G&L Comanche

The case is chincy but everything else is great besides the pickups-see below

Dave here again from below, I solved my pickup problem on the Commanche for anyone interested. It turns out that G&L does have a pickguard that fits the Commanche for standard stratocaster pickups (a pickgaurd made by Chandler guitars). Here's the link: http://www.glguitars.com/
Click on "Support" and the link below: "To purchase a replacement pickguards for your G&L instrument

Please visit our Chandler Guitars,maker of pickguards for G&L. They can supply custom pickguards also."
It takes a few weeks to get the custom gaurd but I put a red tortoise on the Commanche and it looks fabulous. I took a DiMarzio pre-wired pickgaurd with "Area" strat pickups, easily transferred the hardware to the new pickgaurd and dropped it in--unbelievable is all I can say!! Be sure to ask Chandler which pickgaurd (and backplate)you need for what you want to do...the G&L "strat-style" (non z-coil) pickups are bigger than Fender's and so there's two pickgaurds they offer to fit either.

The Comanche is a magnificent production guitar but as I noted before, the stock z-coils lack bite and punch.

Great

G&L website support page has everything you need for this instrument.

Subtracted a point just because of the non-standard pickups and gaurd.

I picked up a Commanche from MF a few years ago, honey finish, flamed maple, birdseye board, and the z-coils. Overall a tremendous instrument but a problem is the non-standard pickups and pickgaurd, presenting a problem if you want to change the sound.

I play through a fender twin, all tube amp and the guitar sounds ok, but like other's here I found the guitar lacks the complex bite of a hot stratocaster. Frankly the sound is boring after a while. I found the combiner-switch only combines boring sounds together. It's like a strat with a flat tire. But how do you change the pickups in this guitar? The z-coils don't match the size and shape of traditional single coils and the pickgaurd is also shaped different than a strat pickgaurd, so you can't just drop in a new setup. It's a glaring weakness of this guitar.

Perfect. No complaints at all on fit and finish. This is one beautiful machine that will feel like an old friend to any strat player.

This guitar is well-built. Again no complaints at all in this category. I've had it 2-3 years and never a problem.

No experience here but no reason to doubt service.

This is a great guitar with one big problem....Strat parts, especially the pickups and pickgaurd, don't seem to fit. What a huge oversight, compromising its versatility. If anyone can tell me how they fit their commanche with strat-style pickups or pickgaurds I'd love to hear from you, thanks.

In Oct. of 2006 I custom ordered this one from G&L and by Feb. 2007 I received it, 3 tone sunburst with natural wood binding over top flamed maple on top of swamp ash, hard rock maple neck with the "c" shape(thicker, more sustain), finished with rubbed gun oil tint, then glossed, fret board is ebony. I personaly contacted G&L because I didn't want the traditional 3 tone (yellow, red, black) banding. They said they would consult the painter and WOW, did they deliver! The yellow in the center is actually an amber and from there the colors fade and blend to the red then to the black. Looks like a southwestern sunset. Thanks G&L. Hardware and electronics are standard Comanche with a black pick guard. Why they get an 8 is explained below, I eventually couldn't use the pick ups and as a big part of the features, it suffered a minor loss.

I had this guitar for 6 months and I really worked with the tone knobs, pick up height, pole piece adjstmnt and could get some really good tones( one setting I used was one of the pickup combinations with the high freq rolled completely off which gave me (I swear) an awsome parked wah) but because of the brightness of ceramic magnets and their tendency to be a little sterile and 2 dementional, I thought my overall sound was not "stratty" enough and I missed the wamth and complexity of Alnico magnets. Z coils not bad, they are just not for me. I personaly would like to see G&L do a hybrid of Alnico on the high 3 strings and ceramic on the bottom 3. Eventually I had to outsource some Alnico stacked single coil noiseless pick ups from Kinman in Australia (forgive me Leo) but it made all the difference.

Eventhough I adjusted the hell out of the pick ups, looking for my sound and a slight string hieght adj. That is personal preference and not the fault of any set up. The set up out of the box was really professional. The guitar was flawless and beautiful and because they gave me what really amounted to a custom paint job at no extra charge, that put it over the top. I still remember opening the case for the first time, WOW. Kinda like getting the bra off your first real girlfriend, you just have to sit there and stare.
OK...I know, TMI. So they get a 10, especially for bringing back fond mamories of my first set of boobies.

It's been over a year a nothing bad has happened. Replaced button straps with locking ones. Strap came off during a gig (strap was at fault, not guitar) didn't drop it though, but scared the hell out of me.

Again, the custom paint job; However, a follow up question did go unanswered. Sorry G&L, 2 point loss for no attempt at all on that one.

I've been playing for about 15 yrs. I'm in a mostly classic rock band but really, anything goes. If we all can get onboard with a tune then we do it. Right now my signal chain goes like this: Wah, tuner, Boss MT2, Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive and tremolo in the front end. In the effects loop I have Chorus, phaser, delay. All this gets fed into my Mesa/Boogie Mark IV. My kinman pick ups are wired for 9 different combinations which includes putting the bridge pu in series with the neck pu and being able to adjust the blend between them, way cool. I can actually get good Les Paul "ish" tone. I love my set up so much, I have actually no feeling of "something's missing"...I am at peace. Every guitar is unique to itself, even when you compare it to an exact replica, so I can't really compare it to other guitars, all I know is that I have found my Zen with this one. Everthing I chose to compliment this guitar (amp, pedals pick ups, strings etc) has played it's part in my overall satisfaction. Lost or stolen would be traumatic, I would have to start the whole trial and error process all over again but would seriously consider shelling out another $1700 bucks for a brand new one.

