Early Legacy, New to Me.

I just received an early Legacy I bought off eBay. I'd been watching Legacies and Fullerton Signatures for a while and missed a few nice ones by fairly small amounts. I'd been wanting one pretty badly ever since I bought an F-100 on a whim a year or so ago, and what an eye-opener that guitar was to me. I loved the neck from the instant I picked it up, I loved the build quality, I loved the whole vibe of the guitar. My main guitar is a vintage Strat I've owned since 1974 (I bought it as a mix and match of several guitars from 1959 through 1963). I've been playing out a bit more lately and I'm not that comfortable bringing the Strat out to questionable venues. I love the F-100, but I find I can't easily get a tone I like if I'm playing through a strange amp. A strat-type guitar is much better for me to use at blues jams and such. So began my quest for a Legacy.

I decided I wanted a three-bolt guitar since my 3-bolt F-100 was so nice and solid... why mess with success? I also wanted the G&L Alnico pickups. I found a guitar on eBay that was priced very well and seemed to be flying under the radar for some reason, so I bit. I received it yesterday, and realized that in my haste I bought a very early model with Seymour Duncan pickups. The guitar is in beautiful shape (even if it's a finish I wouldn't normally choose), the neck feels great, and it plays beautifully. I plugged it in and I was pretty shocked at how different it sounds from my vintage strat. The most immediate impression was how much pick attack comes through on this guitar. It's incredibly snappy, at first it seemed to be obnoxiously snappy. After playing a while I got used to it, maybe adjusted my picking style a bit, and learned to use the guitar's tone to my advantage. All the pickups are much brighter than my Strat's, but even the bridge pickup is just smooth enough to avoid the dreaded ice pick treble. The treble control works well to shape the tone without killing the tone the way it can on my strat. The bass control seems to be more useful than I'd have thought on a Strat style guitar as well. Rolling down the bass seems like it could give solos more clarity and ability to cut through a loud band, yet the tone doesn't get thin.

I'm wondering how much different the G&L pickups would sound. The description of the pickups elsewhere on the forum makes it sound like the G&Ls have more body and texture, can anybody give a more detailed comparison than what's listed in that pickup description post? I fear that I'm going to end up wanting to try a Legacy with G&L pickups, and then I'll want both types. And then I'm curious to try an S-500. Of course I already want a few varieties of ASATs.... Where will it end?

Here's a couple of pictures of the guitar from the auction listing. My camera is broken, I'll post more pictures when I get a new camera.

Update...
While I love the way this guitar feels and plays, I'm not satisfied with the tone at all. I played at a blues jam last night, and found the guitar to be much lower output than my vintage strat, and very much brighter as well. I had to turn the amp up quite a bit, and I had to run with much less treble and much more bass dialed into the amp. Even then the guitar wasn't driving the amp hard enough to make it warm up, and the tone just didn't have any body and depth to it.

Can anyone give me some kind of idea as to how much different the G&L alnico pickups would be compared to the Seymour Duncans that are in this guitar? The "pickups" sticky in the Knowledgebase only really says that the bridge pickup isn't as thin sounding as the Duncans, but I'm really hoping someone can provide a little more detail?

Sorry, Jon, I can't help you with differences between the alnico pickups and the Duncans, but I am wondering whether you've played with pickups heights on your Legacy to see if that makes a difference to how it sounds. I bought a used guitar a few years ago with Kinmans and at first I did not like the sound at all, but after adjusting pickups heights I finally got the guitar to sound like it think it should.

Kit

The pickups were really low when I got the guitar. I've raised them about as far as I can and the output definitely increased, but the tone didn't change all that much. I'll keep fooling with it to see if I can get it where I like it, or to see if I can develop an appreciation for its own voice. I'll also try putting .011s on it as I tend to prefer a little stiffer action anyway.

I have my Legacys set with the bridge pickup highest, and then progressively lower to the neck. I set the middle pickup so I have good "quack" in Position #2 (middle+bridge) and Position #4 ( neck+middle).

I "normal" the PTB controls with the Treble on 10 and the Bass on 5. Now I can roll down the T for jazzier tones--or roll up the B for punchier solos.

I set the amp up so I have the right amount of treble for the bridge pickup--it should be twangy and have some bite, yet not piercing. I still get good quack, and full "blues" tone from the neck pickup. Middle pickup should have a crisp rhythm tone.

I hear very little difference between the Duncan SSL-2s, and the G&L CLF-100. I have guitars with both. And no, they don't sound like the vintage pickups that were on my original vintage 1960 Strat. The pickups on that guitar were weaker and definitely mellower. I think part of it was simply ageing of the magnets.

