My guitar collection - G&L
After the Climax series was abandoned, it was replaced once more by the Invader in 3 similar configurations, including the Invader Plus. Its contoured swamp ash body in Cherryburst finish still has the overall shape of the Climax, i.e. with long horns, but no longer the recessed area around the neck plate. And of course the Floyd Rose Tremolo System, this time in a chrome finish. However, the pickups have been changed, many claim upgraded, to Seymour Duncan ’59 (SH-1N) and JB Trembucker (TB-4) humbuckers in the neck and bridge, respectively, paired with a G&L Dual-Blade pickup in the middle. The wiring harness differs slightly from the Climax guitars. The 250kΩ Audio Taper volume potentiometer has a 200pF treble bleed capacitor while the 250kΩ Audio Taper tone pot is in series with a 47,000pF (.047µF) cap to ground. It is completed by a 5-position pickup selector and coil-split mini-toggle, only affecting the 2 outer humbuckers. The hard-rock maple (post-1994) #4 neck has a 12” radius rosewood fingerboard, 1¹¹⁄₁₆” width Floyd Rose locking nut, bar string retainer, and G&L branded Schaller closed tuning machines. Note the headstock merely mentions “Invader” as the model. The archived webpage for this model, before it disappeared from the G&L website in 2017, is here. Which is true for all Invader models; none have shown up on the current G&L website. Hence, their visibility post-2018 is much reduced. Some production Invaders of the different kinds have been spotted, both domestically as well as in the Japanese market, among them a Clear Red Invader Plus Deluxe (CLF1802014). Both the Invader and Invader XL have also been built at times by the G&L Custom Shop.
Invader Plus
The story behind this guitar
Year:
Serial number:
Neck date:
Body date:
Strings:
This guitar does not make sense: a 4-bolt guitar and not an ASAT of any kind. So why? Well, check out the date stamps. The neck is February 4th 1997 and the body is from a day later. Now compare this to the 1997 ASAT Classic Custom in this collection. Its neck is from January 9, 1997 and the body from January 21, 1997. Less than 2 weeks between them. But notice the latter has a 3-bolt attachment whereas this guitar is a 4-bolt attachment! The seller, James Mills, was so befuddled by the absence of the G&L logo on the original unstamped chromed neck plate that he had it replaced. I put the original back on again. And the guitar does not have a serial number. Then in July 2019, Chip Schumann (aka Challenger on the Guitars by Leo website) posted his February 1997 Clear Forest Green Invader, then part of his collection but since sold. Also that guitar has neither a G&L branded neck plate nor a serial number thus confirming both these Invaders are no aberration. They have to be one of the earliest guitars with a 4-bolt neck attachment, possibly even test mules. And this would pinpoint the transition date to early-February 1997. I was pretty stoked when I discovered the date stamps among the pictures posted in the Reverb auction. All this after I had been ignoring this guitar for months exactly because it is a 4-bolt. One intriguing questions can now be answered: does the ‘INV #1’ marking on the heel indicate the neck is a #1 instead of a #4, or is this the first BBE-era Invader to be produced? My digital caliper reads 1⁴⁵⁄₆₄” at the nut, much closer to the width for a #4 than a #1 neck. Take it for what it is. The tone control is close to being ineffective, nothing seems to happen when dialed. Makes this guitar kind of a one trick pony. Loud and rocking. A nice, historically specimen but also one more confirmation why I love the ASAT.
The story behind this guitar
1997
none
FEB 04 1997, marked ‘INV’, ‘#1’
FEB 05 1997
