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If I remove the neck, will the body have any markings telling me it is US?
The back is black so I can't find a spot just as you said.
Should have a date on the neck and body. Dates do not always match but are typically close to each other. It is also pretty common for there to be writing in the pickup routes. You can check, but at this point I am confident you have a US one. Reasons below.
- It would be incredibly rare to have that bridge on a Tribute L2500.
- I cannot find where G&L ever made a Tribute L2500 (other than Japanese models) with 3 tone sunburst. I definitely cannot find one during the short time Tributes would have had a G&L stamped string through bridge (instead of a Tribute stamped one or a non-string through G&L stamped one).
- You have a US neck. I have no idea why anyone would bother putting a US neck on a Tribute body. For reference US necks do not typically sell without bodies attached. If you need a new neck for your G&L, you have to send it to G&L for the replacement. I am sure there are some exceptions to this that have happened over the years, but again would be incredibly rare.
You could also check the G&L registry page for your serial number or email Memo to confirm build date/color. Should be able to find out if that serial number was a sunburst guitar. Again not conclusive, but you have so many things adding up here that the odds of it being a Tribute with a US neck swapped on are extremely low. [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I was afraid of that! I thought it was a US preamp at first because of the post that mentioned bringing the 1.3 version up to US specs. I'm almost positive now that I was shafted. All three of my switches have the little tabs!
I made the mistake of buying it used through a "center." I should have known better! Now what can I do?
If the body were US, I would get the preamp changed, but I'm almost certain that's not the case.
Your bass is probably not going to have the latest US spec preamp. String through bridge means it is older. It would be perfectly normal for your bass to have 1.1, 1.2, or even 1.3 in it given the age and possibility of being replaced along the way.
At this point you have made so many posts about it being a fake despite the fact that it is probably not that you should just return it. Clearly some buyers remorse of some sort going on there.
Edit: Removed 1.0 as an option after finding Paul's post on update timing. 1.0 would only be in very early L2500s.
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I don't want to return it. Overall I love the bass, but I paid for a used US model. I hope looking at the heel will give me another clue. How can I email Memo? Do you have that address?
Thanks so much for your help!
Correct. Having string through body at all as an option makes the bass older. The earliest L2500s did not have string through body as an option. It was added at some point (do not recall exact date, want to say around 2000). It was removed sometime in the last 10-15 years (seems like it was around 2012 or 2014, but again do not have an exact date).
Since you have string through the body, you should either string through the body or look into the string through bridge mod (reversible mod that involves putting screws and nuts through the string through holes to help hold the bridge down). If you string through the bridge on a string through body G&L without the mod, then you are asking for the bridge to pull itself away from the body.
I will message you the email address.
Found a note on Preamp versions and timing from Paul Gagon on another forum (post is from 2016). Quoted below for reference.
"I did a post on a similar topic but maybe it's more appropriate here. It went something like this......
You know, I don't think I have ever explained the various versions of the G&L Bass preamp or why the changes were made. Seems like a good time to do that. The original preamp that G&L was using before BBE took over used an LM4250 chip and very large resistor values around the circuit. These resistors were of the carbon film type and were typically 5% or 10% tolerance. I was told that there were some complaints about the preamps being noisy (circuit noise, not 60Hz hum. Think hiss vs hum). This was primarily caused by the large resistance values coupled with the type of resistors used.
Rev 1.0 was the first preamp to address the noise issue. It was done in September of 1992 and used the LF441 chip and value scaled down the resistors. These resistors were made from metal film and had a tolerance of 1%. The frequency response was the same as the original but the circuit noise was quite a bit less. I took great care in evaluating the sound of this preamp against the original with a ton of bass players. No way was I going to mess with the sound of the bass. I just wanted to reduce the circuit hiss.
Rev 1.1 was done to go back to the LM4250 chip because it was being so difficult to get the LF441. Besides, with the proper value of the bias resistor that connects to pin 8 of the 4250 you can achieve the same noise spec as the 441. This version was done in October 1997.
Rev 1.2 was done in February 2011. This revision switched the position of R8 (1K) to the output side of R9 (100K) to reduce the voltage divider effect at the output (a very minimal change) and to bring the external 10K gain controlling resistor on to the PCB under the name of R11. Also, the on board high frequency boost resistor (R7) was changed from a 21.5K resistor to a 27.4K resistor to reduce the treble gain......a very small amount
Rev 1.3 was done in October 2011. This revision was to address complaints of picking up radio interference in the preamp. An RF input filter was added to the front end by using R12 (1K) and C7 (220p). This blocks any radio frequency signals from entering the input circuitry of the preamp.
