G&L Club Part 7

[TDR1138]

Exactly. I did a mod on one of mine...changed a couple component values that took out some of the 1500's baked-in nasty "bite".

Long time ago, but I think I changed both a resistor value, and a cap value. Helped, but still a nasty sounding bass overall, at least for me.

Oh, that reminds me, the L1500 used a .022uF cap on the tone where the L2000 uses .047uF. So there's that too.

I did a lot of experimenting when I had mine. I actually thought the L1500 sounded best with the preamp stock, a .1uF cap for the tone and the preamp on, tone at 0. Just made it sound fat.

 

[Iridescentone]

Oh, that reminds me, the L1500 used a .022uF cap on the tone where the L2000 uses .047uF. So there's that too.

I did a lot of experimenting when I had mine. I actually thought the L1500 sounded best with the preamp stock, a .1uF cap for the tone and the preamp on, tone at 0. Just made it sound fat.

Yeah the L-1500 seems to have a love/hate rep from owners. I just never gel'd with them at all, had to do extreme EQ to get anywhere close to what I wanted from them. My first one had a bad opamp from the factory....noisy-screechy, unusable. Memo sent me a new, revised opamp chip....noise greatly reduced then.

But my continuing attraction to G&L lead me to try a Climax with similar elecs array. Seller said he couldn't tame its harshness even with thumpy flats, hence the sale. Undetered, I snapped it up for a very nice price, $425 shipped w/molded case. Dead mint condish, feather-weight, in a rare Goldburst finish. Wow, had to have it! This one would still be with me if only it sounded....acceptable. Sadly, had to let it go after weeks of fooling with it. IICR, it was a '94.

Tried anothe 1500 that I got here from TBer bdgotoh. Light weight, #7 neck with ebony board, with a gorgeous 3-tone burst finish (no one can argue that G&L did great finishes). That was the one I modded. Finally faced the reality that me and a 1500 were never going to get along. I give up.

In an odd twist of fate, I found major joy with an L-1505. At that time I had two 5500's and an L-2500. That 1505 sounded terrific to my ears, almost as impressive as the 5500's, and vastly sweeter than the 2500. Anectdotal and subjective opinion from a miniscule sampling, but still had me wondering if that 1505 had the same exact elecs as the 1500's had. Nothing from G&L would surprise me.

 

[Lo-E]

Yeah the L-1500 seems to have a love/hate rep from owners. I just never gel'd with them at all, had to do extreme EQ to get anywhere close to what I wanted from them. My first one had a bad opamp from the factory....noisy-screechy, unusable. Memo sent me a new, revised opamp chip....noise greatly reduced then.

But my continuing attraction to G&L lead me to try a Climax with similar elecs array. Seller said he couldn't tame its harshness even with thumpy flats, hence the sale. Undetered, I snapped it up for a very nice price, $425 shipped w/molded case. Dead mint condish, feather-weight, in a rare Goldburst finish. Wow, had to have it! This one would still be with me if only it sounded....acceptable. Sadly, had to let it go after weeks of fooling with it. IICR, it was a '94.

View attachment 7483569

Tried anothe 1500 that I got here from TBer bdgotoh. Light weight, #7 neck with ebony board, with a gorgeous 3-tone burst finish (no one can argue that G&L did great finishes). That was the one I modded. Finally faced the reality that me and a 1500 were never going to get along. I give up.

In an odd twist of fate, I found major joy with an L-1505. At that time I had two 5500's and an L-2500. That 1505 sounded terrific to my ears, almost as impressive as the 5500's, and vastly sweeter than the 2500. Anectdotal and subjective opinion from a miniscule sampling, but still had me wondering if that 1505 had the same exact elecs as the 1500's had. Nothing from G&L would surprise me.

I've never played a 1500 so I could be dead wrong here but, based upon the pickup position, the circuit differences to the 2K and people's description of its behavior, I feel like the OMG cap would be a really welcome mod.

Recently I've become really fond of my L2K as: bridge pickup only/OMG/treble full/bass 50%/preamp w/ treble boost on.

That would be pretty similar to a 1500 with an OMG option using the same settings and that tone is super punchy and super fat.

 

[TDR1138]

I've never played a 1500 so I could be dead wrong here but, based upon the pickup position, the circuit differences to the 2K and people's description of its behavior, I feel like the OMG cap would be a really welcome mod.

Recently I've become really fond of my L2K as: bridge pickup only/OMG/treble full/bass 50%/preamp w/ treble boost on.

