My guitar collection - G&L
As told on the “Interceptors” page, the history of the G&L 1st X-body Interceptor is rich and storied. Early “Limited Edition” Interceptors built for G&L luminaries have gold hardware, flame soft maple body in Red-over-Black finish, Dual-Fulcrum Vibrato (DFV), and black powder-coated control panel with 3-position pickup selector, volume control, and PTB circuit. Of the 2 variants produced, the Interceptor II has 2 HG-2R “Angled Offset” humbuckers also known as Cavalier pups. This specimen has a #2 hard-rock maple neck with 7½” radius ebony fingerboard, 1⅝” nut, color matched sickle headstock with the G&L hook, gold font including an early appearance of the script “by Leo Fender” under the G&L logo. The tuning machines are Schaller branded, gold plated, closed tuning machines with an angled tab because the intended G&L branded gold plated version was not ready in time. Although it contains several errors, visit this page in the Rarebird section of the Guitars by Leo (GbL) Registry for more information. In addition, pictures of other 1st X-body Interceptors can be found in the GbL Gallery.
Interceptor II (1st X-body)
The story behind this guitar
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Actually this is the 2nd Interceptor II I purchased. The story of my first attempt to get one with some history and how an unethical seller can subsequently screw you over can be found here. But in the end, the one actually acquired is even better. The completion date for this guitar is 8/24/1983 when it was entered in the sales log. But clearly work was done after this date. On 10-5-1983, Leo (or Lee) Crabtree assembled it for the boss, Mr Leo Fender himself. When he passed away, the guitar was transferred to Dale Hyatt. Gary Maki became the eventual owner and this 6th purchase of a guitar from his collection comes fully documented. It is one of the three 1st X-body Interceptors II guitars with gold hardware. It also has a very low S/N on the “Pat. Pend.” bridge, indicative the guitar was built for one of the higher-ups at G&L. Visually she is a stunning beauty. My wife pointed out it reminded her of our wedding apparel which had a similar color scheme. One will notice the Red on this guitar is a little darker, almost towards Bordeaux Red, compared to any other Red-over-Black X-body Interceptor, e.g. this 1st X-body Interceptor III. Fred Villarreal, the master craftsman in the spray booth at G&L, experimented how to achieve this 2 color finish (for which Black-over-Red would be a more accurate term). The result here is a little more milky and less transparent and hence this version of Red was dropped. One will also notice that for other X-body Interceptors, the back is completely Black whereas this one has only Black bevels and edges. Sonically, the HG-2R pickups retain more highs than the usual humbucker but, with proper use of the PTB circuit, many good sounds can be gotten. However, given the historic significance of this beauty, it will likely not see a lot of playing time. To listen to a set of HG-2R pickups, I would grab a Cavalier instead.
The story behind this guitar
1983
G000002
SEP 15 1983, marked ‘R.C.’, ‘LCrb’, ’10-5-83’
AUG 11 1983, marked ’17’, ‘Built for Leo Fender 10-5-83 by Leo Crabtree’
