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G&L Club Part 7

I suggest you ask Ken Baker at the Basses by Leo forums. He would possibly know and/or guide you to some workshop or DIY procedure (rattle can) to crinkle your chrome hardware...

Though I am a fan of DIY, I'd much rather purchase the parts somewhere, if I can. Knowing my track record with DIY, it would end up looking good from far, but far from good.
 
I recently sent Memo an email letting him know how pleased I am with my L2K, and I heard back from him today. He's a really nice guy, and seems genuinely concerned with G&L customers' feedback. I'm very happy with my L2K, I can't find a thing wrong with it. My JB is also a great playing bass. I only wish I'd discovered G&L years ago.

From my limited interactions with him, I'd agree, Memo is a good guy that is genuinely concerned with their customers' satisfaction.
 
It would be great if he ran the production shop or at least QC'd every US bass out the door.

It'd be great if somebody did thorough final inspections over there. I don't think I'd want Memo doing doing final inspections, though. Not everyone who's dealt with Memo has had a "positive" service/warranty experience with him. Trust me, he's perfectly capable of giving a customer the run-around and ultimately, the short end of the stick. For all we know, he may already be the guy doing inspections....if there even is anyone doing final inspections at G&L.

Evidence supports the idea that for years on end, no one at G&L bothered to plug the basses (guitars too?) in before they left the factory. If someone had done so, there would never have been the infamous spring ping problem, that went on for years and often rendered an instrument unusable. Or, a worse scenario....if someone had plugged them in, heard all the extraneous noise, then decided that was "okay".
 
It'd be great if somebody did thorough final inspections over there. I don't think I'd want Memo doing doing final inspections, though. Not everyone who's dealt with Memo has had a "positive" service/warranty experience with him. Trust me, he's perfectly capable of giving a customer the run-around and ultimately, the short end of the stick. For all we know, he may already be the guy doing inspections....if there even is anyone doing final inspections at G&L.

Evidence supports the idea that for years on end, no one at G&L bothered to plug the basses (guitars too?) in before they left the factory. If someone had done so, there would never have been the infamous spring ping problem, that went on for years and often rendered an instrument unusable. Or, a worse scenario....if someone had plugged them in, heard all the extraneous noise, then decided that was "okay".

I concur.
 
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Evidence supports the idea that for years on end, no one at G&L bothered to plug the basses (guitars too?) in before they left the factory. If someone had done so, there would never have been the infamous spring ping problem, that went on for years and often rendered an instrument unusable. Or, a worse scenario....if someone had plugged them in, heard all the extraneous noise, then decided that was "okay".

Such evidence does indeed exist. My Legacy HSS guitar arrived last year with incorrect wiring, so that when the humbucker was split, position two (bridge and middle) was not hum-canceling as it's supposed to be. In single coil mode, the wrong coil was active. That certainly could and should have been discovered at the factory if somebody had plugged it in. Rather than go through the warranty repair process, I had my local tech fix it. (I also think the neck is not perfectly aligned even after my tech tried to fix it, but it's probably within spec and it has great playability overall. But it should be perfect, like my old Comanche's neck.)

I've owned seven G&L instruments including four option orders. Three have been absolutely perfect out of the box, and my SB-2 came with a truly minor cosmetic issue that doesn't bother me, so as far as I'm concerned it's perfect. That's four out of seven (57%) with no meaningful issues. Not exactly fantastic.

But two of the problem children have mitigating factors. For example, I was the third owner of a JB-5, so I don't know whether all of its issues can be attributed to G&L, but one certainly can: the idiotic short case that forced you to turn the D string tuning key, lest it bang into the end of the case and get damaged. Which mine did anyway, and needed to be replaced. Ugh. I bought another case for it (total score at $30), and sold its original case.

Also, my 2006 L-1500 came with a bad truss rod, which isn't entirely G&L's fault (assuming the rod came from a supplier), and when it finally had the right neck it was perfect. To this day it's probably the best playing bass I've owned, but my current G&Ls and Sandberg TT are darned close.
 
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I just wanted to relate a nice experience with my order and Memo, I didn't mean to set off a lot of complaints.

And I don't mean to yuck your yum. But as someone who's had good, just ok, and very maddening interactions with Memo over the past six years, and a negative one as recently as last week, it's hard to not comment when the topic is raised in the G&L thread. Hope that's cool, too. Congrats on the L2K and peace.
 
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