The ToneQuest Report
G&L ASAT Review
Welcome to my first ToneQuest Report guitar
review! I received a 1993 G&L ASAT, serial number G038318 via FedEx
from the ToneQuest offices in Atlanta this past January. It’s a used
instrument in exceptionally fine condition – just a shade this side of
"mint" except for some minor fret wear. I've never had any
real hands-on experience with G&L guitars before, so this was going
to be an interesting and fun review for me. Since G&L is the company
originally founded by Leo Fender and George Fullerton, I expected to
receive a fine quality instrument, and I was not disappointed by my
first impression. The guitar is patterned after the Fender Telecaster
with a few interesting twists and variations along the way. Clearly, Leo
attempted to make a better version of his own mousetrap when he created
the ASAT.
So let’s see what this ASAT is made of...
Upon removing the neck to have a look at the wood inside the neck
cavity, I could see that the body is made of alder. According to
G&L, solid finishes are applied to alder bodies and their clear
finishes rate ash for it’s attractive grain. This guitar is a
comfortable medium weight – not super light, but definitely not on the
heavy side either. The finish is a metallic gold that bears a striking
resemblance to what vintage Fender gear heads would refer to as
"Shoreline Gold." The finish material has the look and feel of
polyester or polyurethane, because it appeared a little too thick and
durable to be nitrocellulose lacquer. Though I couldn’t be certain of
the exact finish material, it definitely is a beautiful and flawless
finish job. The slabcut maple neck is satin finished and bolted to the
body with a three-screw neck plate with tilt adjustment, very much like
Fender guitars from the 1970’s. Some have debated whether this design
is as inherently stable as the 4-screw neckplate design found on the
original Telecaster. I didn’t notice any detrimental effects from the
3-screw mounting, but I don’t use the necks on my guitars as a whammy
bar either! The fingerboard is Indian rosewood with 22 jumbo frets, and
the headstock sports matte-finished Sperzel non-locking tuners.
Interestingly, the neck has a plugged tooling hole in the back of the
headstock similar to vintage Fender guitars. This revealed that the neck
blank was cut out and possibly rough-shaped using a jig and pin router,
just like Leo did it in the old days. The truss rod, however, is
installed quite differently from a vintage Telecaster. Upon an extremely
close look you can see that the neck has been cut in half
lengthwise for the truss rod installation. The neck blank is split down
the middle and the rod installed into a rout on the inside, rather than
installing it from the rear, or top of the neck. The two halves are then
glued back together so there is no "skunk stripe" on the back
of the neck. The truss rod is adjustable via a "bullet" style
nut at the headstock that accepts a 1/3" Allen wrench. The controls
are volume, tone and a 3-way pickup selector identical to those on a
standard Telecaster, and they’re mounted on a metal control plate
exactly like a standard Telecaster. The chrome plated bridge is a rear
loading type of G&L’s own "saddle lock" design which has
a small Allen set screw that allows all the string saddles to be pressed
together. The bridge is nestled deeply in a rout on the top that G&L
claims to provide improved sustain over the old string-through-body
Telecaster bridge design. The bridge also features six individual,
adjustable bridge feet for sting height and intonation.
Before I plugged the ASAT in, I wanted to note
how it played (and sounded unplugged.) I did a very slight bit of set up
work on the guitar just to suit my own playing preferences – nothing
major, just a slight tweak on the truss rod to make the neck dead
straight and a tiny adjustment of the neck tilt and I was ready to go.
Because of my long love for Telecasters, the ASAT instantly felt
comfortable and familiar. The neck is shaped relatively thin for my
taste with a flat radius on the back – definitely not a
"vintage" vibe here. Add the G&L’s big jumbo frets and
you have a modern-feeling guitar, with one exception – the rosewood
board has retained a 7.5 inch radius similar to the original Tele
design. This combination makes chording more comfortable, and combined
with the extra tall jumbo frets, string bending is a breeze. Now, I
admit to being so set in my ways and accustomed to vintage style guitars
that I qualify for "old geezer" status compared to most folks.
