My guitar collection - G&L

 
 

Notwithstanding all the effort and innovation during the first 5 years, nothing at G&L harkened back to that first electric guitar ever produced by Leo which put Fender on the map: the Broadcaster/Nocaster/Telecaster. As told here, through a ploy devised by Dale Hyatt the G&L Broadcaster was born. This one has a soft maple body with a black powder-coated Locktight (Saddle-Lock) bridge, 2 Jumbo Magnetic Field Design (MFD) single-coil pickups, and a black powder-coated control panel housing the Broadcaster wiring harness (3-position pickup selector, volume, tone). It further has a hard-rock maple neck with vintage 7½” ebony fingerboard and black anodized G&L branded closed tuning machines on the matching Black headstock. The “mother” of all ASAT models is something to behold. At Dale’s hinting, this became Leo’s vision of how a Telecaster should be constructed if it were to be (re)invented in the mid-1980s. A list of known Serial Numbers can be found in the Guitars by Leo Registry.

 

BROADCASTER w/Ebony Fingerboard

The story behind this guitar

Year:

Serial number:

Neck date:

Body date:

Strings:


‘twas the night before Christmas. No really, it was Christmas Eve 2009 when I was doing another Google search on “G&L Broadcaster”. Most of the hits I had seen before: year(s) old entries on user groups, eBay, and craigslist.org. Also a couple of vintage guitar store listings, but all of these were for already sold instruments or for George Fullerton’s very own Broadcaster at Buffalo Brothers at a reasonable (given its history) but rather hefty price. Then, on the fourth(!) page, there was this easily overlooked entry: “Gruhn Guitar Inventory - December 23, 2009”; the store of the well-known George Gruhn in Nashville, TN no less, with a listing for a 1985 model at a very reasonable price! OK, not as low as the original pricing when the guitar was introduced (see picture below) but still very reasonable given the going rate. I had to wait until after the holidays but here she is, my first Broadcaster. At the very tail-end of the crazy year 2009 in which my collection grew by a stunning seven guitars (or should I say seven stunning guitars?), this was the last in that sequence. Dale, George, and Leo were all entirely correct in their assessment. MFD pickups in a maple Tele-style body? A fantastic combination! The neck pickup is incredibly sweet. Beautiful jazz or “mother” tones are right there at your fingertips. The bridge pup has bark and bite. And when you select both you get hum-bucking action for free and another set of wonderful tones. Smart! The tapers for all the pots are wonderful. It is a breeze to create beautiful volume swells with this thing. What a magical number, what a magical year, what a fantastic closer! Thanks to all of you gentlemen, wherever you are, for this wonderful creation ...

The story behind this guitar

1985

BC00197

OCT 14 1985

10-18-85

D’Addario EXL110 Nickel Wound Regular Light (10-46)