That would be pretty similar to a 1500 with an OMG option using the same settings and that tone is super punchy and super fat.

I really think the L-1500 has a much more nasal midrange to it than the L-2000 bridge pickup solo'd.

When I had my L-1500, I did experiment a bunch. A lot of the changes were subtle.

Resistor mod on the preamp to remove the extreme treble boost. It did just that, but I eventually put the stock resistor back because I liked it with the tone rolled off.

Add OMG to the series mode. Sounded good. Had I kept the bass, I think I would have gone with series and OMG and foregone the parallel option.

Tone pot cap increased first to .047uF to eventually.1uF. As noted, I liked this fully rolled back with the stock preamp on.

Swapped out a few other preamp components that (in theory) would allow the preamp to boost the bass more. Didn't notice much of a difference.

At one point, I went passive volume and tone only, like a Kiloton, but years before the Kiloton came out. I did this as an experiment because I never rolled off the bass knob at all, so I wanted to see what it was like with it removed completely. Still felt like it was nasal and needed the bass boosted.

Swapped the preamp with a clone of a Music Man Stingray 2-band preamp that I had built.

Bought an EMG 2-band preamp that I was going to put in, but ended up selling the bass before that happened.

The one thing I didn't do that I wish I had was to add the loading cap into the series. This would lower the resonant peak of the pickup, which would in theory reduce that nasal midrange.

For what it's worth, the main reason I sold the bass is that I didn't like the pickup position from a thumb rest standpoint, and I didn't want to drill into a beautiful bass to install one more in the standard P pickup area. It just made playing it less comfortable for me.

The sound guy at the church where I was playing at the time always said that it was his favorite bass of mine because it was so easy to mix.

 

[mpdd]

kinda weird, but i could swear that my 2016 LB100 replacement neck and my new to me 2009 stingray neck are almost exactly the same

 

[jglunt]

kinda weird, but i could swear that my 2016 LB100 replacement neck and my new to me 2009 stingray neck are almost exactly the same

I think that word "almost" that you slipped in there is critical.

 

[Big Louzer]

I really think the L-1500 has a much more nasal midrange to it than the L-2000 bridge pickup solo'd.

When I had my L-1500, I did experiment a bunch. A lot of the changes were subtle.

Resistor mod on the preamp to remove the extreme treble boost. It did just that, but I eventually put the stock resistor back because I liked it with the tone rolled off.

Add OMG to the series mode. Sounded good. Had I kept the bass, I think I would have gone with series and OMG and foregone the parallel option.

Tone pot cap increased first to .047uF to eventually.1uF. As noted, I liked this fully rolled back with the stock preamp on.

Swapped out a few other preamp components that (in theory) would allow the preamp to boost the bass more. Didn't notice much of a difference.

At one point, I went passive volume and tone only, like a Kiloton, but years before the Kiloton came out. I did this as an experiment because I never rolled off the bass knob at all, so I wanted to see what it was like with it removed completely. Still felt like it was nasal and needed the bass boosted.

Swapped the preamp with a clone of a Music Man Stingray 2-band preamp that I had built.

Bought an EMG 2-band preamp that I was going to put in, but ended up selling the bass before that happened.

The one thing I didn't do that I wish I had was to add the loading cap into the series. This would lower the resonant peak of the pickup, which would in theory reduce that nasal midrange.

For what it's worth, the main reason I sold the bass is that I didn't like the pickup position from a thumb rest standpoint, and I didn't want to drill into a beautiful bass to install one more in the standard P pickup area. It just made playing it less comfortable for me.

The sound guy at the church where I was playing at the time always said that it was his favorite bass of mine because it was so easy to mix.

You ain't kiddin' that you experimented…!!!

I never got to play (or even see with my own eyes) an L1500, though I wanted to SO badly.

My L2500 came wired with Series Coil Tap (OMG) and Parallel, just like the older L2000's did.
However, the OMG coils chosen were not hum-cancelling, so there was double the SC-hum.
I wound up adding a 4th mini toggle that allowed me to switch inner and outer coils.
I later added a push/pull volume pot to add straight Series wiring since it never came with it.
The last thing I did, and please don't crucify me, I removed the OMG .1uF caps for OMG to give me regular ol' Single Coil.
I found the uber mid-range of Series OMG to be overwhelming lately. I yearned for the clarity and nuance of straight Single coils. I use that 95% of the time.

