My guitar collection - G&L

 
 

Dean Coy is another one of what are currently called old-timers on the Guitars by Leo: rabid fans of all things G&L, likely with a preference for pre-BBE models but still very much interested in the new too. With his dcskunkworks, he goes further than that and has tried to push the G&L envelope in a similar fashion as Tim Page who created the Buffalo Brothers Special Editions. Only difference: Dean does not have a store outlet for his models! This does not mean people do not know about him and the kind of prototypes he has created. He is most famous for a number of 12-string guitars he designed starting with one based on the Comanche, which acted as a proof of concept guitar. After all other guitars discussed below were finished, the pickups on this proof of concept guitar were changed to Jumbo MFD pups as found on the ASAT and this Z-12 became an A-12. Next he modified one of Will Ray’s own Signature models to create the Z-12 WR, a Silver Metal Flake beauty presented to Will at the 2004 NAMM expo with George Fullerton as a witness. Later, Will had his great guitar tech Mac Whiteside restore that guitar back to a refinished 6-string Turquoise Metal Flake Will Ray Signature, unfortunately so in my opinion. It gained the “WR” decal on the upper bass bout, as seen on many of Will’s instruments, and some nice skull knobs but chromed plates on the front and back of the headstock cover the extra holes and a normal Saddle-Lock bridge, or at least its saddles, replace the 12-string version. After the expo, G&L built Dean 4 hard-rock maple necks with 12” rosewood fingerboards, Dunlop (Medium) Jumbo 6100 frets, 1⅝” nut, and headstocks with only a G&L decal but without holes such that Dean could experiment with the layout of the tuning machines. David Crosby used a 2-pickup Z-12 with Strat-like body on the 2005 Crosby/Stills/Nash tour. Dean used an ASAT Classic Semi-Hollow body without f-holes as a test bed for hardware improvements notably the integration of a Saddle-Lock bridge with Gotoh 12-string saddles allowing each string to be intonated separately. This guitar was later repurposed for something completely different and is no longer a Z-12. All previous Z-12s have an ash body except for the fourth one still in existence, affectionately known as ‘Big Red’. Dean received the solid all mahogany ASAT Deluxe body at the end of 2005. He slightly modified 2 Z-coil pickups such that they would fit underneath humbucker pickup covers (note the absence of holes for pole piece screws). The guitar has a 3-position pickup selector, separate 500kΩ Audio Taper volume pots for each pickup, no tone control i.e. no filters, which according to Dean is unnecessary on a 12-string electric. The mini-toggle is merely there to fill the existing hole. Six of the string are thru-body, the other six are anchored in the bridge. All the hardware on the body is gold coated including the ferrules in the back. The headstock has 6 black G&L branded Schaller closed tuning machines interlaced with 6 black satin LSR Precision Tuners. Check out the “horse’s mouth” at:

http://guitarsbyleo.com/FORUM/viewtopic.php?p=29219#p29219.

 

Z-12 ‘Big Red

The story behind this guitar

Year:

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Sometimes crazy stuff happens. Half an hour after Craig Dewey’s Will Ray Signature model was paid for, I receive an email from Dean in which he offers me this guitar. I did not have to think too long about it; one does not get many opportunities like this. Very similar to my feeling when I was offered Bob Page’s decked out ASAT Trinity Special Edition #24. An absolutely unique instrument with plenty of mojo. Dean sent it to me in an official G&L branded G&G tweed case but my wife did not like the looks. So I swapped it with the tolex case previously associated with my ASAT Bluesboy Semi-Hollow. And what a beauty it is! Using the 2 volume controls to mix the pickups allows you a large variety of tones provided by the clear sounding Z-coils. And you get that jingle-jangle sound you use a 12-string for of course.

The story behind this guitar

2005

CLF33119 (one of 4 12-strings built by dcskunkworks)

none but one of 4 made in 2004, marked ‘A’, ‘Z-12’, ‘#2’

OCT 05 2005

D’Addario EXL150 Nickel Wound 12-String Regular Light (10-46)