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Dude, that is a fantastic finish!! I love my L-1500 too. I think they are underrated. Yours looks awesome!!
Trans Blue is an awesome color. The L 1500 sounds great with the pickup placed in that location, different than a 1000 / 2000, closest to a 2000 with the Kmod - inner coils chosen.
Beautiful!
Picked this up a couple of weeks ago and brought it back to original state, had a bad tone mod and wacky string tree, replaced the tree and pots and knobs with OEM G&L parts and a new pickguard
1996 SB-2
1996 SB-2
The SB-2 is my fave fretless so far. Only a fretless Kilo could (maybe) dethrone it.
I'm dying to try one.
The recent L-1500 chatter made me slightly wanty, so I headed over to Reverb to see what was available. This listing caught my eye, not because it's a particularly nice example, but because the pickup looks closer to the bridge than other examples. G&L L-1500 Amber | Hollowood Music and Sound | Reverb
Compare to these 3:
USED G&L L-1500 Bass Blue Burst | UpFront Guitars LLC | Reverb
G&L L-1500 | Bob's Bassment | Reverb
G&L L-1500 Clear Orange 1999 | Chicago Music Exchange | Reverb
Any thoughts on this? A custom order, perhaps? Or did G&L change the position at some time?
Compare to these 3:
USED G&L L-1500 Bass Blue Burst | UpFront Guitars LLC | Reverb
G&L L-1500 | Bob's Bassment | Reverb
G&L L-1500 Clear Orange 1999 | Chicago Music Exchange | Reverb
Any thoughts on this? A custom order, perhaps? Or did G&L change the position at some time?
Man, I have a cheap fretless at the moment, which I don't play very much. But I think if I really got into it, a Kiloton 5 would be next...
I know, right??!
I really need to spend more time seriously practicing on my SB-2.
I always end up fooling around on the fretless. A new Kil..... Focus is what I need.
Yeah, it just being due to camera angle would make the most sense, because the pickup position of the L1500 is inherent to the whole design of it, closer to the bridge and it would just be a one pickup L2000.
Of course, the electronics are also different a bit.
Of course, the electronics are also different a bit.
The first batch of L-1500s actually did have the pickup in the L-2000 bridge pickup location. I had one, and I did check with the factory about it, and they did confirm that it was an intentional thing. That’s maybe the third or fourth one I’ve seen.
Note the differences, particularly how the coils align with the knobs (both were mine) -
Original (I believe 1996 date)
Newer (2009 date)
My initial thought was the same as the other two who replied; camera angle. But after comparing it to those others I linked, it was apparent the volume knob was not affected by any angle distortion. Which is what prompted to me to ask.
Thank you for the reply with photos. That certainly clears it up. Do you recall any major differences in tone due to the pickup placement?
I honestly didn't have the first one long enough to remember much other than that it was pretty comparable to my L-2000 with the bridge pickup only and the treble boost on, but maybe even a little brighter.
The full story is that I bought the first one online, and when I got it, I was perplexed by the pickup placement. I contacted G&L about it, told them I bought a L-1500 used but the pickup wasn't in the right location and I was disappointed that I didn't get what I was expecting. They asked me to send some pictures, we had a little discussion about it, and we agreed on a course of action to replace the body with everything else transferred over. So I sent them the bass, and about 6 months later, I got the second one from the factory, which was a new body and neck (because of the transition from 3-bolt to 6-bolt) with the original bass' hardware and electronics. They kept the original neck and body. Not sure if it went in the scrap pile or is still kicking around the factory somewhere. Anyway, when they sent the new one back, I did get a message from them apologizing for the confusion, but noting that while they had my bass, they went back through their records to see if they could figure out why one would have been made this way, and found that the original plan for the L-1500 was to use the L-2000 bridge pickup location and that they did produce a small batch with this location before deciding to revert to the Climax location. At least that's what they told me. I thought it was kind of odd that they didn't know this when I had originally contacted them.
Hey @TDR1138 , that's a cool story, thank you for sharing it!
Sure thing...
All this talk about Kilos and 1500s lately really has me missing that bass...
I'm so jealous of that. I actually own one- well, it's an early 80's, I seem to recall I thought it was an '81 at some point.
The neck is out of commission on mine, but G&L will make me a new one for the $500 that they charge. That will be a winter project, and I'll have the rest of the bass refinished over winter also. It's that red same as yours, but all torn up. I think I'll just go with black.
Best basses ever, in my opinion.
Yeah, crazy. What do you know about that.
The guy who designed it, Paul Gagon, has a post on the Basses by Leo site and he never discussed any of that when he talked about the design of these guitars.
Learn each day, you do.
This thread got me all worried that my L1500 pickup was not in the location I was assuming it was- but it seems fine.
