G&L L-2500 Old or New?

Others know more than me, but older ones tend to have thicker neck shapes and weigh more. No hard and fast rule there. Additionally, the older ones will need to be strung through body since top loading the bridge can result in it coming off.

More experienced G&Lers can correct me if I am wrong.

 

I owned an L5500 (the one they made right before the L2500). It was very heavy but sounded great with the EMGs. I also own a 1997? L2500 and I love it. It has the birds eye maple neck that they no longer offer. I don't have experience with the 4+1 pattern on the L2500, but the L5500 was the 4+1. They make great basses.

 

You now can get a 4+1 headstock L-2500 with the CLF line.

 

Well that’s cool!

 

I am the original owner of a ‘97 L2500 with 4+1 headstock - 22 years and counting.

Mine has an Alder body with Ash top, flame maple neck, weighs in at 10.54 lbs. - right in the sweet spot of where I like my basses.
The body is a bit larger than the 3+2 headstock models.

It has a 1-15/16” nut width. Yes, 1 and 15/16”. Mine also has a really thick P-bass style baseball bat neck profile.

I love it and I will NEVER let it go. Ever.

 

This issue with the bridge string routing was present in lat 90’s (‘98?) through mid 2000’s or so. The 4+1 models like mine only have top-loading bridges.

 

The newer ones are fret leveled on a plek machine and have a different truss rod system. Change was somewhere around 2010 I think.

 

That change came in late 2006, as I discovered when I had an L-1500's neck replaced under warranty due to a faulty truss rod. The original neck had the previous bi-cut design, and I ended up with a non-bi-cut neck that had Plek-levelled frets. And they really nailed it on that neck, which had the lowest action and best playability of any bass I've owned. My SB-2 and JB come very close, but that L-1500's neck was amazing.

(To attest to that neck's excellence, about a year after I sold it, I was in a GC, and a guy hung a bass on the wall after playing it, and said, "That's the best playing bass I've ever tried." I checked, and lo and behold, it was my old L-1500. There was no doubt about it, because it had the same finish and neck, and the hex-adjustable saddle screws I had installed.)