NGD - 1994 G&L ASAT Special
Posted: Mon Apr 08, 2024 7:28 am
I've had at least one tele for most of the close to 30 years i've been playing guitar, from a lawsuit era Ibanez as one of my first guitars, to a MIM in gold that matched my drummers kit in the 00's, then a handful of MIA teles before settling on a 99 Standard forever tele 12 years ago.
A few weeks ago I took my son to look at some acoustic guitars and we swung by the electric room at our local shop. My son was trying out a Charvel super strat and Ben Gibbard Mustang when I spotted an old G&L ASAT on a rack. The guy at the shop knows I like thin necks and suggested I give it a try. First thing I noticed is that it is light, then yes, the neck is thin and easy to move around on. From my quick little demo I discovered I could fly around the fretboard with ease.
A week goes by and I'm still thinking about the ASAT. I head back to the store, bring my tele in case I wanted to trade it, then demo it for an hour or two. I decided that my tele was still better overall, so no trade in my future, but really liked the ASAT. I came back a few days later when a buddy was working and got it for a ridiculously good cost for a 30 year old MIA guitar and brought it home.
Really digging it so far. Had to go up a string gauge because its really slinky to play. Its also a lot louder than i'd expect single coils to be. It does the hot country lead thing to a T. Its not what I'm going for, but it does it, lol. Its nice to have a guitar where the volume and tone knobs are actually useful beyond being set to 10 right out of the box.
One question for other ASAT owners, where should the pickups be? It was setup from the shop with similar distances between the pickups and strings to a humbucker guitar. Its great for lead, but if I switch to strumming the low strings, which are balanced with the high ones, get a little brash sounding and loses articulation. I've been keeping the tone around 7, and lowering it helps with the problem. I'm thinking of lowering the pickups even more to see if it helps, but was curious if there is a set way to setup the MFD pickups.
Anyway, here it is. It looks really blue here, but is more of a green in person.
A few weeks ago I took my son to look at some acoustic guitars and we swung by the electric room at our local shop. My son was trying out a Charvel super strat and Ben Gibbard Mustang when I spotted an old G&L ASAT on a rack. The guy at the shop knows I like thin necks and suggested I give it a try. First thing I noticed is that it is light, then yes, the neck is thin and easy to move around on. From my quick little demo I discovered I could fly around the fretboard with ease.
A week goes by and I'm still thinking about the ASAT. I head back to the store, bring my tele in case I wanted to trade it, then demo it for an hour or two. I decided that my tele was still better overall, so no trade in my future, but really liked the ASAT. I came back a few days later when a buddy was working and got it for a ridiculously good cost for a 30 year old MIA guitar and brought it home.
Really digging it so far. Had to go up a string gauge because its really slinky to play. Its also a lot louder than i'd expect single coils to be. It does the hot country lead thing to a T. Its not what I'm going for, but it does it, lol. Its nice to have a guitar where the volume and tone knobs are actually useful beyond being set to 10 right out of the box.
One question for other ASAT owners, where should the pickups be? It was setup from the shop with similar distances between the pickups and strings to a humbucker guitar. Its great for lead, but if I switch to strumming the low strings, which are balanced with the high ones, get a little brash sounding and loses articulation. I've been keeping the tone around 7, and lowering it helps with the problem. I'm thinking of lowering the pickups even more to see if it helps, but was curious if there is a set way to setup the MFD pickups.
Anyway, here it is. It looks really blue here, but is more of a green in person.