My guitar collection - G&L
After the name change from Nighthawk to Skyhawk (see the “The Improved Strat” page), G&L offered the latter with more colors and body woods. But otherwise the 2 guitars were initially identical. Beyond the more commonly found Dual-Fulcrum Vibrato (DFV), a few Skyhawks appeared with (in increased order of rarity) Kahler™ 2320 flat mount fine-tuner vibrato, Leo Fender Vibrato (see e.g. this 1987 Skyhawk on Greg Gagliano’s ggjaguar.com website), or Locktight (Saddle Lock) bridge. This specimen has a nice swamp ash body in Clear Blue finish with the Kahler vibrato and hard-rock maple #2 neck with 7½” radius maple fingerboard and matching headstock. It also has the redesigned circuitry to sonically differentiate the Skyhawk from the S-500 even more. Its 3 narrow-bobbin Magnetic Field Design (MFD) pups have more windings, again placed slightly differently than on the S-500, are surrounded by a plastic pickguard. A separate black powder-coated control panel has the volume control, PTB circuit, and 5-position pickup selector. Although none have the Kahler tremolo, Greg also features a slew of 1984 Skyhawks: a Black with ebony board, a Black with maple board, a Clear Red, and a White specimen. Definitely worth checking out to learn more about the history of this model. In mid-2018, the Skyhawk was the first guitar reissued in the G&L’s CLF Research line of instruments. More information on that version can be found here:
Skyhawk w/Kahler
The story behind this guitar
Year:
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This is one of the few Skyhawks with both a Kahler 2320 vibrato as well as a maple fingerboard. Including this one, of the 9 found in the Guitars by Leo Registry, 7 of them with ash body in Clear Blue finish with matching headstock! This Skyhawk appeared on eBay in the summer of 2016 listed in a non-trivial rubric so most people interested in vintage G&Ls likely missed seeing it. Although the seller had zero feedback, it was worth the chance given the description and numerous pictures provided in the auction. Even more so after it became clear this guitar was part of a deceased farther’s collection being liquidated by his son. Although this is a Skyhawk built after the circuit was redesigned, the DC-R values of the pups are more in the S-500 range than the Nighthawk range: 4.75kΩ (N), 4.53kΩ (M), 4.62kΩ (B). Although you might notice the values seem “scrambled”, i.e. here the highest value is found on the neck pup. It all leads to this guitar sounding incredibly powerful. The mid-positions do not exhibit an enormous amount of “quack” but are very musical nonetheless. Another fine G&L product.
The story behind this guitar
1986
G017482
APR 23 1986
AUG 14 1985 (day and month barely legible)
