My guitar collection - G&L
The G-200 was G&L’s 2nd guitar model introduced in January 1982, but production commenced late-1981. It is G&L’s short lived attempt to release a guitar with a Gibson like 24¾” scale. The Magnetic Field Design humbuckers are not exactly the same as in the early F-100s and, according to Greg Gagliano on his ggjaguar.com website, actually sound better. The G-200 has a mahogany body in natural satin nitrocellulose lacquer finish, giving it a matte luster, a 3-position pickup selector on the upper horn, and a “rain cloud” control panel with separate volume and tone controls for each pup and a “Splitter Switch” discussed for the G-200 wiring harness. The hard-rock maple neck has a skunk-stripe on the back, 12” ebony fingerboard, and introduced the world to the G&L hook or “teat” as part of the headstock shape. In total only 209 G-200s were built, with the last approximately 20 or so having rear-loaded controls. Hence this model ended up as a Rarebird, with about a third of the production total registered on the Guitars by Leo (GbL) website.
G-200 (“rain cloud” control panel)
The story behind this guitar
Year:
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This G-200 I obtained from Wayne Richman, aka Thumbs, in February 2015. Some years earlier, I had bought an unused John Jorgenson Signature neck plate from Wayne so we are familiar with each other. But it still took more than a month to get all ducks in a row, dot all i’s, and cross all t’s. The date in the neck pocket is not very legible; I can barely make out “OV” and “981”. But the completion date for this guitar is 11/20/1981, which Jim DePitts, another previous owner, likely got straight from the sales logs. Paired with Jim’s rear-loaded G-200, it appears on the left in a picture in the GbL Gallery reachable by following the “Jim DePitts’ 1981 and 1982 G-200” link on the Rarebird page referenced above. In addition, while in Wayne’s possession, this guitar acted as the engineering template for a G-200 re-issue G&L intended to release. Legend has it this guitar lay around Leo’s room for about 18 months, soaking up all the mojo of the place, before it was retrieved by Dean Coy, of Z-12 fame, who handed it back to Wayne. And now I am the keeper of this treasure. Oh and let me tell you, mojo it has! It is one wonderful awe-inspiring rocking machine. The separate controls give you a lot of sonic space to play around in and the Splitter Switch is extremely useful on this model, adding even more versatility. Now the guitar is tuned in open-D and acts as one fine slide guitar.
The story behind this guitar
1981
G009639
NOV 10 1981, marked ‘3’
?? NOV 1981, marked ‘2’ in circle stamp.
