My guitar collection - G&L
Another particularly good looking ASAT with a Kahler™ 2320 flat mount fine-tuner vibrato built in the second month after the name change from Broadcaster to ASAT. It has the usual 2 Jumbo Magnetic Field Design (MFD) single-coil pickups, plastic pickguard, Broadcaster wiring harness, and all black hardware. However, intended for the 1986 Summer NAMM show it comes with some extras. The soft maple body with a hint of flame was specially selected by Vice-President of Marketing and Sales Dale Hyatt and beautifully finished in Natural Gloss. And as stated before, Kahler equipped guitars are rare. The Guitars by Leo Registry lists 30 Broadcasters with Kahler, 18 of which with an ebony fingerboard. The numbers are even sparser for the ASAT, out of 15 registered only 7! This particular guitar is even rarer still due to its hard-rock maple pre-BBE #5 (guitar) neck (US Pat. 4,803,906). Lore has it this neck profile was designed specifically for multi-instrumentalist Alvino Rey, a long time acquaintance of Dale going back to the old Fender days. Mr. Rey had big hands, hated the scrawny Fender necks, and wanted his fingerboard to be flat and wide along the complete neck. Additional input came from Duane Jennrich, who became Dale’s first employee in the summer of 1979(!) when he started G&L Music Sales Inc., part of how Leo set up G&L, to help him lay all the groundwork for a distribution network. Duane was a fine and at 6’5” imposing guitar player also with big hands. Hence, the #5 has a 1¾” nut width and 25” radius ebony fingerboard, both dimensions shared with the (pre-BBE) #4 neck as found on my ‘Buck Owens’, but a width of 2²¹⁄₆₄” from the 15th fret on. However, the neck pocket has the same width as any other body, implying the #5 neck needs the usual butt width of 2¹³⁄₆₄”. The solution engineered by G&L is to have the board “spill” over, creating a lip on either side, still with enough room for the pickguard to fit underneath. Very cool, smart, and unique. This neck, which would have cost you only an added $25 in 1986, was predominantly found on the Superstrat models so popular in the 1980s: the Invader, the Rampage, and the Superhawk built for the high hairdo speedy shredders of the day.
ASAT w/Kahler & ebony fingerboard
The story behind this guitar
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Getting this beautiful and, unbeknownst to me, sought after guitar made me realize 2 things. First, I had to look for a proper “Poor man’s Broadcaster” and keep the ASAT with Kahler as a separate group with maple and ebony fingerboards covered. Second, both rare pre-BBE guitar necks were now in the collection: the #4 on the ‘Buck Owens’ and this #5. The guitar showed up on Reverb late-March 2016 offered by Jim Patnoude who also sold me the period-correct case for the HG-2 prototype w/DFV. A deal was quickly made. When opening the case you will notice how the Natural Gloss has aged to a beautiful golden hue and that there is more flame in real life. Both pots give some resistance to being turned but you would hear these beautiful sounds coming from this instrument. It is interesting to note that the interface between the ebony board and the maple neck has a 12” radius rather than the 25” of the fingerboard itself. The flat board plays like a dream too, although it still does get me any closer to being able to emulate the fretboard wizardry of the dearly departed Edward Lodewijk van Halen.
As far as the “sought after” goes, lets keep it at this: whenever I decide to let go of this beauty, Gabe Dellevigne has right of first refusal.
The story behind this guitar
1986
G017811 (1986 Summer NAMM guitar)
MAY 16 1986
MAY 13 1986