There isn't any real difference in the sound of the various versions of the preamps. All these revisions were done to address a variety of noise, RF, or availability issues. From the excellent pictures Ken provided you can see that the PCBs were different colors. The dark green ones with the "G&L bass preamp" silk screen come from the Southern California Almatron company and are assembled in the G&L factory. The light brown/cream colored PCBs are from Cort and are used in the Tributes. The preamps from Cort have recently gone to using the TL061 chip and 5% carbon resistors so it's very easy to tell when you have a preamp from the Indonesian factory.
If I've left something out that you are curious about, let me know. By the way, all of this info is as of September 2014. I was laid off from G&L at that time so things may have changed since then."
"I did a post on a similar topic but maybe it's more appropriate here. It went something like this......
You know, I don't think I have ever explained the various versions of the G&L Bass preamp or why the changes were made. Seems like a good time to do that. The original preamp that G&L was using before BBE took over used an LM4250 chip and very large resistor values around the circuit. These resistors were of the carbon film type and were typically 5% or 10% tolerance. I was told that there were some complaints about the preamps being noisy (circuit noise, not 60Hz hum. Think hiss vs hum). This was primarily caused by the large resistance values coupled with the type of resistors used.
Rev 1.0 was the first preamp to address the noise issue. It was done in September of 1992 and used the LF441 chip and value scaled down the resistors. These resistors were made from metal film and had a tolerance of 1%. The frequency response was the same as the original but the circuit noise was quite a bit less. I took great care in evaluating the sound of this preamp against the original with a ton of bass players. No way was I going to mess with the sound of the bass. I just wanted to reduce the circuit hiss.
Rev 1.1 was done to go back to the LM4250 chip because it was being so difficult to get the LF441. Besides, with the proper value of the bias resistor that connects to pin 8 of the 4250 you can achieve the same noise spec as the 441. This version was done in October 1997.
Rev 1.2 was done in February 2011. This revision switched the position of R8 (1K) to the output side of R9 (100K) to reduce the voltage divider effect at the output (a very minimal change) and to bring the external 10K gain controlling resistor on to the PCB under the name of R11. Also, the on board high frequency boost resistor (R7) was changed from a 21.5K resistor to a 27.4K resistor to reduce the treble gain......a very small amount
Rev 1.3 was done in October 2011. This revision was to address complaints of picking up radio interference in the preamp. An RF input filter was added to the front end by using R12 (1K) and C7 (220p). This blocks any radio frequency signals from entering the input circuitry of the preamp.
There isn't any real difference in the sound of the various versions of the preamps. All these revisions were done to address a variety of noise, RF, or availability issues. From the excellent pictures Ken provided you can see that the PCBs were different colors. The dark green ones with the "G&L bass preamp" silk screen come from the Southern California Almatron company and are assembled in the G&L factory. The light brown/cream colored PCBs are from Cort and are used in the Tributes. The preamps from Cort have recently gone to using the TL061 chip and 5% carbon resistors so it's very easy to tell when you have a preamp from the Indonesian factory.
If I've left something out that you are curious about, let me know. By the way, all of this info is as of September 2014. I was laid off from G&L at that time so things may have changed since then."
If you don't want to string all strings through the body, and you don't want to do the mod, you can put one or 2 through the body and the rest through the bridge and you won't have a problem. There's no discernible difference in tone between the strings through the body and through the bridge when they are mixed. It's the lazy way out, but it works just fine.
1.1 is the most likely one to see in that bass given the timespan of 1.1 and timing of string through bridges. Per Paul's post Tributes have Light Brown/Cream PCBs.
I just got confirmation from G&L that this is a US instrument! Thank all of you for your patience and help!
I'm glad that you got confirmation from the factory. Hopefully you feel better about buying the bass now!
On a different note, I just put this Red Tort pick guard on my Fullerton Fallout and I'm in love ............
On a different note, I just put this Red Tort pick guard on my Fullerton Fallout and I'm in love ............
Beautiful! Looks like you replaced the knobs, too, or are those the knobs that come on the Fallout? They look good on it.
Those are the knobs that come on the Fullerton version. I think the Tribute's use a different knob.
It was a "built to order" instrument (Vintage White) and had a Mint 3 ply pick guard on it. It was/is cool but the Red Tort 4 ply really does it for me.
It was a "built to order" instrument (Vintage White) and had a Mint 3 ply pick guard on it. It was/is cool but the Red Tort 4 ply really does it for me.
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