My guitar collection - G&L
In 2011, G&L built several instruments using Western sugar pine for the body and this ASAT Deluxe is one of these. Some of them got the serial number on a brushed aluminum plate, as seen on ‘Port & Chocolate’. Others, like this one, still have a water slide decal. Although itself not listed among the guitar prototypes on the old G&L website, 2 others with Western sugar pine body are: CLF062947 with an all-Black finish and CLF064148 in Black Galaxy with double faux binding in flame red initially intended for Aerosmith’s Brad Whitford. The quote below is taken from the entry of the former. What makes these 3 ASAT Deluxe guitars stand out is their configuration: effectively a 2 humbucker ASAT Classic, with a “... shortened ASAT Classic bridge with rounded corners, reminiscent of a modded Telecaster Jeff Beck has, as well as twin G&L; [sic] exposed coil humbuckers.” The Telecaster alluded to is of course the famous ‘TeleGib’ guitar built by Seymour Duncan for Jeff in 1974. Note this first ‘TeleGib’ differs in the bridge spec from the second ‘TeleGib’ Seymour built for himself, reprised as the Seymour Duncan 35 Limited Edition guitar built by Larrivee in 2011. The latter has a Tune-o-matic bridge like the ASAT Deluxe II. Whereas both CLF062947 and CLF064148 have uncovered, black bobbin G&L humbuckers, the pickups on this ASAT Deluxe prototype are inspired by the original ‘TeleGib’ guitars with a Seymour Duncan (SD) Jazz (SH-2N) humbucker in the neck, instead of the usual SD ’59 (SH-1N), combined with an SD JB Trembucker (TB-4) in the bridge. In appearance, they mimic Seymour’s second ‘TeleGib’ by using zebra bobbins and omission of pickup covers. In 2019, a 4th ‘TeleGib’ surfaced: CLF065974 is a swamp ash Blonde ASAT Classic Deluxe also sporting Seymour Duncan pickups, though with an SD ’59 in the neck, both with black bobbins. With the shortened bridge in these guitars, an ASAT Classic Bluesboy pickguard could be used. Still, the screws of the mounting ring go through the single-ply black plastic pickguard on mine. Not sure what that is all about! The traditional ASAT Classic control panel has the 3-position pickup selector, volume control, and tone control. Which is why ‘ASAT Classic Deluxe’ as the model name for the 4th ‘TeleGib’ makes more sense, although ‘ASAT Classic HH’ would have been even better in my opinion. The quartersawn hard-rock Eastern maple #1b Heritage “C” neck (now called Heritage ’86) has a light tint gloss finish, a gorgeous rosewood fingerboard with a 12” radius, Jescar Medium Jumbo 57110 frets, 1⅝” nut width, and G&L branded Schaller closed tuning machines.
ASAT Deluxe ‘TeleGib’ prototype
The story behind this guitar
Year:
Serial number:
Neck date:
Body date:
Strings:
The Custom Build Specification shown below is not worth reading; too many omissions and errors. The body has no binding of any kind, the knurled knobs are flat rather than domed, it obviously has a pickguard, the neck is a #1b neck instead of the listed Modern Classic, the neck finish seems more like light tint gloss, the neck pickup is an SD SH-2N, the tone knob is not push-pull, and the bobbins are zebra colored not black. And the sheet is not signed by Steve Grom either although the neck scribble says to see him. Note that the neck heel, date and all, looks very similar to the one shown for the Korina ASAT Deluxe prototype. It is not uncommon for prototypes to be unlike their included spec sheet. After all, these instruments are testbeds and their configuration can change on a whim. Here it might be as simple as a swapped out neck. Given September 26, 2010 would have been a Sunday and the TB-4 is from 2011, the guitar cannot be dated earlier than 2011, so let’s assume January 6, 2012 is indeed the completion date for this guitar, i.e. after CLF062947 completed October 17, 2011 but before CLF064148, completed March 5, 2012, and certainly CLF065974 completed October 30, 2012. Since CLF59705 is a water slide decal for the serial number instead of a brushed plate, I still think this is the oldest among all 4 ‘TeleGib’ guitars. The guitar looks beautiful and was on the market at the same time as the all-Black sister guitar. Not knowing anything about the history of ‘TeleGib’ in that moment, I opted to go for this esthetically pleasing one, even though it does have a blemish in the form of some particles lodged into the rosewood fingerboard end (see picture below), all properly disclosed by the folks at Specialty Traders in Parkersburg, WV. Another fortunate example of ignorance being bliss. You might even wonder whether G&L competed with Larrivee to build the Seymour Duncan 35 Limited Edition and that is why these ‘TeleGib’ guitars exist, especially this one. She sounds powerful although a little more mellow given the Jazz pickup. Combining both sounds great with interesting funk overtones, but in my opinion is not the best among all my ASAT Deluxe guitars.
The story behind this guitar
2012
CLF59705 (prototype)
11/08/10 (written), marked ‘ASAT’, ‘#1B’, ‘see Steve’
SEP 26 201[1] (final digit of year not clearly legible)