I just don't care for a lot of stuff that's being made today, including
some of the various so-called "reissue" models. However, after
a few minutes I really began to enjoy the ease with which this guitar
played. It definitely has its unique benefits in the playability
department while clearly not trying to be any kind of
"reissue." In fact, it had me thinking of the limitations
associated with certain vintage designs…hmmm. Since this was a used
guitar, there was evidence of some minor playing wear on the frets.
There were slight divots under the G and B strings from the first fret
up to around the10th fret or so, and the wear was less pronounced as I
moved up the fingerboard. It didn’t hinder playability in any way, but
if I was keeping this guitar I would get a fret dress by a competent
repair person to get it back into perfect shape; eventually intonation
and playability will start to suffer.
As far as it's unplugged sound goes, the
guitar was nicely resonant and it sounded very good all by itself, with
plenty of sustain. It seems as if G&L’s claims about the bridge
design providing great sustain held up to my critical audition, and this
was well illustrated just by playing a good ol’ first position open
"G" chord where you've got a lot of open strings ringing. You
can’t really get a good idea of what an electric guitar is going to
sound like before you plug it in, but if it sounds good acoustically,
you can usually be pretty sure it will sound good through an amp.
OK, time to get plugged up. The ASAT has two
G&L "Magnetic Field" pickups. These are rather large
rectangular "mini soap bar" or what I like to call "candy
bar" pickups – one in the front, or neck position, and one back
by the bridge. The rear pickup is angled back toward the treble side of
the bridge similar to a Telecaster bridge pickup. Current G&L
literature claims that these are "high output" single coils,
but the pickups in this particular guitar produced a DC resistance of
just 4.84Kohms and 4.99Kohms for the bridge and neck pickups
respectively. That’s extremely low compared to most stock and
custom pickups, and they don't hit the front end of an amp as hard as
most of the guitars I own, including my ’53 Telecaster and a relic
Tele. I looked for a little more info on these pickups at G&L’s
web site and found information stating that the magnetic field design
gives the pickups about "twice the output per wind, making the
pickup much quieter while allowing a greater overall output." While
this guitar was made in 1993, I have to say that the output of the
pickups was relatively low and doesn’t qualify for "greater
overall output" in my book. Even so, both pickups sounded really
good with lots of detail and definition to their tone, which is usually
a by-product of lower output. The bridge pickup retains a high level of
"twang" that you would expect from a Tele, but it also has a
lot of warm low mids that you might not expect to get out of a
Telecaster. Pop the strings, and you'll get plenty of "slap"
and chicken pickin’ spank, but you’re treated to a lot of woody
tone, too. The unique sound of the guitar really punches through, and
that can partly be attributed to the low output and the fact that the
bridge pickup is mounted directly to the body as opposed to being
suspended on a metal bridge plate like the standard Telecaster design.
Though both pickups are surrounded by a pickguard, they are mounted
directly into the guitar body with three screws for both height and tilt
adjustment. The sound of this guitar really made me sit up and pay
attention in the middle position with both pickups on – talk about
Steve Cropper tone! It’s a perfect blend of the two pickups, with
neither one overpowering the other – a really full, sweet sound that’s
a rhythm players dream. The neck pickup alone has a full, rich sound
with a shade of sparkle on the top end – really nice – not tubby or
muddy in the least.
I played this guitar for about a week around
the house through a couple of different amps. First, through a fairly
recent (‘96) Fender Blues Jr. and also through my ‘59 Tweed Vibrolux,
which has been converted to tweed Deluxe specs (thanks to the help of my
friend and fellow TQR advisory board member Dave Boze). I was
also able to use this guitar on a gig in Atlanta with Jimmy Hall (Wet
Willie, Jeff Beck, Allman Brothers, etc.) where I played it through
my usual stage amp – a reissue Vox AC30. I really got to crank it on
the gig since we were just a basic 3-piece band and I had to fill up a
lot of space as the lone guitarist in the band. The G&L proved to be
a very versatile and well-made guitar that plays effortlessly. My only
real complaint is that the pickups didn't provide just a little bit more
output for those times when I wanted to hit the front end of my amp with
a hotter signal.
