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Check out Gabe's custom built "Legsat"! Gabe states, "I spent a lot of time optimizing the pickup
positions along with the control circuit itself. I've built all sorts of different pickguards for
it as well...finally settling on a "basic-black" 4-ply jobbie for now. I think I'm going to
fabricate an aluminum/exotic wood veneer pickguard sometime in the future. For now...I'm pleased
with the vinyl. The control circuit on this particular guitar is quite slick...
The treble pot is a push/pull DPDT switch and the 5-way is an Oak-Grigsby 4-pole unit.
I have the circuit wired in such a way to provide 10 unique switching options including both
parallel and serial connections. By the way, no G&L ever produced ever left the factory with
the ability to connect the pickups in a serial fashion. If you like the sound of MFD's alone
or connected in parallel...you'll go nuts over the serial connections...they are searing hot,
yet tastefully bright and cutting. While I was at it I tossed the crappy stock ceramic
capacitor on the volume pot and replaced it with a more tone-friendly silver-mica unit.
I bump up the value from 200pf to 560pf and bridge the terminals with a 300K resistor which
eliminates the high frequency loss you normally get when you back off the volume knob.
While I was at it I removed all ground connections to the potentiometer cans and relocated
them to a "star ground"...this all by itself is a great way to reduce 60 cycle hum.
Each pickup is individually shielded as is every cavity of the instrument...this is an
extremely quiet guitar even at ridiculously high volumes.
Anyway, a couple of months ago I was putting the finishing touches on a fret-dressing using
my high speed buffer when the neck got caught in the wheel and launched at high speed into a
steel beam in my basement! Of course, the beam won...the neck lost. Fortunately, a quick call
to Dave McLaren and several weeks later I managed to get a replacement 3-bolt out of the factory
for a modest fee. I've always found little use for fingerboard position markers so I had them
leave them off...
Personally, I'm quite pleased with the end result. This is the type of instrument that G&L really
needs to seriously pursue. The large MFD's are among the finest sounding and most versatile single
coils ever devised. The Z-Coil in between is the perfect choice because the lower output coupled
with the oddball stagger makes for some extremely tasty sounding parallel connections (quack) plus
it doesn't interfere with your picking unlike the old ASAT S-3. Many players (like me) prefer the
ergonomics of a Strat-styled body over the Tele/ASAT and you just cannot beat the performance of the
Dual Fulcrum and the Sperzel locking tuners. You add in the true 10-way switching which provides
some extra meaty and midrange boosted tones and you have yourself an axe that is so versatile that
you can cover Strat, Tele and Gibson tones quite convincingly.
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