My guitar collection - G&L
Rumor has it that ASAT stands for “After Strat After Tele”. However, George Fullerton (the “G” in G&L) claims that, in line with other military related model names used, it is just a reference to “Anti-Satellite”. This name was adopted for the model with the large sized Magnetic Field Design (MFD) pickups after the Broadcaster name was dropped. Leo spent quite a large amount of time trying to improve on the single-coil pickups he has always been associated with before he was able to come up with MFD’s. These pickups are warmer than the traditional Telecaster single-coils as well as the P-90 for which they are frequently mistaken. To create a little more twang for the ASAT Classic, Leo developed the traditional sized ASAT Classic MFD, hand-wound with the same machine used at Fender Electric Instruments. The body of this guitar is a beautiful slab of swamp ash with Butterscotch Blonde finish, and has a single-ply black plastic pickguard for a vintage look. The controls are as usual for a Telecaster: volume control, tone control, and 3-position pickup selector, the “hat” version that is. The ASAT Classic 6-saddle bridge provides optimal control for intonation. The Bi-Cut neck is made from Bird’s Eye maple with a 7½” radius fingerboard and finished with a gun-oil stain for that antique look. For more information on this model, visit:
ASAT Classic
The story behind this guitar
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One of my favorite guitars and my first ASAT Classic. Or Broadcaster/ASAT for that matter. It has that well known bark and snap. Tuning it in open-G was one of the watershed moments in my continuing journey to learn to play the guitar. All of a sudden a whole slew of Keef Riffhard stuff fell into place. ‘Honky Tonk Woman’, ‘Brown Sugar’, and about all of ‘Exile on Main Street’ sounded like it should. When deciding to get a Telecaster model, I could have easily gone with Fender. But this small store in downtown Seattle, The Zobrist, that I dropped by once in a while, only carried G&L. I still remember one of the first times I went down there. They had a Clear Orange ASAT Classic that sounded fantastic. In those days, being a “lowly” paid post-doc, I just did not have the means to buy one yet. But when it became possible, I custom ordered this guitar and tried to make it as much 1952 as I could. Yes, that included the after-market ashtray I am not ashamed to admit. And although I should have ordered it with a tweed case right away, I did find one in excellent condition. Every time I pick up this guitar it makes me ‘Happy’. Which is usually the first tune I will play.
The story behind this guitar
1999
CLF12244
none, marked ‘Neckwork’, ’99’, ‘TINT SHINY’, ‘BE’, ‘CC’
23 APR 1999
D’Addario EXL116 Nickel Wound Medium Top/Heavy Bottom (11-52)
