G&L Club Part 7

[TinIndian]

Cost-cutting as a reason to not socket the Op-Amp? Why do they still do through-board soldering instead of going for a surface-mount design?

Surface mount is cheaper for sure. Many here do not like it because it is harder to work on from a repair standpoint but it is in fact superior to thru hole. The components can be miniscule, 2 mils by 1 mils for a cap or resistor. The machines to install them can be upwards of 70,000 parts per hour and the reliability is there.

 

[TinIndian]

The biggest advantage is the ability to shrink the board to fit small places and that really is not needed in the G&L control cavity.

 

[rust_preacher]

The biggest advantage is the ability to shrink the board to fit small places and that really is not needed in the G&L control cavity.

That's certainly true, another advantage would be high production volumes, which G & L might not "quite" have either. Surface mount is economical, especially outsourced.

 

[Antisyzygy]

If anyone gets a lead on a first generation SB-2, or a Lynx bass, I would greatly appreciate you sending it my way. I see one on Ebay now but I am in the market for one of these guys.

I just really want a "Jazz" style bass with MFDs. My SB-1 does enough of the SB-2 thing, and I'd just prefer some more properly balanced pickups.

I know that modern SB-2s are designed with the bridge as a tone, but I want a different use case here.

 

[PluckyThump]

'83 SB-2 on Reverb: Invalid Link Removed

'85 Lynx on Ebay (the one you saw?): [This invalid link has been removed]

 

[twinjet]

Not that I ever worried about buying one, but has anyone seen a fake G&L? What might it look like?

 

[RocketMusic]

Not that I ever worried about buying one, but has anyone seen a fake G&L? What might it look like?

They must surely exist, because G&L gets all kinds of paranoid when you ask them to make a replacement neck. They want the original neck sent back to them so that they can destroy it. I guess back in the day, they replaced some necks without doing that, and the original necks ended up getting paired with some aftermarket body and then the entire thing was sold as a real G&L. And what's worse, some of those necks had legitimate problems. So it was really a disaster on multiple fronts for whoever purchased those things...

 

[lowfreqgeek]

Not that I ever worried about buying one, but has anyone seen a fake G&L? What might it look like?

Someone would go to a lot of very expensive effort to produce a "fake" G&L - especially a USA. For starters, the bridge, pickups, and tuners would be dead giveaways if they weren't legit. The headstock wouldn't likely be right, either, or the 6-bolt neck on the newer and 3-bolt on the older.

 

[lowfreqgeek]

They must surely exist, because G&L gets all kinds of paranoid when you ask them to make a replacement neck. They want the original neck sent back to them so that they can destroy it. I guess back in the day, they replaced some necks without doing that, and the original necks ended up getting paired with some aftermarket body and then the entire thing was sold as a real G&L. And what's worse, some of those necks had legitimate problems. So it was really a disaster on multiple fronts for whoever purchased those things...

I can certainly see that being an issue. I once had a killer mid-80's fretless L2000 neck (eye-gouger removed) paired to a Yamaha BB1600 body. That was a fantastic bass that I eventually traded for a BB1100s. A few years later (probably 2010 by that point), I saw a music store trying to pass it off via eBay as a legitimate G&L L2000 for ~$800. Seriously.

I'd have offered $200 to buy it back, but I was pretty sure they were convinced it was a complete G&L.

As to a truly counterfeit G&L, that's certainly possible, but should be very easy to spot in the wild for anyone with an internet connection and an ounce of common sense.

 

[Antisyzygy]

I can certainly see that being an issue. I once had a killer mid-80's fretless L2000 neck (eye-gouger removed) paired to a Yamaha BB1600 body. That was a fantastic bass that I eventually traded for a BB1100s. A few years later (probably 2010 by that point), I saw a music store trying to pass it off via eBay as a legitimate G&L L2000 for ~$800. Seriously.

I'd have offered $200 to buy it back, but I was pretty sure they were convinced it was a complete G&L.

