My New G&L S500 Strat ...

[dave robinson]

Due to circumstances involving a couple of our lads not being available we ended up with a four piece line up tonight with Alan Jones on bass. This encouraged a few Shads tunes and this guitar more than delivered. I set the bass control all the way off and dropped the treble a tad, which delivered the early Hank tone through the Zoom G3 and Boogie - very close to the ESE/Vox combination. The chime was there in Wonderful Land and Apache, the dampened bits sounded exquisite. A slight tonal change on the guitar for Flingel Bunt and Dance On, it was all there. When I brought in the bass and treble there was a rich sound similar to the sound of Duane Eddy's Gretsch which was ideal for our American rock & roll stuff, so all in all I think a more versatile guitar than a Strat, Leo Fender knew what he was doing. There were no bad points at all and I played the guitar as if I'd had it for years.
I can honestly say that the S-500 is a mighty big bang for the buck and highly recommend it !

[roger bayliss]

Good to hear that Dave, I had exactly those thoughts when I got my S 500 and realised just how flexible it is. I think those to tone controls would work well on any split humbucker coil to tame the bottom end . Been wondering about the Legacy with humbucker in bridge instead of a normal SSS .My hunch is that it would work well.

[dave robinson]

Well I'm considering trying the Legacy out of curiosity over those tone controls, they are by far the most useful I have ever had.

[roger bayliss]

Strat v Commanche demo sound....

[roger bayliss]

Comparing USA and Tribute models

[roger bayliss]

Remember Marcello !

[dave robinson]

I've got one gripe with this guitar and I will get it sorted. I don't like the length or feel of the vibrato arm so I intend to cut it down to my favourite length, re-shape it and fit a plastic tip, then it will be perfect.

[roger bayliss]

Roger Busby cut his trem arm and ground the end to shape. I am okay with it though.

[dave robinson]

I'll need to take one and a half inches off to make it feel like the ones I'm used to. As it is I have to change my style of holding the bar whilst playing, otherwise my picking is in the wrong place. Shouldn't be too much of a problem though. You notice it more when stood up in 'performance' mode.

[dave robinson]

Well I did the trem bar fix by cutting 1.5" off the end and fitting a Wilkinson off white tip that needed drilling to 6mm to slide on the G&L bar. Just the right feel now.