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G&L Basses - Why no love?

#61
taylor16 said:
It's the name "G&L" that I think puts players off. It took me a long time to get on board but picked up my first from Greg @ Rocket Music. The LB-100 pine body with Fender flats is hands down the best playing bass I've ever had. And that's saying a lot coming from previously owning (and some later sold) Mike Lull, Roscoe, Sadowsky, La Bella, Fender AVRI's, etc.
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What do you mean?
How is G&L any less appealing than Fender (a car part), Gibson (a whisky - okay I'll give you that one), Martin (a bug eating bird), Seagull (a WORSE bird), Raven (a DEATH bird) Charvel (what the heck is a Charvel?), Steinberger - (sounds high tech... uh, oh yeah), Takamine (???), Ibanez (who's this Japanese guy with the Spanish name?), Guild (of thieves?), Rickenbacker (some dude who flies planes), Dean (your eminence...), Yamaha? Schecter? Smith, Sadowski, Danelectro (sound like 50s high tech), Silvertone, Harmony (you mean you can't play rhythm or melody on it?)
Obviously I'm being ridiculous - but seriously, what's the name got to do with anything?
 
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#62
Killed_by_Death said:
Sometimes they're not obvious.
I found one over a garage, and no I'm not kidding.

It wasn't difficult to find once I got the address & right away I regretted already buying my ASAT at over $1,000, because they had a special on for xMas-time, $850 for a L-2000 (not a Tribute)

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

of course this would be useless to you if you're not in the U.S., or not in a state where they have a dealer
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Closest one to me is about a 90 minute drive... and I'm pretty sure that music store closed around Christmas last year.

There is a L-2000 Tribute listed on CL at a pawn shop for $399 close by though. Aren't the Tribute's their lower end models? Sorry, I just don't know about them.
 
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#64
Killed_by_Death said:
come to think of it, I'd be ashamed of myself to admit that I am not interested in a bass because of how something on it looks
unless it "looks" like it would be difficult to intonate, like I've noticed with Hofners & Gibson/Epiphone stuff

also, no one should take you seriously if that's your primary objection to a good bass

Although, I still can't get past the Music Man pickguards, but that didn't stop me from at least trying them.
The last time was in a pawn shop, where I directly compared one to my current Ibanez BTB & the BTB blew away the MM.
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Yeah - the Musicman pickguards where TERRIBLE - WHY did he put a toilet seat cover on that bass? A tribute of John Lennon maybe? The Sabre pickguard was okay - except for that control cover which clearly had no style to it (and which the early G&Ls inherited).
At least the stingray pickguard can come off (or be replaced with a clear one).
BTW - The Hofner is WAY easy to intonate - adjust the E and the G them compensate with the A and D if needed (usually not). Those early Gibson bridges with just a big hump on them? Wow. The later ones with the adjustment at the front under the strings? Not great, but once adjusted, you pretty much never need to deal with it again - just NEVER change sting brand or gauge, EVER.
 
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#65
Killed_by_Death said:
Yeah, the Tribute is to G&L as Squier is to Fender
they're kind of hit & miss, so just get a look at it before purchasing
$400 is a decent price
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Thumb n Fingers said:
Closest one to me is about a 90 minute drive... and I'm pretty sure that music store closed around Christmas last year.

There is a L-2000 Tribute listed on CL at a pawn shop for $399 close by though. Aren't the Tribute's their lower end models? Sorry, I just don't know about them.
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But the Tributes have MIA pickups, so they sound REALLY good - definitely no need for upgrades. But yeah - you do have to try them out.
 
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#66
iamprowla said:
I think their styling is all a bit clumsy.
SB1_OSTB_RW_CSN_TOR-1200.jpg


The bridge looks lame, the pickguard looks like whoever cut it was drunk and the headstock looks like they brought their cousin along.
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I get that there are things that people don't like about them and that's cool. People like what they like. On the other hand, I have no issues with anything. If you put a gun to my head and said I HAD to find something to criticize, the only thing I'd say is that it might look even nicer if the pickguard more closely followed the curve of the bass below the upper horn. But that's such a subtle nit. Honestly, I think that's a beautiful looking bass. As I do G&L's in general.

Love my L-2500!
 
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#68
dave64o said:
I get that there are things that people don't like about them and that's cool. People like what they like. On the other hand, I have no issues with anything. If you put a gun to my head and said I HAD to find something to criticize, the only thing I'd say is that it might look even nicer if the pickguard more closely followed the curve of the bass below the upper horn. But that's such a subtle nit. Honestly, I think that's a beautiful looking bass. As I do G&L's in general.

Love my L-2500!
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Exactly - no one is going to say that pickguard is one of the great works of industrial art - but if not for the original Pbass pg (which is) no one would be thinking that...
 
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#73
Ender_rpm said:
Indeed. Mine is a sonic wrecking ball :)
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No kidding. I was (temporarily) GAS-free with my tribby and SB-1 (and a Warwick and a couple acoustics) until a friend lent me his SB-2. I've previously owned three different P/J basses but NONE had pickups that interacted as well as the SB-2. I've started a fund for one as of this week.
 
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#75
I think they have a lot of appeal, but they're light on the market penetration. I live in the Baltimore / DC region and the only stocking dealer that I know of is an hour and a half drive away and only open Fridays and Saturdays. Several dealers listed don't even stock basses and have one or two guitars. So if dealers don't sell many, there aren't going to be many in existence. My beef lately with them is that ones that I have seen are really heavy. That and the headstock looks funny.
 
#77
bonin in the boneyard said:
No kidding. I was (temporarily) GAS-free with my tribby and SB-1 (and a Warwick and a couple acoustics) until a friend lent me his SB-2. I've previously owned three different P/J basses but NONE had pickups that interacted as well as the SB-2. I've started a fund for one as of this week.
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I've been fortunate enough to own 2 L2.5ks, one US, one tribby.The SB2 gets me about 95% of the front/series/passive sound I crave with none of the fiddly options that distract me. I've had it now for over 10 years, and have found few peers.

Def no peers in the price range I got her for :)
 
#80
I love em, and have probably played a thousand gigs on my l2500. BUT, The humbuckers are Hella hot, and don't Play great with pedals and certain preamps if you have the volume dimed. And you have to moderate your technique so that you don't wacky your strings into the exposed pole pieces. They can make a huge variety of tones, but some of them suck. So they're not quite as plug and play as the "Leo trio." I get why they're not for everyone.
 
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