G&L Blues Boy Semi Hollow

Traditional Tele shape, blonde finish, maple neck and board, 7.5 inch radius. Typical Tele style controls. Humbucker in neck and single coil in bridge. Not sure about the fretwire size as it wasn't specified but it seems close to 6150. Non-locking Schaller tuners. Mine weighs in at a svelte 6.1 pounds.

This is the most versatile guitar of the many that I own. The neck pickup has enough warmth to do jazz and the bridge pickup has typical Tele country twang. Combined, they yield a beautiful rhythm tone. The guitar is useable for just about any music genre you could think of except metal. I play it through a Carr Rambler, Carr Mercury, or Dz Z Maz 18 Jr. I own guitars that cost twice as much but none that sound better.

Everything fits well and the finish is great. I could find no flaws at all. Since it is a semi hollow body, it tends to be neck heavy and wants to drop the head while playing. I overcame this by using a suede strap that has enough grip on my shirt to prevent it from slipping. Another minor complaint is that the E strings lie close to the edge of the frets and can slip off, but that is more of a technique issue rather than a fault of the guitar. The action was low but not buzzy right out of the box. This is one of the few guitars I own that did not make a trip to my tech for adjustment.

Owned it about a year. Have had no issues. I play mainly in my home studio and for that purpose it should last a long time. Seems well built.

No opinion. Haven't had to use them.

A well made and versatile guitar that is reasonably priced. It rivals many boutique guitars costing over a thousand dollars more. The light weight makes it easy to play for hours. I do wish it was a bit better balanced but the right strap offsets the neck heaviness. If it were stole I would definitely get another. I might opt for a 12 inch neck radius rather than the 7.5 inch though. That would make string bending a bit easier.

*2006 Bluesboy, Semi-hollow, left handed in tobacco burst w/a black 3-ply pickguard.
*No f-hole. I play in loud environments and wanted to avoid the risk of feedback because of the open body.
*Swamp ash body, hard rock maple neck, optional ebony fretboard.
*Optional locking Schaller tuners (Great option!)
*Optional matching Burst headstock
*Seth-Lover 55n in the neck, G&L single coil in the bridge.

Everything else is standard. G&L offers as many options as I wanted - after pining over many guitars, G&L offered the options, the price and the quality in terms of features.

I play worship music in a church, fused with electro, hip hop, brit rock, blues... pick a style and we'll blend it. I need somethin versatile, but I love brit-rock and indie tones. Radiohead, Death Cab, Spoon, Arcade Fire, etc. If it's messy, fun, underproduced, indirect, textured, I'm there.

I really wanted a Tele style guitar because I like the body and feel, but I'm not a huge fan of Tele twang. I wanted something with a hint Les-Paul darkness, but still able to get crystal tones when called upon.

Enter the Bluesboy in semi-hollow. I bought this guitar unplayed. Being a lefty, choices are slim in stores, and based on the pickups, features and prior experience with other G&L models, I put this one together and ordered it.

On first arrival? The guitar seemed like a mishmash of parts - that is, before I got it broken in, and stopped playing like my old soloist style guitar. There's nothing I can really compare this guitar to. It's dark because of the Seth Lover, but brightened up by the ebony fretboard, thick and creamy because of the swamp ash and semi-hollow body, a touch a crystal and twang when I need because of the Tele nature. It really does many sounds - but in a unique way. It really takes fuzzy, screamy tones out of this world. U2? Forget it. Black Keys two piece garage texture? Perfect.

Loads of harmonics, texture, flat-out totally unique tone. I still have a hard time getting my head around it. Sounds exactly what someone would want if they wanted to stay as far away as possible from a strat, cozy up to a Les Paul but not cuddle it, and enjoy the benefits of a Tele.

Overall, though, the guitar is on the darker side. Very little brittle highs.

One small complaint - on high gain settings, the bridge pickup squeals. But it happens so rarely, and I hardly ever need to turn up like that.

When I got it, the action was not bad, but not to my preference. I got it lowered slightly. As well, it seemed to play a little funny, as if the intonation was imperfect. Chords past the first few frets seemed disjointed. Also, I broke, like, ten G-strings in the first two months. A ten-minute trip to the store where I bought it, and my tech checked and tweaked the intonation. After that, and after I played it a little more and learned to treat her right, no problems. Action and playability up high are just as gorgeous as with big open chords. No more broken strings.

Looks? Wow. I wanted a classic looking rock guitar, and this really is it. The finish is a mellow, dark-hued tobacco, and as far as I can tell, the fretboard and fretwork are flawless. The matched headstock was worth the extra expenditure... it's money.

