Leo Fender was the ultimate tinkerer and pickups were always an area of focus to him. How can a modern day instrument even sound better than those from yesterday? After the successful Magnetic Field Design (MFD) humbuckers on the L-1000 and L-2000(E), G&L used smaller footprint HB-2 Bi-Pole™ MFD humbuckers on the El Toro, introduced in June 1983, while retaining a similar body shape. And as with the L-2000, this model was initially available as a passive bass (El Toro) or with preamp (El Toro-E), with slightly different wiring harness. Both passive and active versions include a series/parallel switch. In the parallel setting, the pickup selector switch works normal and the pickups are combined in parallel if both are selected. In the series setting the pickup selector is bypassed and both pickups are always on, in series of course. The El Toro-E turned out to be so much more popular, the passive version disappeared within 6 months even before the very similar Interceptor Bass was introduced in March 1984. The El Toro was available with mahogany, ash, or maple body. Several El Toro-E basses are featured on Greg Gagliano’s ggjaguar.com website: a Natural ash El Toro-E with maple fingerboard and Black headstock, a Natural ash El Toro-E with maple fingerboard and Black headstock, a Sunburst mahogany El Toro-E with maple fingerboard and matching Sunburst headstock, and another beautiful Sunburst mahogany El Toro with flame neck, again with matching headstock.