This is just a follow-up review of my blueburst Comanche, that I wrote some two years ago. This guitar is still my "holy grail", but by the time i got a little bit dissapointed w/ the stock Z-coils. While they are really clever design and they deliver all those versatile sounds, I found out that there is definitelly sth. missing in their overall sonic character, at least to me. After two years of searching, listening, recording and testing some other pickups on other instruments I found the Z-coils to be a bit "sterile" and "harsh". It might be due to a particular guitar - my Comanche itself is very heavy and bright (as opposite to my friend??s one, which is sunburst w/ rosewood board, and some 0.5 kg lighter), but I decided (with a heavy heart) to change the pickups, so the guitar should be as versatile and noiseless as before, but with some more "life" to it, especially in the 2 and 4 positions. I have contacted Bill Lawrence and discused the right choice with his wife. They recomended the L-200 neck and middle and L-298SL bridge pickups. I must admit I was afraid what such a big mod will do to the guitar??s sound and feel, but after my tech had finished the work (incl. brand new cream-pearloid pickguard - the guitar now looks much better than before) and I first plugged in, I stayed silent with my jaw dropped. The guitar now lives it??s own life, which is basically closer to the traditional strat territory than it was before. Neck plays like a 57 reissue on steroids, and bridge is now pure heaven - harshness of the neck Z-coil with the treble knob full up has simply dissapeared, being replaced with creamy full voice, which reminds me about some hotter classy tele bridge pickup. Also the added combination of neck+bridge is now completely "anti-harsh" and sweet, very usefull for rythm work. So when you are in similar trouble with your Comanche (harsh, overly bright and sterile tones), this may be the way to go for you as well. I would like to add that I would never do this mod on my friends Comanche, which simply sounds great "as it is", but with my one it sure helped to improve the sound and feel some 200 percent. Just a little tip and trick.

Clear red on swamp ash strat-style body, rosewood fingerboard. Dual fulcrum vibrato is very sturdy and can stand for fierce tremolo dives. Z-coil passive hum cancelling pickups can really sing! They are indeed hot however so be careful! Very nice to have the 6 & 7 configurations via the extra switch. Locking tuners I think are made be Schaller, definitely not the Sperzel which I have seen on some Legacy models. Gets a 9 because other than the extra pup combos there isn't anything that makes it stand out feature-wise

I play rock in general -- hate to reduce it to labels but funky, jazzy, spacey, and occasionally bluesy can all describe my style. For ten years my sole electric guitar was a Parker NiteFly and with the recent purchase of this Comanche I can't believe I didn't switch earlier! The difference is immaculate. The tonal palette on the Comanche is way larger due to the fact that the tone knobs don't diminish the sound quality when dialed in -- like a guitar should be, duh! I use a wah, QTron, and Boss GT-3 multi-effects pedal (mainly for OD and Comp but also Phase and Delay) through a'75 Twin Reverb. I'm giving serious consideration to cutting out effects pedals altogether after getting my hands on this Comanche straight through my Twin -- there are just so many ways to tweak this thing that I don't want to muddy the waters with extraneous toys. Very low noise, nothing more than I would expect. Sounds rich, full, bright, boomy, almost whatever your heart desires....love it

Got it from a dealer who set it up when he got it so I can't speak much to the setup from the factory. Action is good but I will tweak it before gigging out with it. No visible flaws. Finish is remarkable, a wonderful background for the shining chrome hardware. One regret -- the clear red, although beautiful in its own right, was the only Comanche on the rack so it was the one I ended up with. :)

Seems to be 'built like a tank' so to speak. Heavy-duty where it needs to be. Not sure about the Graphtech nut. I suppose it's made for long-life and if I have to replace it someday then no complaint, it's all too easy.

10 year warranty makes me VERY comfortable. Otherwise, no comment.

Playing for 13 years and don't own much gear. As for the other G&L guitars Of the guitars my friends/colleagues own and play (PRS, Les Paul, Ibanez semi-hollows), I would put this thing head-to-head any day. And for about half the price of some higher-end PRS guitars, there's no second guessing!

I liked the honeyburst one described in the 8/17/2007 review so much I went back looking for that Legacy, and found another Comanche instead, this one a blueburst with a white pearloid pickguard, beautiful close grain quartersawn 2 piece ash body and prettier, tho less toned clear maple neck with more finish. I don't know what fret size this is, it is .109 wide, about .047 tall just as the honeyburst.

Graphtech nut and string tree, as with the honeyburst.
This is an early 2003, the honeyburst in probably early 2004.

Not sure what possessed me to write a 9 on sound on the honeyburst Comanche. I guess I needed a change of the strings before the review. These are clearly the finest sounding guitars, these two, that I have, better than either ASAT or the S-500 hardtail, better than all the others as well.

This one had new strings properly installed at the dealer. The woods all match, the fretwork is top drawer; I can't find anything objective wrong here, I must assume it was not within easy reach of customers and the dealer chose not to aggressively market these wonderful products. These are hand built guitars in very important sense of that term; the bi-cut neck halves fit beautifully and I've spend a minute fraction of the time getting these 5 G + Ls working to my liking as compared to any five other make guitars I also have.

I don't play professionally, and I have so many guitars to choose from, wear is really not a factor. This question is better asked of someone actively earning money with their G + L, of which there are quite a few.

I've ordered some pickups, pots and switches from G + L for some 'projects'; they were very helpful and the order was filled promptly. The company is actively participating at the affiliate website, and appears willing to do what ever might be necessary to help a customer with their build order. I still prefer to play a whole passel of finished guitars, + buy the ones I like with the knowledge I would still do just fine even if I were on my own (as you would undoubtedly be on your own with the big boys like "G" and FMIC). But until I was actually in a bind myself, I'd defer to others.

I love the way new compositions seem to spring to life out of this guitar. I love the way I can play one of these Comanches when I'm too weary to play another of my toys.
I don't always like having to 'keep track' of all the possible settings, even taking notes to remember which pickup and bass and treble settings to use for new sound "X". The price one pays for a truly versatile and dynamic guitar. Through a Fender Custom Vibrolux Reverb-Amp, yes, indeed.