I hung on to my old guitar for a while, thinking that I might need a backup.

I happened to look over at it, gathering dust, and realized that after a year of playing and never needing to plug in my backup, I should just sell it. If I break a string, with the locking tuners it's a thirty-second process to replace it myself.

I replaced the strap buttons the day I bought it with Schaller strap locks, as I do with every guitar I own.

I have not had to deal with G&L directly, the dealer was very good though.

Funny ordering system - the sales guy had to cram all the custom details into some kind of punchy shorthand in half a paragraph for the G&L system to take it. Came through fine, though!

I've been playing for about ten years. I play an Orange AD30 Twin Channel head through an Avatar 2x12 cab.

This guitar is exactly what I wanted - versatile, dark, unusual (in the sense that the world seems to be flooded with Strats, Les-Paul copies and PRS clones) and looks freakin' GREAT. Playing G&L gives me shivers - it's like a little bit of Leo Fender's ghost. Such a solid, classic instrument with

I would not hesitate to buy G&L again.

Swamp ash body in red burst with wood binding, maple neck with gunoil tint really great feel, pearloid scratch plate, hardtail, twin voice chambers with f hole, Seymour Duncan Seth Lover SH-55N humbucker in neck position, traditional size G&L Magnetic Field Design single coil in bridge position.

Nothing added just good quality basic stuff.

I play this through a Fender Champ and use it for blues and stuff when I want some air, it has great clean tones. You get that twang from the bridge pickup but real warm tones from the neck. When you put them together in the middle position i think its something unique, a great full tone with plenty of air, I love it. The volume and tone controls work really well, not just on and off.

This thing is very quiet without hum must have some good electrics in there. Does what is says on the tin but with class.

I got this used, I think it's about 3 year old, still trying to understand the serial number system. It was in imaculate condition as new so its like getting a new one and I can say its the best finished guitar that I have, I beats my Gibsons by miles I have looked real hard and just can't find anything wrong with it and its 3 year old already!!! truly outstanding.

Set up at Emerald City in Seattle, where I got it, great job.

Looks like this thing will last, I don't hammer them but well screwed together. I like that there are felt washers under the jack and strab buttons so not metal to finish contact, classy. All good parts, nice plating, strap buttons to moor a ship by, sealed G&L tuners are accurate and smooth, no real problems.
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The finish is rich and glossy the pictures on the G&L web site really do not do this thing justice, it's deep and lustrous, flawless finish.

No opinion have not needed to contact them. I wish I could find somewhere that explains the serial number system for dating, I think taking off the neck is a bit extreme.

I've been playing a while but more intensively recently and started adding to my collection, very differnt from my Gibsons, of course. I was looking for a cleaner sound but with some character and was under whelmed by the Fender Strats etc had heard about G&L's but not come across too many then came across this and loved it right away.

Not planning on loosing it but if i did I'd be really ticked off I really love the attention to detail, someone cared when they made this it's not just churned on on some CNC cutter it's one of the few quality individually made guitars at an affordable price.

Great tone, great feel, great quality, real history, Fender basher, get one and be happy.

Swamp ash body covered in clear orange paint, tortise shell 3 ply pick guard, gun oil birdseye maple neck, locking tuners, semihollow with f-hole. Not a lot of trick components just a great player.

For blues, rock, and jazz i don't think it can be beat. I use a rivera one hundred duo. Tone for days! I like the mid pick-up position for the dirty channel on the rivera, it gives a nice bottom end with a screaming top end. I like the neck position for the clean channel.

Absolutely beautiful except for the pick-up selector knob(looks like it cost about ten cents to make). Fit and finish is perfect.

The only problem for me was the canon jack which i broke three times in one year. Finally what i did was bring it to a great guitar craftsman i know and had him install a les paul jack instead. if you are having any problems with your canon jack i highly recomend it.

Never dealt with them

Best sound you can get for the money. The name of the guitar explains it best, this thing really is for a "bluesboy"

This will be an update to my previously-submitted review.

Again -- and I say this primarily as an acoustic player -- this is the perfect electric guitar for me. I can get any electric guitar sound or tone that I'm likely to need in the course of my playing, whether personal or professional. If I were forced to choose ONE electric guitar to keep, this would be it.

See my previous review, and my update below. Fit, finish, and action are flawless -- the guitar is a joy to play and behold.

