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Is that original finish? If so I never saw that one. If not, nice choice!
Thanks! Yeah all original '81. We don't see many early CAR G&L's, despite that CAR was a popular guitar color back then. G&L had trouble with CAR for some reason (as told to me by my local dealer in 1980). It was listed as an available finish in 1980, but was delayed for a while. When a few CAR's finally showed up, some were horribly finished. Dry areas, goose bumps, etc. If you come across one like that don't assume it's a refin no matter how bad it looks. It's probably the factory paint job! lol
As far as I know, none, both MFD pups, but the L2k allows for coil splitting, is there a switch for that on the L1k?
The switch and on my 81 is a 3way one. Humbucking-single coil- single coil with bass boost.
The bass and treble controls are actually passive RC circuits and cut only, not boost. That is true for both the L1000 and the active L2000 (tone controls work exactly the same in active and passive modes). It's common for people to assume they are boost controls because the pickups have so much output.
Exactly! Nice bass by the way. I had a few early 80s L1000s over the years and they are very nice.
It is - one of the three switches on the L2000 is passive/active/active with treble boost so you can have it either way. I'm not really sure why they decided to make it active capable. It was probably a big thing in the 80s so maybe that was a selling point.
The L2000 preamp is subtle. I find it adds gain and some clarity to the notes but otherwise it doesn't really affect the tone that much, unless you use the treble boost setting which is very bright. Functionally the preamp should also act as an impedance buffer. Plenty of people just pull the battery and run their L2000 passive all the time though.
The G&L passive treble/bass cut EQ is a little unconventional, but does sound great. I have a 1983 El Toro with a similar layout as the L2000, though the EL Toro preamp has more treble baked in, even in 'normal' mode. I did a small resistor mod to tame it.
Leo was big on active bass design, as he saw it as taking the bass to the next (modern) level. The Stingray was prototyped passive, but went active for production. (The early 2 band EQ was also a little unconventional, as it was boost/cut on the treble, but pretty much boost only on the bass).
The L2000 had an early release that was passive with the L2000e as the active option. The L2000 eventually all came loaded active, but yes, the preamp could be bypassed with the switch. The M2000 is the always active variant with a more traditional, 3 band boost/cut EQ.
Leo was big on active bass design, as he saw it as taking the bass to the next (modern) level. The Stingray was prototyped passive, but went active for production. (The early 2 band EQ was also a little unconventional, as it was boost/cut on the treble, but pretty much boost only on the bass).
The L2000 had an early release that was passive with the L2000e as the active option. The L2000 eventually all came loaded active, but yes, the preamp could be bypassed with the switch. The M2000 is the always active variant with a more traditional, 3 band boost/cut EQ.
Not that I'd wish to argue with Leo, but many of us enjoy running our G&L's passive. Thankfully, we have that option.
