My guitar collection - G&L
The year 2008 saw the return of an old friend not seen since 1985 introducing an BBE-era ‘entry level’ model: the SC-2. Not entirely with the same specs but close nonetheless. Instead of slab maple body, it had a contoured Mustang-shaped body made of swamp ash for all transparent and so-called Premier finishes (Clear Orange for this guitar) and alder for all standard finishes. By default it would have a Saddle-Lock bridge but a Dual-Fulcrum Vibrato (DFV) was optional. Of course it would not be a SC-2 without 2 Jumbo Magnetic Field Design (MFD) pickups. Unlike the vintage version, the controls were rear-loaded on the reissue, still with a similar simple wiring harness consisting of a 3-position pickup selector, single volume and and tone controls, and the input jack now moved to the side. The #1 hard-rock maple neck had a 12” fingerboard radius and 1¹¹⁄₁₆” nut width instead of the much more common 1⅝” used in that era. And for the first time that fingerboard could also be rosewood instead of maple, the only fingerboard wood found on the pre-BBE SC-2. The model went on hiatus again at the end of 2017 but information is still available in this archived snapshot. Note that pictures featured on that page as well as on the Gallery tab have a DFV as is also the case here.
SC-2 (reissue) w/Dual-Fulcrum Vibrato
The story behind this guitar
Year:
Serial number:
Neck date:
Body date:
Strings:
I wanted to find a reissued SC-2 with a rosewood fingerboard and white pickup covers, since no pre-BBE SC-2 has these specs, at a reasonable price. And that’s where a funny thing happened. In looking around, there are plenty out there but all priced pretty close to to what the Blue Book of Guitar Values has listed as the latest known MSRP. Which just so happens to be comparable to what the vintage SC-2 goes for, especially the 1st style. When consulting the same sources to decide on a price, do people just read the wrong line? In the end I got this guitar from the TS Audio store on Reverb, and for the right price. Clear Orange over ash always reminds me of that ASAT Classic I let slip away now decades ago. The ash body seems to have some figure on the bass side. And how about that neck and board! The rosewood combined with the Tinted Gun-oil Neck (TGN) finish give it a vintaged and aged look. The SC-2 (reissue) was introduced in August 2008 which makes this a guitar from only the 3rd month of production. It being an early one is accentuated by the model decal on the headstock. It is still the same as on a vintage SC-2 reading “MADE IN U.S.A. PAT. PEND.”, with later decals dropping the “PAT. PEND.” at least from 2010 onwards, if not earlier. But this guitar’s modern origin is given away by the presence of the G&L hook on that same headstock. The wiring harness has some important differences with the original. First, the treble bleed capacitor on the 250kΩ Audio Taper volume potentiometer has been upped to 200pF from 20pF, a change seen many times in the history of G&L. Second, it has a Russian made Paper-in-Oil (PIO) 4,700pF treble bleed cap on the 250kΩ Audio Taper tone pot which may or may not be original. Not the 1,000pF as found on the original SC-2 and a far cry from the additional 47,000pF cap in series to ground found in the vintage circuit. It makes the tone control rather anemic in that it is impossible to get some warm jazz tones. But sonically this guitar has the same kind of aggressive attitude found when playing the originals.
The story behind this guitar
2008
CLF52099
none, marked ‘SC2 RW STGN’, BLK’, ‘RT 11/08’
NOV 12 2008, second stamp NOV 11 2008, marked ‘F/C’, ‘R/C’