Within 24 hours of posting my last review, my dealer called to say that my "repaired" Blues Boy had arrived. It appears that the body was replaced, and the new one has even more beautiful wood grain visible beneath the sunburst finish than the original. It looks like some additional fret work was performed as well, although I had no complaints about the first instrument. Bottom line -- the guys at G&L came through, and I couldn't be more pleased with the result.

From conversations my dealer had with his rep, it sounds like there may have been some personnel changes at the factory that affected the the time required to resolve my situation. That's fine -- I understand -- and, given the spectacular instrument I was presented with, any delays I complained about previously are forgiven. Thank you, G&L, for building a truly stunning and toneful guitar.

The only things I changed were the strap buttons -- I replaced the originals with Schaller strap-lock anchors. Otherwise, I can't imagine anything I'd change, although -- perhaps in the best of all possible worlds -- a coil tap for the humbucker would be nice, but then, that would necessitate changing from a Seth Lover to something else. Not a big deal.

If it were stolen, I'd prosecute the S.O.B. to the fullest extent of the law, sue him/her for emotional distress, and buy several more G&Ls with the proceeds ASAP.

The particulars have been well documented in previous reviews. My Blues Boy has the three-tone sunburst finish, faux tortoise pickguard, and a satin-finish birds-eye maple neck and fingerboard. Truly a sensuous, curvacious beauty. No tricked-out floating tremolo, active pickups or variable-length scale, just a solid Tele-style workhorse.

Probably the most versatile Tele-style guitar around. About the only type of music that couldn't be played on this is speed- or death-metal, but if you put your mind to it that may be possible as well. The Seth Lover neck humbucker and the G&L bridge single coil is -- for my money -- the ultimate combination. Spanky rural music, rude rock, warm, sweet jazz -- all handled with aplomb.

Overall, the fit and finish was excellent with a couple of exceptions. Some excess glue was visible inside the f-hole, and there was a finish crack just south of the control plate where a screw had evidently been tightened too aggressively -- more on this in a moment. Frets are flawless; the finish is exquisite. Mostly custom-shop quality.

My experience with G&Ls is that they are built like combat-equipped HumVees. These guitars are built for the long haul; I wouldn't hesitate to gig without a backup if necessary (although I almost never do). First rate components and materials.

Here's where, in my experience, things get dicey. Let me explain.

I ordered my Blues Boy from a dealer I've dealt with frequently over the years, and will continue to because he takes care of me. The wait was about four months, which is about what I expected. No problem. It came, I paid the balance, had it professionally set up, and went home happy.

UNTIL, that is, I noticed the aforementioned surface crack from a too-well tightened screw on the control plate. My dealer and I agreed this was unacceptable for a new instrument -- especially in this price range -- so he arranged to send it back for repair or replacement.

That was March. It's now almost July. I don't have my guitar, I don't have my money, and I don't have any information about the progress of the transaction. My dealer is as frustrated as I am. We understand it's a small shop and that it takes time to repair or rebuild a quality guitar. There has, however, been next to no communication -- no explanation, no projected delivery, no apologies. Come on guys -- I had a LOT of choices when it came to spending five figures on an electric guitar, and so far I have not been pursuaded that my patronage of G&L has been acknowledged, much less appreciated. Stay tuned -- I'm hoping for a resolution before summer's end.

I've been playing primarily acoustic guitar for about 40 years. I'm privileged to own about two dozen high-quality guitars including some from Breedlove, Fender, Godin, Guild, Hofner, Lakewood, Larrivee, Martin, and others. I have wanted a Blues Boy since they were introduced, and finally had the opportunity to order one the way I wanted it. Other than my experience with G&Ls "service", I wouldn't change a thing about the guitar.

This is a 2006 left-handed bluesboy semi-hollow. Made in the US, tobacco sunburst finish, rosewood fretboard, f-hole in top bout, seth lover neck humbucker, g&l magnetic field tele bridge pickup. Neck has the satin finish. Volume, tone and 3 way switch. medium-large frets. tuners are vintage style (worst feature by far). strings go through body. neck is large, but not overly wide or overly deep. a very unique neck among all necks I have ever played. came with a hard shell case. I give it a 7 because of the vintage style tuners - which are a real pain. After all the technical improvements George and Leo made, these tuners are an insult. They aren't cheap, but don't add ANTYHING to this guitar. Regular tuners would be SOOOO much better.

One of the best features is the one piece top and one piece back. No halves were glued together here. A one piece top is a FAR superior sound board.