Standard configuration with blue burst finish and maple neck/fretboard. Z coils, G&L vibrato (works) and PTB tone system

Play some blues, surf and classic rock. Has enough tonal variety to cover them all pretty well. These are not Alnico pups though and it takes some experimenting to find the right sweet spot. I was not really a tone tweaker until I got this guitar (one of my other favorites is a Gretsch Hot Rod, with just a volume and pick up selector. no tone control) but I am learning how to adjust on "the fly" in live settings.
Sounds great through my Reverend Hellhound tube amp and drives it nicely, especially when I dig in. I tend to use no pedals, just straight into the amp and this is a good guitar for that because of the tonal variety.

Bought used through eBay but it looked brand new. Neck is a little narrower than my Legacy Tribute (which is my perfect shape) but I'm getting used to it although I find it a bit less comfortable to play. Finish is excellent, frets are nice and the satin finished neck is nice and smooth. I've blocked the trem so it only pushes and not pulls as I tend to break strings and don't like the fact that the guitar goes out of tune when you lose a string. With it blocked I can still get good use out of it without the risk. It stays in tune nicely and feels solid.

I always take more than one guitar to a gig but this guitar is made to be played and other than string breakage would depend on it.

One of the things I do to the selector switch on these guitars is to bend it over to 90 degrees. I can still handle it ok but it removes the frequent and accidental changes I make with my right hand.

No dealings with the company

Been playing for 30 years, Gibson SG, 355, Gretsch 6120, Telecasters, but NEVER had a "Strat" until I recently got hold of a Legacy Tribute and fell in love with it. Now I have two G&Ls and love them both. They are my main gigging guitars.
Would like a slightly wider and shallower neck but I can live with this one for what it gives me, other than that I wouldn't change a thing and would get another if this was lost...or maybe an S-500...or maybe I'll just get one of them anyway!

Finish: Blonde semi-transparent over swamp ash body.
Body Style: Strat.
Bridge Style: G&L patented dual-action tremolo.
Tuners: Sperzel Locking.
Neck/Scale: Modern "C", hand-rolled edges, maple, rosewood fretboard.
Accessories: fitted impact plastic (SKB style), tremolo arm
Year made: 2007
Frets: 22?
Controls: PTB system (Volume, Treble, Bass, phase switch)
Pickups: 3 Z-coil pickups.
Electronics: Passive
Body & Neck woods: Swamp Ash body, maple neck, rosewood fretboard.

This is a great-sounding instrument! I play a wide range of styles, Indie, Roots Rock, Fusion, etc. No metal. Play this guitar through a Genz-Benz Black Pearl Class A Tube amp (similar to Bogner Metropolis in design and sound). Only slight noise is detectable (when the TV is on and I'm facing it). Otherwise, no noise. The Comanche has a great deal of headroom in the Treble and Bass departments. A lot of thick low-end punch. Treble can be as sweet or as harsh as you dial-in. A lot of people are paranoid about Z-coil pickups & PTB system. Don't be unless you're good-sound-challenged. A good setting is Bass maxed-out, and Treble at HALF! This rolls off the harshest highs for my set-up. Don't dial in tone like a Gibson, PRS, or Fender. These controls are very different! The guitar produces a wide variety of sounds. I prefer positions 2,4,5 in phase and 1-5 in out of phase (humbucker-ish). A word about Z-coils: These pickups are very hot. I set mine 1/4 inch above the pickguard and get just the right amount of drive from my Soldano Supercharger GTO (1/3 drive). I cannot think of anything I do not like about this guitar. I like the idea of having a unique experimental guitar, kind of like being a test pilot for the X-1 jet.

From the dealer, the guitar action was set too high. I play with size 10's and like a lower action. Pickups were set a little too high, which gave me too much pickup and too little resonance. In pristine form, the guitar is flawless. It feels like a million bucks--just the right amount of weight and balance. The body contours are perfect and comfortable.

The Comanche IS very well-built--some say like a tank. I just bought it, so I don't know if I could gig it without a back-up. (Not a good idea in any circumstances). However, I think it's rock-solid.

Haven't used them yet.

Playing for 25 years, since 10-years-old. I own and have owned some fine and crappy gear through the years: Fender Strats, Les Pauls, PRS, Yamaha, Soldano, Michael Kelly, Mesa-Boogie, Schecter, Carvin, Boss, Electro-harmonix, Ibanez, etc. There's nothing I feel I needed to ask before buying this guitar. I bought it from Oklahoma Vintage Guitar (great guys to work with--trustworthy) sight unseen. I would replace the guitar ASAP if stolen--I'll never lose it! Though not technically a Stratocaster, I love the wide range of single-coil noiseless sounds I can get from this fine quality american-made instrument. The guitar itself is my favorite feature. It gives me warm fuzzies just thinking about playing it. Throughout my life I have been fortunate enough to spend lots of dough trying out guitars. For my money, the best Korean made guitars I own are Michael Kelly. The best American-made guitar I own is the G&L Comanche!

Strat shaped two piece honey burst ash (looks like one piece), aged white pickguard and pup covers, lightly coated toned maple neck, large but not as big as a MIM Baja Tele neck, C-shaped, bass cut, treble cut knobs, enough switches to select any combination of pickups, 3 passive z-coil noise canceling pickups, dual action vibrato, best in industry, 22 wider than usual medium jumbo frets, chromed locking tuners, comes with fitted extruded plastic case, trem bar, certificate of authenticity signed by Phyllis (Mrs. Leo) Fender.
This guitar serial number implies a late 2003, early 2004 completion date, haven't checked the guts to confirm this.