 

[bpabon]

Speaking of L-1500, I am struggling between upgrading and aging gracefully: Should I let my bass (90s G&L L-1500) age gracefully?

 

[bpabon]

You ain't kiddin' that you experimented…!!!

I never got to play (or even see with my own eyes) an L1500, though I wanted to SO badly.

My L2500 came wired with Series Coil Tap (OMG) and Parallel, just like the older L2000's did.
However, the OMG coils chosen were not hum-cancelling, so there was double the SC-hum.
I wound up adding a 4th mini toggle that allowed me to switch inner and outer coils.
I later added a push/pull volume pot to add straight Series wiring since it never came with it.
The last thing I did, and please don't crucify me, I removed the OMG .1uF caps for OMG to give me regular ol' Single Coil.
I found the uber mid-range of Series OMG to be overwhelming lately. I yearned for the clarity and nuance of straight Single coils. I use that 95% of the time.

I created a whole thread about my journey to a similar mod... Is G&L wiring deliberately sloppy? I'm glad to discover that someone has done it!

 

[dwellers]

I'm excited to be receiving an L-1000 from a fellow TBer soon! I've had a few G&Ls but have never had, let alone played, an L1K.

Question for you L1K owners: what's your string of choice? Round? Flat? I know there is no answer here, just preferences but I'd love to hear what makes your L1K sit great in a recording and live on stage.

Looking forward to having the L1K join my SB-1 on the wall and in my hands!

 

[Holdsg]

I really liked Labella LTFs on my L-1000s. I owned several over the years. None currently though.

 

[Nedmundo]

Like some others here, I had a love/hate relationship with an L-1500 and I did a fair bit of experimenting. This included swapping out the R7 resistor on the preamp, which reduced the treble in active mode, making that mode much more useful.

Whether I was in "love" or "hate" mode depended largely on the rig. Through some, including the Fender 2x10 combo in the shop where I first played an L-1500, it sounded fantastic. More old-school rigs seemed to work better, because they tamed the nasal harshness, and brought out the wicked grind along with some thickness. Yum. At its best, it was an absolutely perfect rock tone. Through my more modern G-K rig, however, it tended to sound nasal and harsh, though this depended on the room too.

Eventually, I discovered the Aphex Bass Xciter pedal, which made the L-1500 sound fantastic through any rig, including my G-K gear. I got lots of compliments on my tone with this setup, but I don't like relying on a pedal for satisfactory tone. Much better to have a plug-and-play bass, so after I got an SB-2 that had all the MFD punch of the L-1500 with the plug-and-play convenience of a P-bass, the L-1500 didn't last long. (That SB-2 also booted a Fender P and DiPinto Belvedere out of the herd.)

Ultimately, I'm just not into bridge pickup tone, and the L-1500 was much more "bridge" than "neck" tone. Apart from a few early samples with a pickup in the L-2000's bridge pickup location, its pickup overlapped the L-2000's bridge pickup by one coil, and I've sometimes wondered how it would have sounded if it overlapped the L-2000's neck pickup by one coil. I think I would have liked a slightly tighter neck tone, instead of a slightly fatter bridge tone.

 

[dwellers]

I'm curious as to the tone difference between a Kiloton and L-1500. They must be pretty close. Body and neck differences seem to be most evident.

 

[TDR1138]

I'm excited to be receiving an L-1000 from a fellow TBer soon! I've had a few G&Ls but have never had, let alone played, an L1K.

Question for you L1K owners: what's your string of choice? Round? Flat? I know there is no answer here, just preferences but I'd love to hear what makes your L1K sit great in a recording and live on stage.

Looking forward to having the L1K join my SB-1 on the wall and in my hands!

Congrats! Hope you love it.

My L-1000 is currently wearing GHS flats. I had it refretted about 6 years ago and it was set up with the flats then, and I haven't wanted to change them. They sound great (but I will admit that I do prefer flats in general).

Before the refret, I did have LaBella LTFs on it. I think the LaBellas sounded great, maybe a little more high end than the GHS. But they got repurposed to a bass that needs the lower tension.

I haven't used rounds on it, but I have had rounds on a few L-2000s at various times. I don't think you can go wrong either way, really.

 

[Nedmundo]

I'm curious as to the tone difference between a Kiloton and L-1500. They must be pretty close. Body and neck differences seem to be most evident.

I haven't compared them side by side, but when I tried a Kiloton it sure did remind me of my old L-1500. Seemed exactly the same, which makes sense given the pickup's location. I suspect the Kiloton's series and parallel settings with the tone up full would sound exactly like those settings in passive mode on an L-1500.