Sound is perfect. Unbelievable. I just sold my 72 Fender Custom reissue, which is the guitar this G&L is based upon (neck humbucker, tele single coil at the bridge). THIS GUITAR SLAYS THE FENDER. The seth lover neck humbucker is sweet, clean and clear - but breaks up nicely with picking dynamics. The bridge pickup is clean and snappy, but much sweeter than the Fender tele pickup. And, both pickups can go into superb sounding distortion in ways the Fender can't possibly handle. The semi-hollow body is still tight like a classic tele, but adds some air and sweetness (I use this term a lot fot his guitar). If you ever wanted a tele that would interact a "little" more with your amp - get the bluesboy semi=hollow.

I own a boutique amp company and this guitar was purchased as a reference guitar to test amps. I know and understand good sound and this guitar has it.

The quality is astounding, especially compared to a Fender. I can't stress this enough after just selling the Fender for this guitar. The G&L is so cleanly made and put together. The finish, the details, the cut of the pickguard - everything is on a completely different level than other guitars in the $1000 to $2500 price range. But I will fairly say this guitar isn't perfect. 1) The nut was not perfectly cut for gauge 10 strings. The D string catches in the nut. This shouldn't happen at this quality level. 2) The vintage style tuners are a real pain. Just use high quality standard tuners. By vintage style I mean the type where you feed the end of the string down into the top of the tuner. A real pain and makes for extremely slow string changes. And, here's a secret folks, it causes excessive winding of the string around the tuner - which is NOT good for tone or tuning stability. For best sustain and tuning stability, you want minimal winding.

The pickups sound great and balaced, but the bridge pickup is about 1/4" lower on the bass side than the treble side. A little weird.

Otherwise, this is a flawless guitar.

This is a great guitar for gigging and recording. You could just take this guitar and do fine in almost any situation. I say that as a long time live and recording guitarist.

It is the first tele I've seen that can handle such a wide range of applications, yet still be a TRUE TELE.

However, I would put on a new set of tuners before heading out for my first big recording session.

Nice warranty, but no measurable info yet. I will say the G&L website doesn't have ANY way to email customer service and their customer service phone doesn't put you through to a real person. And their mailbox is full, so you can't leave a voice mail. That makes for low marks in my book. Especially since I run a company that services similar customers. Customers MUST be able to reach a real person quickly.

I have NOT been able to speak with a real G&L rep to find good replacement tuners.

I posted a question about replacement tuners on the www.guitarsbyleo.com discussion page. No responses. No help.

This is a must have guitar for me. I would buy it again. I would also ask about the tuners next time before buying. I hate to harp on it, but given the other great features of this guitar, the tuners REALLY don't measure up in ease of use.

Compared to a Fender, this guitar is in another universe. And at the same price, roughly.

I've been playing for 25 years and have played every type of guitar and high end amplifier made. I believe in high quality equipment - buy it, tweak it, then forget about it and play your songs.

At the end of the day, when you play a Dumble, Trainwreck, Matchless or Reign amplifier, it WILL reveal the limitations of your instrument. This is one of few affordable guitars that can truly stand up to scrutiny.

It's the "BLUES BOY" a Buffalo Bros. creation. Thank you Tim Page!
Custom made in Fullerton California, with G&L's #4 neck (1 11/16"at nut with a 12"radius) fatter than the standard ASAT or Tele neck. 22 frets Tele style, Schaller non-locking tuners.
Gun oil stain maple neck with a Butterscotch blonde body
finish...nice grain!
Three way tone selection with a Seth Lover humbucker in the bridge pup.
Hollow chamber...no "F" hole.

Blues, jazz and rock styles for sure. I wish I could play jazz on this!
Not noisy at all!
Rich and full tones, especially the middle setting. The bridge pup is really full...NOT twangy...good barking tone. 'Keef' and Albert Collins axe, all the way.
I like it!

Great...action was a bit too low when I received it, but it came from Southern California, and took months to build.
Finsh and neck pockets...PERFECT
Medium jumbo frets seem perfect too...NO BUZZ or choking out on bends

I swear by G&L products...no 'dogs' in this house. I own 4 G&L guitars and love them all. The Legacy is my other favorite. They are the REAL FENDER guitars.

Dealt with G&L via Buffalo Bros. guitar shop in Carlsbad, CA.
They seem to have an "in" with the G&L boys and treat me real well!
It took a while to build this one, but I was not in a big hurry.
It was worth the 4 month wait.