Quietest guitar I own, tho the S-500 is close. I recommend tube amps with these z-coils, I use a Fender Vibrolux Reverb 2x10 and a Peavey Classic 50 2x12 with it. This is the most versatile guitar I possess, the limitations are all mine. The Fender Strat is a niche guitar with specific application; this is the opposite, so its strengths could be a weakness as you need to get familiar with the product to know what going to come out the speaker. Except for out of phase sounds there's very little that can't be found and brought forth, very inspiring to play.
But I can see I've got lot of ground to make up as well.
I hate giving tens to anything so for laughs say a.

Factory setup seems fine; this guitar was bought NOS and was restrung incorrectly at the dealer, extra winds 'round the post on locking tuners. The guitar itself is just my cup of tea, the fit and finish superb, but none of that unnecessary birdseye or yellow tint on the neck, just enough finish to get you to that first refret job. The NOS neck has plenty of natural tone now. Impeccable assembly and finish, and, my apologies to a younger Leo Fender, but this Dual Fulcrum Vibrato exposes the strat trem as a feeble joke. In the end the man got it right. Shocked this guitar did not sell promptly and had to be discounted to an extent.

You know professional musicians love these things for their durability, but I will abstain as I haven't had it long enough.

I have great respect for these luthiers, but as nothing has gone wrong and as I've bought all 4 G + Ls I have out of stock, I am not qualified to say just now.

I began playing in the 60's; I currently own over 40 guitars, though everything besides the G + Ls are Fenders and other similar less expensive guitars which can be modified and messed around with. I just wish I'd bought the available NOS Legacy alongside it as well.
I have the usual love/hate thing about a little known manufacturer's product and having to explain to ignorant Gibson and PRS players what it is, even Fender guys; I think they want to play it but you can't score a play by insulting my guitar, go to the store if ya wanna try one.

Honey Burst quilt top with gun oil tinted curly maple neck, fretboard and headstock and white pearl pick guard. I expected a flame top based on the picture online but this is definitely a quilt top. Beautiful depth of finish. Impeccable attention to detail. This looks like a hand built guitar (pretty good since they are). The Comanche is the Strat that Leo Fender always wanted to make. He finally got around to it and you could say it's like a Strat on steriods. The neck has a slim taper with a 12" radius. Nice solid vibrato bridge which has a very soft feel on the bar. Stays in tune just fine. Locking tuners, 22 medium jumbo frets. The 3 Z-Coil pickups are amazingly quiet and powerful. Body is swamp ash with quilt maple top and nitrocellulous laquer on body and satin gun oiled neck. An extremely beautiful instrument. Musiciansfriend's pics don't do it justice. Also, this guitar has a mini-toggle switch that flips the pickups into two addition combinations beyond the standard 5 a Strat would have. The Tone controls actually cut or boost the treble or bass frequencies. Not your usual tone controls. They are very sensitive and versatile for quick tone shaping. The action and setup was very good from the factory but I just tweaked it a little to suit my hands.

I play easy listening, blues and modern and classic rock. This guitar can do any of those styles depending on your amp. I have a Genz-Benz Black Pearl 30 with MI distortion boxes and a few other effects(Tremelo, chorus, delay). The guitar sings on its own without pedals. It has a beautiful full crisp sound. This guitar is somewhere between a Strat and Les Paul in sound. There are elements of both although the guitar really has it's own sound...kicks the crap out of either of the above guitars. The pickups are very powerful and beefy for single coils AND they are quiet. There is really no sound this guitar makes that I don't like. It is now my go-to guitar and I have several other nice ones. The only thing I don't like about this guitar is that I'm constantly worried I'm going to ding it....it is so beautiful!

Beautiful factory setup. Put my own set of strings on it and did some minor adjustments and it's perfect for me. Fit and finish is impeccable. No visible flaws. Neck pocket nice and tight and well aligned neck. I can't say anything bad about this guitar.

I have no doubt this is a lifetime type guitar. It's built every bit as well as my 74 LP Custom and that guitar plays good as new. All the Comanche's hardware seems well plated and heavy and solid. I always replace standard strap buttons with straplocks. I've only had the guitar for a few months but I'm sure it'll be seeing a lot of action. None the less, I always have at least three guitars for gigs in case something weird happens.

Been playing for over 40 years. I've had up to 13 guitars and 4 amps at a time. Right now I've settled on the Genz-Benz Class A Black Pearl and some standard pedals. I'm down to 6 guitars and one amp. The Genz-Benz is a wonderful amp. If insurance didn't cover the theft of this guitar, I really couldn't afford to replace it. Otherwise, I'd want another one immediately. This is one of very few guitars I've played that actually sings. There really is no other way to describe this guitar. It's very sensitive to all sorts of cool picking techniques and harmonics. I love it! I compared this guitar with the G&L ASAT Z-3 (very close second) as well as some of the artist model Strats like Eric Johnson's and Eric Clapton's. I can honestly say that the Comanche kicks the crap out of most guitars out there. It's true custom shop quality at a reasonable price.

Simple but beautiful. And just like that blonde I always wanted to get next to in college, the finish is natural over lovely curves. Solid medium-heavy swamp ash body that has excellent graining. Plain white pick guard and knobs. All the features, just as you'd expect.

I've owned several Strats including a 1973 and a 1999 American Deluxe Fat Strat and this is the sound that I've been looking for. I play blues and jazz and this guitar is so dynamic it blows me away everytime I pick it up. I find no need for effects playing through a Fender tweed amp. Give it a little extra volume and it can growl. Pull back a little and she just purrs. I am amazed at how long and clear a note will sing. I have to use that word because thats what its like. Its like she singing.

I bought her used and after new strings and a pro setup she is the most playable guitar I've ever owned

We've only been together a few months. Time will tell.

What can I say I'm in love. She is the perfect compliment for my G&L F-100.