But each has settings/controls the other lacks. The 1500 has the bass cut and active mode, while the KT has single coil mode.

 

[ahbass2500]

I haven't compared them side by side, but when I tried a Kiloton it sure did remind me of my old L-1500. Seemed exactly the same, which makes sense given the pickup's location. I suspect the Kiloton's series and parallel settings with the tone up full would sound exactly like those settings in passive mode on an L-1500.

But each has settings/controls the other lacks. The 1500 has the bass cut and active mode, while the KT has single coil mode.

Similar take and experience. Played a Kilo and L1505 years apart. Kiloton makes more sense to me. With the pickup location of the L1500, I had no need for passive cut. I also liked the single coil mode. I think the ultimate Kiloton would have been an M series pickup with an active preamp.

Unrelated to the quoted post above. I am on a roadtrip and saw a music store near my hotel has an L5000 for sale. Needed to kill some time this afternoon so I walked over to play it.

Their price was too high. Photos looked decent, so I wanted to check it out anyway. When I got there, the bass was in a little worse condition than I expected (several neck/body nicks) and the tone knob was not functioning. They were asking $1800; think they may end up holding onto that one for a long time.

 

[dwellers]

Similar take and experience. Played a Kilo and L1505 years apart. Kiloton makes more sense to me. With the pickup location of the L1500, I had no need for passive cut. I also liked the single coil mode. I think the ultimate Kiloton would have been an M series pickup with an active preamp.

Unrelated to the quoted post above. I am on a roadtrip and saw a music store near my hotel has an L5000 for sale. Needed to kill some time this afternoon so I walked over to play it.

Their price was too high. Photos looked decent, so I wanted to check it out anyway. When I got there, the bass was in a little worse condition than I expected (several neck/body nicks) and the tone knob was not functioning. They were asking $1800; think they may end up holding onto that one for a long time.

Thanks for your take. I had two or threee K'tons and while I loved the body shape/size and the overall playability, it just never really hit a spot, sweet or otherwise, for me. I'm looking forward to the L1K for many reasons!

It will be interesting to see what happens to G&L prices over time as we get farther from the end. Up? Down? Stabilize or fluctuate wildly under external forces, fads and Fender?

I've heard several opinions that range from dropping like a stone to appreciating gently over time as people catch on to certain of the more unique models. I'm very happy to have, and have had, several instruments and also my experience of visiting the factory at what appeared to be a good time, not knowing what was just around the corner. I'm still sad but happy to be a part of the family!

 

[Nedmundo]

It will be interesting to see what happens to G&L prices over time as we get farther from the end. Up? Down? Stabilize or fluctuate wildly under external forces, fads and Fender?

I've heard several opinions that range from dropping like a stone to appreciating gently over time as people catch on to certain of the more unique models.

Some folks probably will catch on over time. It's happened with a close friend/former bandmate who is a total gear hound, and has a huge guitar collection. He recently discovered the G&L Comanche, which is unlike anything else, and he absolutely loves it. He bought a Legacy HSS too, and likes it more than Fenders.

He marveled at how he hadn't discovered G&L before its demise. He seems to have forgotten that he had played both of these models before--I know this because he played mine!

 

[Big Louzer]

I haven't compared them side by side, but when I tried a Kiloton it sure did remind me of my old L-1500. Seemed exactly the same, which makes sense given the pickup's location. I suspect the Kiloton's series and parallel settings with the tone up full would sound exactly like those settings in passive mode on an L-1500.

But each has settings/controls the other lacks. The 1500 has the bass cut and active mode, while the KT has single coil mode.

I have read that Kiliton owners (and I think Lobster said it [them]self) that the Kiloton could seriously use a Bass cut pot like the L-Series does…especially in Series mode. Perhaps the best mod for a K-ton would be to install an L-2xxx-Series preamp and obviously forego the pickup selector switch.
Though I've seen other mods like the addition of an MFD P-pickup. In that case you could use the selector. But I guess that's whether or not the parts would ever be available again…

 

[Big Louzer]

Similar take and experience. Played a Kilo and L1505 years apart. Kiloton makes more sense to me. With the pickup location of the L1500, I had no need for passive cut. I also liked the single coil mode. I think the ultimate Kiloton would have been an M series pickup with an active preamp.

They had a couple of working prototypes of this…but an L-series pickup with M-series preamp



Would have been massive, I think…