I use Fender Super Bullet strings, 9-42, on all of my G&L Legacy bodies. I have eight Legacys and two each of the Comanche, S-500 and Legacy Special models.

Your guitar looks to be Emerald Green on my computer. That's a very nice color. I don't have one in that color, but I may have to--chicks seem to dig that color. Seriously!!

If you want a fatter tone, a pickup swap is a good way to go. I have one Legacy with the Seymour Texas Hot Antiquity pickups, and it sounds great. I have the Custom wound hot bridge pickup, and the RW/RP middle pickup for hum-cancelling in Postions #2 and #4. Great combination, but they were a bit spendy. There are a lot of good pickups out there. I think Emmitt O. really likes one of the Fender Custom Shop models, but I don't remember which one.

You may also want to look into getting a guitar with hotter pickups, like the Legacy Special. The LS has dual blade pickups by Gotoh that give a thicker, almost PAF-ish tone. The S-500 maintains single-coil clarity yet has VERY high output MFDs. The Comanche is also high output, but the Z-coils are humbucking--yet they sound more like a single-coil.

The cheapest solution may be to get a boost pedal, like the Boosta Grande. I use an old DOD FX10 Preamp to provide a slight (6dB) boost at the front end of my pedal chain. It's not a lot, but it is helpful with the Legacy's alnico single-coils.

Besl of all, give it some time. The Legacy is capable of great tones, and the PTB can really work wonders. I do a lot of oldies, Motown, blues--hey that tone has been on some great records, and you can make it work for you. You just have to figure out what songs it works well for.

Good luck!

Bill

Thanks for all the good comments, Bill.

I bought the guitar really to be my "workhorse" so I can give my old Strat a little more rest. I love the build quality on the G&Ls, and I love the way they feel. I'll be playing the guitar again tonight, along with my Strat and F-100. I should be able to give it more of a workout and see if I can come to terms with it. I'm very curious to try both an S-500 and a Comanche. Based on your comments about the pickups I won't get too hung up on wondering if the G&L made pickups would have been that much better for me.

I think the color is called "turquoise metallic."

Well I just learned why the guitar sounds weak to me. Pickup DC resistance is supposed to be 6.6k ohms according to the knowledgebase.

Here are my readings for the Legacy and for the Strat:

Position Legacy Strat
Neck ........ 5.95 ..... 6.75
Middle .... 6.10 ..... 6.95
Bridge ..... 6.20 ..... 7.25

The Strat pickups were in my guitar when I bought it in 1974. Near as I can tell they were made in '63, or possibly '59. My Legacy pickups seem to be a little weaker than spec, while my Strat pickups are a little on the hot side for vintage Fenders.

Nice looking Legacy! I just bought a '92 Legacy myself. Mine has Fender, Texas Special pickups in it. Here's my '92 Legacy:




Sprinter

Update...
While I love the way this guitar feels and plays, I'm not satisfied with the tone at all. I played at a blues jam last night, and found the guitar to be much lower output than my vintage strat, and very much brighter as well. I had to turn the amp up quite a bit, and I had to run with much less treble and much more bass dialed into the amp. Even then the guitar wasn't driving the amp hard enough to make it warm up, and the tone just didn't have any body and depth to it.

Can anyone give me some kind of idea as to how much different the G&L alnico pickups would be compared to the Seymour Duncans that are in this guitar? The "pickups" sticky in the Knowledgebase only really says that the bridge pickup isn't as thin sounding as the Duncans, but I'm really hoping someone can provide a little more detail




Hi

Before you changing pickups and go nuts here is what I did.
I have s-500 for more then 10 years sounds great!!!(without the PTB )
and an asat 1989 leo fender which sounds like nothing else
Really wanted another G&L guitar and like you I bought 1993 on ebay one!!
looks great and feels great the only problem with it (like you wrote) it had a thin sound !!! I really like the overall but didnt have a lot of output Ive changed the pickups nothing really happend and so on..

when I compered it to my other guitars all of my guitars including 1971 fender strat sounded with a lot more out put,I've decied to sell it!!
but before I did I gave it one more try ...I've lowerd the Bridge so it will be on the body(of course you'll have to rise the saddles ) but thats really improved the sound!!! belive it or not (BTW my S-500 has the same set up I just didnt think it is really mattters) .

Try it out see if you getting a better sound but it really work for my guitar I'm definaly kepping it

Udi

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