Features : 10
??? Finish (Blue, transparent)
??? Body style (Strat)
??? Bridge style (Tune-O-Matic, Floyd Rose, Wilkinson)
??? Tuners (Locking)
??? Neck/Scale (Thin, Rosewood, Gun-oil option)
??? Any included accessories? (Case, and case candy)
??? 2004 (USA)
??? G&L Z coil PUP???s

2004 Swamp Ash with birds-eye gun oil neck. Perloid pick-guard. The Comanche trem stays in tune with the Sperzels and even a soft tap make her sing like a bird. Did I mention that this guitar looks classic and to this old guy it was the next logical step in the evolution of the strat. I am so happy that Leo never stopped trying and this guitar is a fitting tribute to his legacy. As a matter of fact, I purchase 2 of them that day. One in Blue-burst and the other is Cherry Sunburst with a Maple top. I thought I would use the other one for trade but that didn???t happen.

It never gives up, it never surrenders!!! I play old rock and I have for most of my 40 years and I have had many guitars slip through my hands, and my wife would tell you that I have many that have not :o) and this guitar convinced me to retire my strats to the music room. It is Versatile for many different types of music and it will NAIL the Ventures tunes. Blues, Rock, Pop are no problem as well.. No guitar can do it all but this one (at least for me) has help me cut down on the number of guitars I need on stage. I play it through a Fender Deluxe Reverb and a 64 Vibroverb and that combination just can not be beat.

What can I say? The action fit and finish are top quality. This guitar is built in a relatively small shop compared to the big boys and you get custom shop quality at a mass production price. Don???t get me wrong, they are not inexpensive instruments when compared to the Strat for a grand or less, but the quality and sounds are worth the extra bucks, and it could even cut down on the number of guitars you need to purchase to get the sounds you are looking for

It's built right with only the very best components. I have not had a problem and I don???t expect any.

Haven't needed to talk to them.

Overall an easy 10 rating. This has the sound, the looks, the classic feel and vibe that Leo is famous for. I understand that this was the guitar he was working on when he passed on and if this is true, I would guess that he created the perfect guitar and there was nothing left for him to accomplish on Earth.

2005 Swamp ash & georgeous figured maple top. Very cool birds eye gun oil neck. Perloid pickguard. I like the dual fulcrum trem, but I've been a Kahler guy for many years. My orignal G&L Rampages have Kahlers. I like them better, primarily because it can bend slacker and up further. The Comanche trem is more subtle. The Comanche trem stays in tune with the Sperzels even when dive bombed and pulled up to the stops. I restrung with EB Slinky standard 10's and it was as breeze with locking tuners. Did I mention that this guitar looks stunning? As mentioned before neck is thick. Not a problem for me.

Lots of sounds. Versitile for many different kinds of music. Blues, Rock, Pop. Not so much for metal or speed riffing. No guitar I've ever played will do it all. This one comes close. Thats why I gave it a 9 not a 10. Sounds absolutely inspiring through my little 60's Fender Princeton Reverb. Rich and thick tone with a bell like quality when using the micro togle to activate the combination neck and bridge pick-ups together. Very versitile through Deam Markley 2 channel RMA-150 hybrid amp (tube pre solid state power section, active tone) A country lickers dream with THD bi-valve and of course it sounds incredible through Mesa Boogie Triple Rec. All my G&L's sound awesome through the MB TR. It is the bomb for high quality guitars, sucks for cheap crappy axes - too hard to control.

What can I say? The action fit and finish are top quality, and it can be easily set up for any action type you prefer.

It's built like a brick sh&*Thouse. Everthing it tight. I gig 2-3X per month. Only had 10 days so haven't giged yet, but I'll for sure be gigging with it. I know guitars having managed a guitar store, owned 10's of dozens over the years, and worked on and set up thousands of guitars. I've no concerns about the durability whatsoever. Locking straps? I simply won't gig without them. One thing I will prbably do is to remove the neck finish on the bolt mating surface in the neck pocket. The tone is already sooo good I can only image what taking the tone damping finish off the mating surfaces will do. Yes, I tweak everything , I'm just particular. I'm sure the sound will then go to 10.

Haven't needed to talk to them.

Overall an easy 10 rating

Finish: wonderfull!! Honeyburst swamp ash body with quilted maple top, bird's eye maple neck and fretboard, white pearloid pickguard and white pick ups covers: the most beautiful guitar I ever had!
Strat style body
G.& L. Dual Fulcrum bridge: excellent!
Schaller locking tuners: excellent too!
G.& L. type 1#, 12' radius, maple, jumbo frets, Fender scale: excellent but impegnative.
Gig bag and humidifier: the original owner equipped the guitar with the security strap buttons.
Probably was made in 2005, in USA, of course!
22 frets
Solid
Volume, master high and master bass tones PTB system, 5 position switch, mini togggle for pick up expantion.
Pick ups 3 G.& L. Z single coils. with passive electronic ( I hate active electronic! )

I play guitar from about 35 years; in the past i playied professional and now I play part-time rock -blues with a band and every kind of music in a studio were we recorded computer music, commercial, pop or music for movies.
I use a Crate VC 5212 or I play straight into the computer using a program which emulate many different amps and effects; when i play live I use two overdrives, a ProCo Rat for the very distorted tones and an old Chandler tube Overdrive setted with very low drive for blues tones, an Ibanez Rotary Chorus, an Ibanez Digital Delay and a Marshall Vibratrem.
It is not noisy, probably the quietest single coils equipped guitar that I ever had.
I'm agree with all the previous comments that said that The Comanche is not "only" a very good SuperStrat; it is something very different and more! An incredible well done guitar ( but this don't surprise me because I have two ASATs too and I know how the G.& L. guys work...), with a very big range sounds and opportunities: the Comanche is expecially good for the recording studio work: it is versatile with a wide choose of sounds and both the tone knobs work very well, they are very smart and responsive and gives to the player the opportunity to find very interestings sounds.
About the live work you must learn how to use this guitar: you can set the tones in the way you like more and use only the volume and the pickups selector to avoid risks, but anyway the mini toggle gives to you other two opportunities of changing sound. When the bass tone knob is all close the volume of the instrument decrease and , of course , the tone become bright and to thin. Personally I set both the tones about at half and after I turn the bass knob a maximum open to play the solos.
It has almost every kind of tone you can have from a single coils equipped guitar: it can play bright, clean or fat and warm.It don't plays just only like a Les Paul or similar style guitars.
The sounds neck+middle and middle+bridge are the best of this kind that I ever heard!; the all three togheter is excellent.
The "like a Tele" sound is good, but a good Tele is another thing...
Each one of the Z coils used alone, sounds different from my expectations and very strange and new to me: very good but anyway different from the classic Strat pick ups.
In particular I found a couple of sounds very close to the Clapton last production and many sounds that you can ear in the Hellecasters albums. I just don't like that I still haven't found how to replicate the twang of the vintage Strat bridge and neck pick up.

I bought this guitar used and the orinal owner setted the guitar in a way that I absolutely don't like. I brougth her to the " Doctor", my liuthier Paolo, and he did an excellent job. Now with a 0,10 strings set the neck and the playability are excellent: the bird's eye maple neck and fretboard are very well done and the jumbo frets are ok. The neck adjustement system work perfectly.
My liutier, which is a Strato maniac, wants to buy a Comanche for him too!

Very relayable and stable! The Dual Fulcrum bridge rexists very well to my vibrato exibithions and only after some excessives dive bombs some string con go a little out of tune.
The neck is very stable and perfectly jointed to the body.
I never go for a gig without an other guitar with me but actually I never be in need to replace my Comanche.

I never needed the customer support service

I played more than 30 years: I actually have five electric professional guitars and two good acoustic guitars ( plus other six or seven cheap guitars and three vintage italian mandolins and my grandfather's classical guitar from the 30's ). tha five electric guitars are 3 G.& L., An ASAT Classic, an ASAT Special and the Comanche and two Les Paul, a Standard and a Studio upgraded with 57 Classic pick ups.
Before to buy the Comanche I was looking for a very good Strat trying to spent not too much money. I knew the G.& L. excellent quality and when I founded this one on line at a very good price i decided to buy it: anyway I played another Comanche before to buy this one and knew the guitar, even if I played it only 30 minutes in a shop.
If they stole this guitar I should be in doubt to buy again a comanche or to try a G.& L. S 500, becouse it has the same elecronic with more traditional pick us.
I love the neck, excellent, it's quality in general, the look , I love the versatility and the quality of the tones and , finally, the playability, weight and confort.
I don't like only that it don't has, or I still not be able to find how to create, the vintage twang of the Strato's bridge and neck pick ups.
I compared it with a good Fender Strato belong to a friend of mine, with different amps ( Fender Super 112,Bassman, Vibroverb and my Crate ) and I discover that it is something different, more complex and versatile and that it sounds different.
Of course the Comanche sounds very different from my Les Paul Standard, but this is obvious. The two ASATs , expecially the Special, have a lot of twang more than the Comanche, and a louder volume, but less versatility.
But you can't have all you want in one guitar! this Comanche is whitout any doubt the most versatile guitar tha I ever had, excellent for studio sessions and for all that players that likes to go around with just one axe!

Mine was made in 2000, beautiful combination of blueburst, maple neck, white pickguard, three black Z-coil pickups and chrome hardware. Features also separate treble and bass controls, mini toggle switch for additional pickup combinations, and GL tremolo bridge. Weights a ton, but i like that. Am. Strat is a toy in comparison :-)I only wish it had the Buzz Feiten tuning system factory-installed, then it would be the winner for recording sessions. My only concern is - the neck is SO massive, that it can possibly cause problems to players with smaller hands - I know, what I'm talking about :-)

This is why I bought this guitar. I play jazz and fusion,my original intention was to buy a strat-like guitar to complement my Gibson ES 135 LE, so I could cover the "pop-territory" as well. Now my 135 is for sale. Surprised? So was I.:-) I found myself playing the Comanche not only during pop/rock recording sessions, but at the jazz jams as well. I like its ability to go damn close to the 135 sound, while on the other side you can instantly switch the pickup combination and play the hottest, tele-like cowboy riffs, and then dig in a Cry Baby and funk it out. Amazing. And it still retains its own character. I have played several american strats, and I must admit this is a completely different guitar, but the musical value is fully comparable. Futher, the Z-coils are a bit the love-hate affair.They are very trasparent sounding and a kind of unforgiving, but once you discover their huge musical potential, you will love them. I have also discovered, that this guitar is extremely amp-sensitive. Once it is an aristocrat, it will not like to play trough the solidstate Crate, but on the other side it likes tube Fenders and will sing trough them. I know you can say this about almost any guitar, but here it is twice the truth. Clean sounds are FAT, yet bright, sometimes the bass knob is a very handy thing to have - when you play clean, you will usually tend to back it off a bit. Actually, it is a kind of addiction - once you have the possibility to set the amount of the lows, you have a problem - other guitars don't have this, and first when you switch back to a non-PTB guitar, you will realize, how much you are missing it. A bit dangerous:-) Distorted territory - that's Comanche's second home. I was able to nail almost everything - from Scofield to Eric Johnson. When it comes to dirt, I have a feeling this guitar somehow loves the RAT pedal from ProCo Sound. I don't know exactly why, but this duo of Comanche hunting a RAT through Fender HRD seems to sound more musical than through the distorted channel of Mesa/Boogie Caliber 50.
I love the tremolo. I tend to bend the notes a bit, when I'm playing, and therefore I appreciate its smooth action. I play almost all the time with the tremolo arm under my palm to do very light bends, and first with this tremolo I can fully do what I want without annoying problems with height of the arm or too tough action. Of course, it's my personal taste.
Warning! The neck is HUGE and Massive, and it certainly contributes to the fat overall sound and sustain, BUT... if you have small hands, beware of this. I have them, so I can honestly say: if any 25.5 scale guitar is hard to play, then this is a torture. But on the other side, it's so beautifull sounding guitar, that I'm on my way to get used.
Many people are interested in comparison Comanche vs. Strat. My opinion is these are two completely different axes. My experience is: with the strat you can't go even close to a sound of any other guitar, which may not matter.The Comanche is far more versatile and it can imitate even such a different instrument as Gibson ES-135 surprisingly well. And, yes, if you play modern country, this is a holy grail:-)

This is all about craftmanship. And here it is simply TOP. Whether you want higher action for clearer tones or a lower setup for twangy punch, all is possible. I'm not a guitar tech, but I was told that working on this guitar is a pleasure. I think GLs are one of the best guitars in this cathegory.
Oh, and the blueburst.... love at the first sight. And second as well-no flaws:-) If only women could be like this....:-) :-)

It's six years old, still looks as new. I play it every day, and so far no problem. You can hardly find more solidly build guitar.

Never tried.

I play guitar 17 years, and except Comanche I own Gibson ES-135, which is now for sale. Honestly, I never went familiar with this guitar, I don't know why. Maybe it doesn't like me. :-) With Comanche I have far better relationship.
Loves: Ultimate versatility, musical sound, overall vibe. This guitar doesn't only want you to play guitar, it makes you wanting to create MUSIC.
Hates: Too thick neck for my small hands, I hope I'll get used.
One suggestion to potential Comanche buyers: this is very unusual instrument, and when you test it, be objective. This is not a strat, and the more time you spend with it in the store, the more you'll find this is an absolutely unique instrument with tons of possibilities and unmatched tone.
I have tested several Comanches, and first I didn't like them, because they didn't sound like the industry standard strat tone, which everyone has in his head, and so was it with me. After third or fourth return to the store I was definitely floored. This is THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT. Give it a try, and maybe you won't regret:-)

My Comanche is a 2005, honeyburst over bookmatched flame maple top, gun-oil tint over outrageously intricage birdseye maple neck/fingerboard, white pickup covers and eye-popping mother-of-toilet-seat pickguard, and gleaming chrome hardware all the way around. Gorgeous! In every other way, it is identical in features to all of the Comanches reviewed below. So I won't bother repeating it all. Suffice to say it has all of the features that I need in an electric guitar, except for that "Les Paul sound" (and I have a Les Paul for that).

You'll read a lot of reviews below that talk about this guitar "almost getting that Strat sound." I think it's important to note that when Leo Fender founded G&L with George Fullerton, his goal was not to make Strats with a different headstock. He recognized the limitations of the Strat and Tele, but he knew the tradition of those instruments was so strong that he couldn't really tear them down to bare bones and build them up again into something better, at least not under the Fender banner. So he started G&L. The first model there was the ASAT, which is an acronym for "After Strat After Tele." The message here was clear and remains so: Leo Fender wanted to build a different and BETTER guitar than the Fender corporation was producing.

In terms of sound, I believe he succeeded. The Comanche has a "Strat-ish" quality, but that could arguably be said of any guitar with single coil pickups. Where it differs markedly from a Strat is in fullness, punch, and versatility. As others have noted in their reviews, the output is blistering, and pushes an amp much harder than a Strat can do. The result, especially if you're running a tube preamp, is that joyful sound of the amp actually WORKING to handle the input. This guitar almost gets as much natural amp compression as my Les Paul with Burstbuckers... but with infinitely more clarity, and glassy, chiming treble tones that shame the best Telecaster.

As many have observed already, the pickup switching is very clever, and combined with the separate bass and treble controls (separate roll-off for each, no boost as this is a passive guitar), allows you to achieve a huge variety of tones. The coolest thing about the mini-toggle is that it allows you to jump from a hollow, ringing, out-of-phase tone using the neck and middle pickups, to a full-bore blowout using all three pickups, with a single flip of the switch.

I must say that I have not found the pickups to be totally hum-eliminating, but this is very much dependent on the environment. In an old building with dirty power and substandard grounding, it will still pick up hum from dimmers, ceiling fans, ice machines and the like. But it is far more hum-resistant than any guitar equipped with standard Fender-style single coils.

I own a Gibson Custom Shop LP, and an F-Bass BN5 handmade by George Furlanetto. The workmanship on the Comanche is better. In fact, it is flawless. I don't really know what else to say.

I ordered this guitar from GuitarSale.com sight unseen (ask for Barry, he's a great guy and he described the guitar over the phone perfectly). When I opened the case, I nearly wept. My girlfriend actually felt the need to leave the apartment so the Comanche and I could be alone. The finish is so deep, clear as glass. The color is extraordinary - it looks like a big glob of wet caramel, and with the golden color of the gun-oil tinted neck, it simply glows. Everything is straight and tight and precise. It was a wonderful feeling just to lift it out of the case.

The action was perfect right out of the box. It was even in tune! The guitar shipped with .010's though, and I prefer .011's, so I switched them straight away, and made a pre-emptive tweak of the truss rod (just a quarter of a turn). The next morning, I had to back out that truss rod adjustment! This is a mighty, mighty neck, that feels perfect in your hands. This is the most solid feeling guitar I have ever played. It's a rock (but not as heavy as a rock, or a LP).

As a said above, this is the most solid feeling guitar I've ever owned... and after 30+ years of playing, I have owned quite a few. I have no reservations about the durability of this instrument. But I never gig without a backup! What if I accidentally dropped it off the edge of the stage onto the dancefloor and broke something critical? That, of course, would be my fault, not G&L's!

Have not had to deal with them.

