NGD: G&L USA Legacy Special

[marginwalker]

This was kind of an unexpected NGD since lately I've been wanting to get a telecaster, but yesterday morning I was walking by a local pawn shop when I noticed a MIM Jagstang in the window for a pretty good price. I go inside to check it out and honestly was not too impressed by the pickups and didn't like the out of phase sounds, so I passed on it. As I gave it back to an employee I saw this G&L Legacy up on the wall. Now, my first ever electric was a black MIM strat which I had for about 12 years and I just had gotten tired of the look and the sound of the guitar so I sold it and pretty much swore off strats ever since.



What first drew me to this guitar was that it's got single coil sized rail humbuckers instead of your standard strat pickups, plus I liked the look of the sunburst finish over ash and the black pickups in a white pickguard. Almost sort of has a 70's style to it. It turns out to have been made sometime in 1995 according to the serial number on the 3-bolt neck plate.
Though the more I play it the more I'm considering swapping the rails for some single coils or maybe some other type of single sized humbuckers. Does anyone here have a Legacy Special? The bridge pickup is supposed to be wound a bit hotter than the neck and middle pickups but it sounds pretty trebly, approaching ice pick status especially when I run it through my ProCo Rat



The ash body is nice and lightweight and it looks to have come stock with sperzel locking tuners, which is a plus since locking tuners are one of the first things I swap onto any new guitar I get that I decide to keep for a while. The neck profile also seems to be different than the standard "modern classic" profile they use these days. It'll need a more fine tuned setup soon to get it exactly where I want it but in all I'm pretty happy with my first G&L guitar!

[Larry Mal]

Congratulations! I bought a similar era Legacy and thought it was a tremendous guitar. I did a lot of upgrades to it and can't believe I sold it, honestly.

It was a great playing guitar and I felt at home with it immediately. I should have put some Kinmans in there and kept it.

[marginwalker]

Congratulations! I bought a similar era Legacy and thought it was a tremendous guitar. I did a lot of upgrades to it and can't believe I sold it, honestly.

It was a great playing guitar and I felt at home with it immediately. I should have put some Kinmans in there and kept it.

Thanks! Oh nice, what sorts of upgrades did you do to yours? This Legacy is one of the best playing guitars I’ve ever owned and I’m excited to get it 100% where I want it to be

[Embenny]

Congrats, that looks amazing. Every G&L I've ever played has basically felt like "the best Fender ever," that one special one you find after trying a dozen out.

They're more or less criminally underrated. Resale sucks, so the prices they fetch on the used market are absurdly good value (but buying a new one will be extremely painful if you ever need to part with it).

If I liked Strat and Tele shapes more than I do, I'd probably own nothing but G&Ls.

I agree that the black rail pickups with the white guard and burst are quite a striking combination.

[Larry Mal]

Congratulations! I bought a similar era Legacy and thought it was a tremendous guitar. I did a lot of upgrades to it and can't believe I sold it, honestly.

It was a great playing guitar and I felt at home with it immediately. I should have put some Kinmans in there and kept it.

Thanks! Oh nice, what sorts of upgrades did you do to yours? This Legacy is one of the best playing guitars I’ve ever owned and I’m excited to get it 100% where I want it to be

Well, I put on the same locking tuners you have, I also put on an upgraded G&L trem block. At the time they sold an all steel one (I think) that was an upgrade to the one they put in the stock models in the era yours and my guitar came from, I can't find it now, though.

All I can find now is this brass one made by another company.

Put a magnet on your tremolo block, if it doesn't stick, then you might have some room for improvement.

I also put on an Ilitch noise cancelling system and some Wilde neodymium pickups, ultimately, I wish I had put Kinmans in there like I say or I would have kept it.

It was a very nice guitar, and I'm sure yours is also.

[marginwalker]

Congrats, that looks amazing. Every G&L I've ever played has basically felt like "the best Fender ever," that one special one you find after trying a dozen out.

They're more or less criminally underrated. Resale sucks, so the prices they fetch on the used market are absurdly good value (but buying a new one will be extremely painful if you ever need to part with it).

If I liked Strat and Tele shapes more than I do, I'd probably own nothing but G&Ls.

I agree that the black rail pickups with the white guard and burst are quite a striking combination.

Thanks! Yeah I’ve always heard how consistently great G&L instruments have been the past several decades and was stoked to stumble upon a Fullerton made one instead of a tribute series.
A few weeks ago I had actually shopped around for a quote on an option order Doheny and ASAT Classic, but the new price increases this year put both of them at $2300-$2400 shipped. Quite a steep price considering there are still plenty of brand new USA G&L’s still on the market for less than $2000. And to top it off they reduced the amount of options you can get on an option order and moved them to custom shop only. Option orders have had a 3-6 month wait lately though so I get that they wanted to streamline production

This thing was had a $950 price tag but after trading in some pedals I didn’t use anymore and a MIM Martin I wasn’t too fond of I only had to pay a difference of $150!

[marginwalker]

Congratulations! I bought a similar era Legacy and thought it was a tremendous guitar. I did a lot of upgrades to it and can't believe I sold it, honestly.

It was a great playing guitar and I felt at home with it immediately. I should have put some Kinmans in there and kept it.

Thanks! Oh nice, what sorts of upgrades did you do to yours? This Legacy is one of the best playing guitars I’ve ever owned and I’m excited to get it 100% where I want it to be

Well, I put on the same locking tuners you have, I also put on an upgraded G&L trem block. At the time they sold an all steel one (I think) that was an upgrade to the one they put in the stock models in the era yours and my guitar came from, I can't find it now, though.

All I can find now is this brass one made by another company.

Put a magnet on your tremolo block, if it doesn't stick, then you might have some room for improvement.

I also put on an Ilitch noise cancelling system and some Wilde neodymium pickups, ultimately, I wish I had put Kinmans in there like I say or I would have kept it.

It was a very nice guitar, and I'm sure yours is also.

Interesting, thanks for the info on the trem block! I’ll have to find a magnet here soon. I was thinking about maybe some Dimarzio’s but will definitely look into the Kinmans!

[BoringPostcards]

Good score! I love G&L.

[ludobag1]

i love more and more g and l guitar

[Oig]

Congrats! Those 3 bolt G&Ls are the bomb. I really regret getting rid of my ASAT.

[Jonesie]

Absolutely gorgeous! Congrats!

[marginwalker]

Absolutely gorgeous! Congrats!

Good score! I love G&L.

Thanks! I used to write off G&L guitars solely based on the look of their headstock…so superficial lol. I’ve grown to like it though and lately have been jonesing for an ASAT Classic and Doheny!

[Scout]

Those G & L ‘s have a way of quickly reproducing, be very careful.

I went from one to five in months and I wasn’t even trying: ASAT, Legacy Tribute ( outstanding quality),
Comanche, Doheny, and a rare Japanese Special. They all are different and beat any Fender I’ve played.