As to a truly counterfeit G&L, that's certainly possible, but should be very easy to spot in the wild for anyone with an internet connection and an ounce of common sense.

Sounds like it may have been a pawn shop or something.

 

[lowfreqgeek]

Sounds like it may have been a pawn shop or something.

Small town music store. I knew the place...

 

[Antisyzygy]

Small town music store. I knew the place...

Wow.

I mean maybe being a TB'er and talking mostly to these people who obsess over things many musicians don't has me biased, but I think that a music store owner should know some of that stuff.

Or you know hire a teenager and ask them to compare to photos on the web if you won't learn how to use a search engine properly.

 

[TDR1138]

I've seen some cheap guitar necks with sorta-almost-not-really-close headstocks trying to be passed off as G&L necks, but not a complete instrument. Truthfully, I remember them as probably being more passable as the old Epiphone "batwing" headstocks.

 

[BlushResponse]

Not that I ever worried about buying one, but has anyone seen a fake G&L? What might it look like?

Funny you should mention this. I recently picked up a used 90's era LB-100. Sounded like it needed some set up work, so I dropped it off at the Nordstrand shop, which happens to be close to my home. They figured out that the pickup that was already installed was some cheap no-name P pickup. Replaced it with the NP4V. Buyer beware, especially on picking up used LB's and JB's.

 

[mpdd]

for a change of pace i ran the L2k into the mesa at max clean volume at our last show going for a tighter and brighter tone that would contrast the fuzzed out thunderbird, it worked out pretty darn well, folks in the audience liked it, but i'm still curious about the k mod

 

[mpdd]

Funny you should mention this. I recently picked up a used 90's era LB-100. Sounded like it needed some set up work, so I dropped it off at the Nordstrand shop, which happens to be close to my home. They figured out that the pickup that was already installed was some cheap no-name P pickup. Replaced it with the NP4V. Buyer beware, especially on picking up used LB's and JB's.

mine's got a mystery pickup, the best i can gather is that it's either a black gotoh or a kent armstrong clone of a 62 p pickup, but whatever it is although it sounds a little bright at the house, it sounds perfect in a band mix

 

[BlushResponse]

mine's got a mystery pickup, the best i can gather is that it's either a black gotoh or a kent armstrong clone of a 62 p pickup, but whatever it is although it sounds a little bright at the house, it sounds perfect in a band mix

Mine sounded pretty dead. Talking about bad pickups: the MFD in my 81 L1000 had loose pole pieces that were rattling. Something's up with that pickup, and it's become super microphonic. Already ordering a replacement from G&L. The old one was a slot pole pickup.

 

[TinIndian]

Mine sounded pretty dead. Talking about bad pickups: the MFD in my 81 L1000 had loose pole pieces that were rattling. Something's up with that pickup, and it's become super microphonic. Already ordering a replacement from G&L. The old one was a slot pole pickup.

You can probably get the original rebuilt by someone. Lots of guys out there that do that kind of thing.

 

[BlushResponse]

New ones are $100. The Nordstrand guys weren't hot on trying to repair it or even trying to upsell me on one of their own. Most likely because it would have required rerouting, which I won't do on an old L1000.

 

[TDR1138]

Funny you should mention this. I recently picked up a used 90's era LB-100. Sounded like it needed some set up work, so I dropped it off at the Nordstrand shop, which happens to be close to my home. They figured out that the pickup that was already installed was some cheap no-name P pickup. Replaced it with the NP4V. Buyer beware, especially on picking up used LB's and JB's.

The old first gen LB-100s used (generally) a Gotoh pickup that was pretty non-descript and generic looking. So I wouldn't be surprised if you really did have the stock pickup in it. They were wound to spec for G&L, who requested an extra 500 turns (5% overwind) due to the location of the pickup. These were typically the ones in the white covers, and the Armstrong pups were in black covers, but the Gotoh coveres weren't affixed to the pickup at all, so it is easy to swap them out for a more traditional black.