G&L Cavalier

The features for the Cavalier were well covered by the previous review. I have two, one is black with Rosewood fretboard, painted black headstock and the G&L tremolo and the second one has been re-finished natural, Alder body with Maple neck and a hardtail bridge. Both Cavalier guitars have a 25-1/2" scale neck and two Leo Fender designed mini-humbuckers but the difference in tone is noticable between the neck and body woods. The Maple/Hardtail has the active electronics that I do not care for, it seems to just cut the high end.

The sound of the pick ups on the Cavalier have to be heard in person to be appreciated. I have been a Fender single coil strat and tele player for many years and these have totally changed my outlook. The neck pick up has the sound of a beefy single coil with no noise and can easliy do Hendrix and SRV tunes. The bridge pick up can do country tele type twang and hard rock with ease. The pick ups are not as hot as your standard humbucker, but have more of a Fender tone than Gibson mini-humbuckers. They are also pretty bright so I roll off the treble for jazz and blues but it is nice to have the option to crank the treble for some chicken-picken. I firmly believe Leo Fender designed humbucker guitars will eventually be discovered and sought after just as the pre CBS guitars are now.

Both of my Cavalier guitars needed tweaking to get them playing right but that is to be expected with twenty plus year old wood. The wood working is better than the production Fender stuff of the same period. The one design issue I have is the placement of the bridge/ neck scale. To make the higher frets more accessable they made the neck longer and moved the bridge closer to the neck. This causes a little extra reaching when playing the guitar sitting down but is a non-factor when played standing with a strap.

These guitars were built well and I feel they will be kicking butt after I am pushing Daisies.

I have had no dealing with G&L and don't expect they will provide any product support after 24 years.

I have been playing close to thirty years. I have owned lots of 70's Fender strats, tele's, a 60's Jazzmaster, some Gibson stuff, lots of Ibanez and plenty of off brand stuff. I just wish I had seen and played a Cavalier earlier in my search for gear. I would most definitely find another if lost or stolen, I am looking for another Rosewood or Ebony neck Cavalier currently. The 1980's G&L are still trading for under a grand and are an excellent value and clean original G&L guitars will most definitely become collector items.

G&L Cavalier, manufactured by G&L Guitars from 1983-1986 in USA..approx 700 of these guitars were made! I'm not sure which year exactly this guitar was made..the best way to tell is take off the neck, but I just haven't done that yet.. This guitar has a Strat type body.. but unlike the Skyhawk, (which has the Strat-like three single coil pickups), the Cavalier came stock with two Magnetic Field H6-2R "angled offset" humbuckers..in the bridge and neck positions. This guitar has a rosewood fretboard, natural finished swamp ash body, with a black pickguard.. and a beautiful black painted headstock face. The bridge is the G&L patented Saddle Loc (hardtail) vintage G&L tuners..One volume knob, a tone knob, and a third knob..which is kind of a tone knob..although it works in any pickup configuration.. which adds bottom end.

This guitar is perfect for me, with the humbuckers. My 'player' is a Tele, loaded with Seymour Duncan humbuckers in both positions, so this is a similar sound, although this guitar is much, much lighter than my Tele. I play thru a Fender Deluxe Reverb, with AnalogMan upgraded overdrive and distortion.. I play classic rock, blues, rockabilly, country, gospel.. and I love this guitar. The sound is very bright, but I roll back the tone knob and it's just perfect. It is definately not a noisy guitar. Sounds range from bridge (Think SRV's "House is Rockin'") to middle position (think Beach Boys "Surfin' USA"), to the neck (think BB King "Thrill is Gone")

Well this guitar is over 20 years old.. and it's in incredible shape. It's put together as well, if not better, than any American Fender I've ever played.. The wood grain is perfectly matched, in fact the neck and body look like one peice.. they are so much the same! After all these years, the pickups sound great in every position.. the jack is tight..(I don't think the other owner played this guitar much)..

Well.. as I said before..it's already over 20 years old.. It's as solid as a guitar gets..every peice of hardware is top of the line.. but I never gig without a backup..

What a shame that companies don't have info about their vintage stuff on their websites.. That's my only complaint with G&L.. People who love G&L guitars are a special breed (visit www.guitarsbyleo.com you'll see what I mean).. to bad we have to go to a site like that to find out specifics about Cavaliers, Skyhawks, Nighthawks, and other older G&L guitars.. but thank goodness that site is there.

Been playing quite awhile.. Love Telecasters, but this guitar is quickly becoming my favorite. I love that it is unique (again, only 700 were made, from '83-'86), it is beautiful.. and it's simply a great guitar. I've owned two other G&L guitars, and they were as good as Fender Custom shop guitars, in my opinion. I'm looking for other older G&L guitars, like a Skyhawk.. If you ever get a chance to pick up one of the older G&L's in good shape, do yourself a favor and buy it!