My guitar collection - G&L
You can read the “official” story of how the Korina ASAT Deluxe II came about on the next page. However, at least for me, this guitar casts some doubt on that story. Just like the Korina ASAT Classic prototype, it was finished on January 24, 2011, months before any of the other Deluxe prototypes listed on the CCD Korina Collection page. Maybe the story just relates to the use of the Tune-o-matic bridge on the Deluxe II. Who knows? Fact is, this product by G&L’s Custom Creations Department is a wonderful instrument. The 2-piece korina body is finished in Honey, giving it a warmer/darker hue than the Aged Natural finish used for the Korina Collection. Like the ASAT Deluxe II, it has a Seymour Duncan (SD) ’59 (SH-1N) humbucker in the neck and an SD JB Trembucker (TB-4) in the bridge while omitting the covers baring the black bobbins. The layout of the rear-loaded controls is a little different though, more akin to this production ASAT Deluxe but with the relative position of the 3-position Strat-style pickup selector and coil-splitting mini-toggle interchanged. The black chromed volume and tone controls really look classy. Unfortunately, the Saddle-Lock bridge is just chromed; it would have been nice to have all black hardware. The #1b neck looks to be quartersawn hard-rock Eastern maple with satin finish and beautiful 12” rosewood fingerboard, Jescar Medium Jumbo 57110 frets, 1⅝” nut width, and chrome, G&L branded Schaller closed tuning machines. Since the neck date is substantially older, the S/N is still a water slide decal and, unlike the Korina ASAT Classic prototype, this guitar did not come with a spec sheet. only issued since February 4th, 2011. There is no other information available online for this particular guitar.
ASAT Deluxe Korina prototype
The story behind this guitar
Year:
Serial number:
Neck date:
Body date:
Strings:
This is one special guitar and comes with a bit of a story. As stated elsewhere, I ordered the Korina ASAT Classic prototype from the Pro Guitar Shop (now closed) at the end of 2011, while waiting for the other Korinas to come in. Not being familiar with the fact there were two Korina prototypes in the store, the person in the shipping department sent me the wrong guitar. Through this strange mishap, this Deluxe was a “visitor” over at my place for a day before I returned it and got the correct guitar. I had bookmarked their webpage on this beauty though and also saw it appear frequently on eBay. Move the clock forward 14 months and it seemed the Pro Guitar Shop was doing some spring cleaning putting instruments up on eBay marked as pre-owned and at greatly reduced prices. And what do you know? I bought what felt like an old friend. Given the identical body date, it is clear the same early batch of white limba was used as for the ASAT Classic Korina prototype and it is definitely one of the first Korinas produced at G&L. Both of these guitars have the “see Steve” mark on their neck heel, likely referring to Steve Grom, director of manufacturing and Custom Creations at the time, stressing their importance. Tone wise, I still have to do a direct comparison between the 2 Korina Deluxes to see if there is a perceivable difference in tone just due to the bridge, but otherwise it is a rock-monster just like the others. Cleans up very nicely, and again, the tone control is wonderful with a very useful coil split giving you myriad sonic options.
The story behind this guitar
2011
CLF59703 (prototype)
11/08/10 (written), marked ‘ASAT’, ‘#1B’, ‘HNY’, ‘KORINA BODY’,
‘see Steve’
JAN 24 2011
