVE that pink finish. I almost bought a shell pink Nash.

I spend 95% of my time alternating between 4 (Neck+Middle parallel) and bridge humbucker on my Thorn and my other super strats, but some of that might be from the Charvels and Warmoths I've owned over the years where I simplified the controls down to 1 knob - 2 pickups. Master volume, no tone, knob down is bridge hum, pull up on the knob and it's split hum + neck single coil. Full bridge or jangle available with no hum on either.... no mini toggles or looking where the blade is. Pull up.... rhythm and funky leads... slap the knob down and solo. ☮❤🎶

That G&L sounds fantastic!

Recently picked up a Yamaha acoustic that my wife was after for quite some time. I have always been a fender guy but after seeing how nice of an instrument it is, I’m actually considering picking up a Pacifica for my next strat style guitar. HSS pickup configuration, coil split on the bridge. Not American made but meets a lot of the other criteria you mentioned in this video.

I have a 90s Korean squier tele that my wife bought me when we got engaged. I've upgraded it and poured love into it. It's kinda a partscaster now.

I have been playing since 1963. I have never seen the value in a "custom shop" . I have a fine playing Les Paul and a versatile Strat with S-1 switching. My bases are more than covered for any tone I might seek.

You ought to do a video on the Comanche! It's Leo's final version of the Strat style guitar. The pickups are amazing

LOVE THE SWITCHFOOT DEMO ! this rocks :)

I've never played a "Custom Shop" G&L, but I have played a lot of G&L USA guitars. I've always felt that their USA guitars were very good. I can only imagine that Custom Shop guitars would be even better. In the end, I've found a luthier can do more to make a guitar great than buying an expensive guitar. A good luthier can make any guitar play and sound better than other guitars that cost 1000X the price if you can afford to pay the luthier. If I wanted to make a broomstick sound like a vintage LP, a luthier can do that. But it won't be cheap. That is the untold secret of great guitars. It isn't the wood, the brand, the shape, or anything else that matters. All that matters is who built it and how they set it up. This is especially true for electric guitars. And a little less-true with acoustic guitars. But if you are playing solid body electric guitars, the luthier is god.

That GNL is Fire!!!!! 🔥

I hav the s500 MFD pickups. A set of three, the middle is rwrp. The MFDs alone was not as noisy as the normal alnico single coils. Less noise but hot output but it is only below 5k. And ofcourse the 2 & 4 positions are noise cancelling. Maybe you should check for the wiring and the middle pickup magnet polarity.

“‘Cause when I looked at the STARRRRRS”

DUDE! Try out a G&L Commanche when you can. I LOVE my Commanche!!! Dead quiet on any pickup setting! Sounds awesome! Magnetic Field Design Z-Coil pickup!!!!!

I am hopelessly in love with my PRS custom 24, it's in the lime green finish, and thru my Marshall amp it sounds just perfect. Perhaps more importantly, it makes me feel much more confident when I use it over any of my other guitars, making it priceless to me. I would happily strangle anyone who tried to take it from me, and would never sell it, even though I could always buy "another" one.

The pickups of the G&L are so incredible.

Custom Shop G&L Guitars are amazing! My ASAT Classic Bluesboy is as good as any of my Custom Shop Fenders and way less money with more custom options and upgrades.

The playing on the custom shop was great!

I also live in South Carolina do you know where you got that pink tele from ?

Woah woah, soo who and where in sc makes your pink tele?? Really interested in that. Also love G&l. Been jammin on a 2003 tribute asat with the mfd pickups and they have a ton of quality tones in them. Always been curious about a more vintage legacy , but that sonic blue is great with mfds.

lesson learned: The more you had time with it, the journey it comes meaning with'n feeling it.

I’ve got 2 guitars of great sentimental value: My Gibson SG Special. I wanted an SG after seeing School of Rock as kid, just as I was starting to play. Sadly the guitar shop I went to for my first guitar didn’t have one in. So I worked and asked for money towards it for my birthday and I was able to pick one up a year later. It was cool to finally get that guitar I always wanted, plus it’s a limited edition model and I haven’t seen another since. Some of my relatives who were supportive of me playing guitar and getting this one are no longer with me so it also holds that memory. The other is my Fender Jaguar Classic Player HH. It’s been modded a fair bit. I played in a lot of Alt Rock/ Grunge bands over my 20’s and I pretty much gigged it everywhere. I don’t play it as much now (I’m more of Jazzmaster guy these days), but it will always be the guitar of my 20’s ❤️

G&L's are AMAZING! and so UNDER-RATED! I have an early serial number 1986 G&L ASAT, my first guitar that I still have, I even though I play strats (because of Hendrix and the like), it is my favorite guitar....Nothing comes close, a distant 2nd is my USA made Fender Strat 2006 60th Anniversary Edition.

Definitely have some sentimental instruments! The one Steve Vai signed is at the top of that list.

Love the nod to switchfoot!

Hi Mike, I bought a fender affinity squire during covid lockdown. I love the playability of it, but also it got me through being laid off I became a better guitarist because I had time to practice.

Your pink tele is awesome! (Love the wear on it.)

What was that fuzzy riff you played during the heavy demo?

And let's not forget the G&L Comanche - which is probably Leo's greatest creation. Also a S style guitar but - WOW!!! - ya gotta play one!! They be like nothing else!! Go to Sweetwater and search for one and you'll see that just the look of the Comanche is intimidating! LOL

My 1995 G&L legacy has Lace Holy grail single coil pickups. It is the best strat style guitar I've ever played.

NOT THE SWITCHFOOT DEEP CUT LMAO

Did you just bust out vintage @switchfoot on the first day I discover your channel and the first week they launch their 20th anniversary of the Beautiful Letdown tour? 😂 Love it, bro. And I don' t how you keep me watching when you're just talking but I'm all in. Are you from South Carolina as well?

I’ve been saying for years that my first American Strat will be a G&L Legacy. I prefer the bridge/tremolo system over Fender’s. The headstock is cooler too.

I own several G&L tele. I have a Bluesboy with a P-90 at the neck position. It’s black korina USA 🇺🇸, Beautiful ! It’s just fantastic !

regardless of custom shop sound this guy has some top tier playing, he could make anything sound like a custom shop

Guitar and setup tour day 2 ?

I have an Indonesian made g&l asat tribute thinline, opposite end of the spectrum I know, but it is such a great guitar. G&L are definitely in the IYKYK category

You are a great presenter. Great video.