Silence Kid
New member
My dad picked up an '81 Series One. Played it/took it apart, it's quite worthy of posting about 
Curious to hear if anyone else has ever come across one.
Apparent re-fin; was black at one point, although a lot of stock guitars seem to have been this dark red/stain color from the factory. Series one means 12" radius, the series two was ~7 " ? This is a passive model with hardtail, although trem/active circuitry was also available. A few things struck me:
-Without a doubt the tightest neck pocket of any guitar I've ever experienced; and there's no cracking, whatsoever. The three bolt design makes sense here
-The pickups have a TON of bass; it's a good thing there's a passive bass roll-off. Overall they sound about like fat singles, bitey and scooped, with a present (but not sparkly) top end. Really should be paired with a bright amp
-The bridge... Needs work (and got it on later models; although it looks like a regular saddle-lock, the later bridges were refined.) The stock intonation and height screws are too short; maybe they aren't stock, who knows, googling pics they seem longer in other examples of the guitar. This is the only G&L (I think) with this sort of bridge in string-through mode, so that's cool, if it matters
What also matters is that this is (I think, again) the only version of the G&L saddle-lock bridge with the thick,Strat-like, non-barrel saddles. This is somewhat important, because it means that even with saddle-lock backed out, the saddles really want to resist movement, a LOT. Hard to adjust. This is the opposite of a Jazzmaster bridge, Leo may have had memories of the too-long intonation screws and move-able saddles and overreacted
-The split switch keeps a portion of the hum-bucking coil active, whether through tap or resistors; nice to have some hum cancelling retained. The tonality of the pickups isn't affected so much by the split, the impression is that its main use is an adjustment of output; they even come across slightly mellower when split, somehow. Parallel mode is engaged by the second switch; another versatile way to cut output, engages both pickups no matter the position of the main three-way
-Clever Tuners; designed to "force" the windings of the string closer to the headstock, more tension
-Fat frets that seem to have been shaved down on this particular guitar; it's somewhat in need of a fret job, and very in need of a nut. That said, the neck itself is pretty great, nice flat profile, not too thick, not too thin
-Everything feels a cm thick, and brass; 70s hangover
...Well, I like it a lot, but I've always loved G&L. Obviously a quality build, a piece of history, and I wish they'd kept on with the pickups; well, they reissued it, but without the cm thick control panel, which is a shame. Nice to mess around with when I visit my dad, I'll have to borrow it and share the tone with others at some point
Curious to hear if anyone else has ever come across one.Apparent re-fin; was black at one point, although a lot of stock guitars seem to have been this dark red/stain color from the factory. Series one means 12" radius, the series two was ~7 " ? This is a passive model with hardtail, although trem/active circuitry was also available. A few things struck me:
-Without a doubt the tightest neck pocket of any guitar I've ever experienced; and there's no cracking, whatsoever. The three bolt design makes sense here
-The pickups have a TON of bass; it's a good thing there's a passive bass roll-off. Overall they sound about like fat singles, bitey and scooped, with a present (but not sparkly) top end. Really should be paired with a bright amp
-The bridge... Needs work (and got it on later models; although it looks like a regular saddle-lock, the later bridges were refined.) The stock intonation and height screws are too short; maybe they aren't stock, who knows, googling pics they seem longer in other examples of the guitar. This is the only G&L (I think) with this sort of bridge in string-through mode, so that's cool, if it matters
What also matters is that this is (I think, again) the only version of the G&L saddle-lock bridge with the thick,Strat-like, non-barrel saddles. This is somewhat important, because it means that even with saddle-lock backed out, the saddles really want to resist movement, a LOT. Hard to adjust. This is the opposite of a Jazzmaster bridge, Leo may have had memories of the too-long intonation screws and move-able saddles and overreacted
-The split switch keeps a portion of the hum-bucking coil active, whether through tap or resistors; nice to have some hum cancelling retained. The tonality of the pickups isn't affected so much by the split, the impression is that its main use is an adjustment of output; they even come across slightly mellower when split, somehow. Parallel mode is engaged by the second switch; another versatile way to cut output, engages both pickups no matter the position of the main three-way
-Clever Tuners; designed to "force" the windings of the string closer to the headstock, more tension
-Fat frets that seem to have been shaved down on this particular guitar; it's somewhat in need of a fret job, and very in need of a nut. That said, the neck itself is pretty great, nice flat profile, not too thick, not too thin
-Everything feels a cm thick, and brass; 70s hangover
...Well, I like it a lot, but I've always loved G&L. Obviously a quality build, a piece of history, and I wish they'd kept on with the pickups; well, they reissued it, but without the cm thick control panel, which is a shame. Nice to mess around with when I visit my dad, I'll have to borrow it and share the tone with others at some point
Last edited:
