Well, having followed G&L faithfully for over 22 years now, I have always been impressed with their lack of predictability. The innovation was always out on a limb, and that is what made them much more interesting than any other production bass.
That is no longer the case.
The reproduction of an age old design, especially one widely dominated by the originating brand, is a large disappointment, in my book.
The biggest trouble with G&L is that they are a direct competitor to that brand, and have been dropping from all of the local stores around here because of it.
In my 15 years of marketing, I have never seen a company do well with an exact mimic of another brand aimed at the same audience. All it did was make the buyer more aware of the dominance of the originating brand. Sure, make it in China for a third of the cost, and you have a new audience, but that's not the goal here, obviously.
My strong belief that the reason the less popular G&L models did not sell well is not due to the design, but the lack of brand awareness, and the outright lack of advertising.
It would have been much wiser to make a reissue of these fantastic designs, and start to spend some money making the world aware that these were amazing Leo Fender innovations. They were way ahead of their time, and the world, being a bit more aware of G&L, is much more ready.
We are all chomping at the bit, and would surely help to create a stir !
Copying an age old design is a big yawn, and leaves me more than a bit disappointed.
On top of that, how do they avoid lawsuits from a company that has really deep pockets ? It could be disastrous.
The biggest question is, where is the imagination that G&L has long been famous for ??? THAT should have been the greatest gift left behind by Dale, George and Leo, not the designs of the 60's.