G&L is an under valued guitar! Custom and loaded?... you have to really try to push it to go over $1500 for a new one.
Been playing for over 30 years as a non-pro. I bought it to repalce my ES-335 Custom dot neck...the neck never was right for my hand.
I generally prefer Legacy (Strats), but this one is great for the Gibson tones without the size and weight of a Gibson ES or LP.
Tought to top this one for the smooth rich tones. Even distortion pedals love this thing. As one reviewer noted it has that "singing woman" tone!

Made in 2001,USA made swamp ash and very buitiful amber honey makes the grain come through.Humbucker at neck,G&L singel coil at bridge.This is a tele style body,maple neck,nonlocking tuners,F-hole just like the early tele thinlines.

This is one of the best fender style tele,s you could buy.The humbucker in neck position and singel coil at bridge are very well balanced,you can go from nice blues jazz tone to screaming lead by a flip of the pickup selector with no problem,I use fender and top hat amps and they all sound great with this guitar,same goes with effects the tone is not colored too bad,the pickups retain there clearaty very good.The humbucker doesnt get muddy like on my les paul,

This guitar is perfect from the factory,The only changes I made was it came with 9,s and I installed a 10 set and had to readjust intonation,just perfect with 10,s.I was thinking of buying a fender NOS and some of them sound good,but the Quality that the G&L has it beats the fenders and a lot cheaper.There were no flaws on this guitar at all.

The guitar is pretty light,and hollow body like a 335,so I dont think of doing third stone from the sun like SRV did and throwing it on the floor and standing on it,I use strats for that,But I dont ever worry about playing it hard,I could depend on it with out a backup for sure.

I called for info and they were there, no answering machine,a live person answered and was very knowlagable about there prouduct I was happy that you can talk with person instead of a machine,It has a 10 year warranty.

Ive been playing for 30+ years and gig just about every weekend,I have owned and still own over 12 guitars some vintage and new,The G&L is one of the great one up there with my 61 335,and 63 sg standard,so this a great buy for the price,I would like to have one with rosewood neck next time I buy another.

This is limited production "Special Edition" made for the Buffalo Bros. in SoCal. It is essentially an ASAT Classic Semi Hollow with a Seymour Duncan Seth Lover humbucker in the bridge and magnetic field single coil in the bridge, gun oil tint vintage style 7.25 radius fat/round maple neck, vintage frets and single binding. The body is ash, very light with a gorgeous 3 tone burst poly finish. Schaller tuners. The wiring is cloth wrapped. The Seth Lover was specially voiced by Duncan to work well with the single coil and that they do. Nice balance! Nice tweed case too.

I cannot think of enough superlatives for this guitar. I play blues, R&B, jazz and rock and it really can do it all. My normal rig is a VHT Pitbull 45 and the guitar. When I use effects they are a Voodoo Labs Microvibe, a Boss chorus and an old Boss analog delay. Other than the normal noise odf the single coil alone, it real quiet.
So the sound! First of all this is an amazingly resonant axe. It has far more resonance than my ES345. At time it almost sounds like a miked acoustic. The downside is it is more prone to feedback. The Seth Lover is very warm and sweet which is weird since I had them in a Hamer and they were just the opposite. Must be the tweaking they did at Duncan. It yields a great jazz tone. Yeah, Wes Montgomery on a tele! This pickup is also why they call it a blues boy. Kick in a little tube saturation and it gets the best singing "woman tone" you could ever hope for. The bridge is the tele thing but not as biting as you would expect. It sounds like the pickup is slightly overwound so theres a little more beef to the sound. But you can still twang.

The set-up was perfect (it usally is on G&L's). I actually raised the action a bit but hardlt touched the pickups. The workmanship is incredible but the neck tint seems to soak in more in some spots that others. This is a nit-pick but I'm looking for something negative so there it is.
The combo of bigger vintage neck and frets yields a great feel. It is a chord players dream. The smaller fret wire does make it harder to dig into bends and if this were a dream guitar I'd have slightly taller frets for blues.

It looks like it is incredibly solid and I know the poly finish will withstand a direct mortar hit (not really but it's tough). I would never play without a backup but I played with it this weekend and after one set wit my Custom Shop Les Paul Custom, I put it down never to return.

I have no clue.

I've played for 35 years and now own 8 guitars. When I gig I most frequently grab my G&L S500 and the Blues Boy. And I've got some NICE guitars. If it were lost I would let out a string of obscenities, cry, then more obscenities. There were only 6 of these made semi hollow with a maple neck so I'd be SOL. If you come across one of these (there were also about 30 solid bodies made), buy it!!!!!