I've been playing for over 30 years, all styles. Yes, I've owned just about everything in those years, except for some insanely exotic and expensive one-off custom (I do have a couple of basses like that, though). Interesting how many reviewers of G&L guitars are guys like me, who have played everything and finally settled on a product from Leo Fender's last and best company.

I was looking for a Fender-ish guitar, not only to complement my Les Paul, but also specifically for a recording/gigging project that just begged for that sound. So I compared to Fenders, naturally, and I went all the way up to the big-ticket Strats like the Clapton and Eric Johnson models. I played a bunch of other stuff too, from Parker to Valley Arts. What I found was that the top-of-the-line Strats to one thing very, very well, at least in terms of tone. The best of the customs based on the Strat design do that same thing very well, only cosmetically they are superior to the Fender products (which they ought to be, at twice the price). Other guitars (Parker Fly) got a greater variety of tones, but didn't nail the Strat/Tele vibe closely enough. Among this group, the Comanche was a revelation. It gave me a very close approximation of the signature Fender sound. But it also gives so much more tonally. It's just a bigger, tougher, meatier sound. The workmanship leaves anything I've ever seen from the Fender factory in the dust, including the custom shop. Seriously, when you hold a G&L guitar for the first time, you'll think the price on the tag is a typo. I don't know how they build guitars to this level of quality, with these kinds of materials, in the USA for the prices they charge.

What I love: the tone, the quality, the tone, the finish, the tone, the neck, the tone, the pickup switching and EQ options, the tone, and the tone.

What I hate: that I didn't buy one a long time ago.

Yes, I'd replace it if it were lost or stolen, no question.

If you are considering shelling out top dollar for one of the nicer Strats (Cray, Clapton, Beck, Custom Classic), go out and play as many of them as you can. Then go play a G&L Comanche or Legacy. I figure if you're looking at the Fender Relics/Time Machines/Closet Classics, you're in love with the idea of having a simulated vintage Fender and money is no object. But if you are just looking for a great guitar, and you can get over the fact that with a G&L, you're not getting a Fender, but rather the guitar Leo Fender designed to overcome the limitations of Strats and Teles, then you must check these out. These guitars are Leo's legacy. They burn. They are exquisitely made. And really, the cache of owning one is not diluted by some Mexican-made look-alike. Seriously, most people would not know the difference between a $2000 Mark Knopfler and a $200 Squier from 20 feet away. G&L has the Tribute line, but these are outstanding guitars at their price point in their own right (unlike the low end of the Fender line, which is simply junk).

So, if you're ready to get out of the "I must have a Strat or Tele" mindset, go play G&L. You will be very pleasantly surprised.

Made in 2005...USA. 22 frets, with a flame maple top and swamp ash body. The finish is honeyburst, the neck is birdseye maple with gun oil tint. G & L dual fulcrum tremelo, works fine as far as I can tell, but i'm not really into using it when i play. It doesn't make the guitar go out of tune or anything. The tuners are sperzel locking, no problems there. The pickup system was kind of intimidating with the extra toggle switch. But there are a lot of good sounds. The cable input is on the front, and it looks normal. It really looks like a sweet guitar and it has all sorts of features to make you happy.

I play mostly rock and roll and jam stuff, nothing overly intense. The guys i play with cover some black crowes, rolling stones, steve miller band, pearl jam, the chili's...whatever. This sounds really good doing that, i can't say about other kinds of music like real jazz or heavy metal...i'm kind of a one trick pony as far as my playing goes. It could probably cover a lot of territory and do it well, i'm just not the guy to ask.

At first i didn't know what the z-coils would be like. I enjoy them now, and they give off a strat vibe without question. There is no hum, which is why the pickups look the way that they do.

I play it through a cry baby and some voodoo lab pedal and then a fender deville 4x10. I like my set-up and think that the comanche and the amp complement each other well. It all depends what you are looking to do, but the rock and roll, jam and alternative scenes are taken care of for me. It has a bright tone that cuts through the mix well, but you can adjust it to sounds how you want with all of the controls on board. soooo lots of variety...sounds really good, don't be worried about the pickups they are cool.

The action and all that is good. I'm not very picky, but you can always change it if you don't like it. There were no cosmetic or funtional issues. It is a very high quality instrument, and it looks awesome. They do a great job with the birdseye maple neck and the gun oil tint. My other guitar has a rosewood fingerboard, so this one is different.

It's relatively new, so i've just been practicing and jamming with it. No problems though.

I wanted a guitar that didn't have the humbucker sound, but the noise of single coil's wierded me out. This one takes care of both my issues. Looks, sounds, plays like and expensive guitar should. I would buy one if i were you (or if this one disappears)

Recent vintage Comanche in blueburst with a rosewood neck, stock Sperzels, G&L's PTB control set up, and three Z-3 hum cancelling single coil pickups. Also a mini toggle to add a pair of extra pickup combinations, either all on or neck and bridge activated together. A strat styled body, of course, with a Fender scale neck that's incredibly fat. Floating dual fulcrum tremelo that I don't plan on using. I got this used with an original G&L case and whammy bar.

The Comanche is a pretty unique instrument. It can be adequately described as a "super-strat"... The Z-3s are noise free and have output levels more akin to P-90s than strat type pickups. The PTB system is a little perplexing, although once you get a handle on it you'll have a hard time using anything else. Massive sound, very full, clucky as a strat on steroids when needed, big as a Les Paul Jr at other times. You can also make this sound like a banjo being horsewhipped if you aren't careful.

I'm using it with an '88 Mesa Mark II or a 2000 Budda Superdrive 30 and a fair battery of effects that have included things like Analog Man's MBC, the Barber Direct Drive SS, Jauernig's DGTM, some of Mike Farrow's boosters, Xotic's AC Boost, and so on.

PTB is tricky. You'll initially want to constantly tweak and turn the master tone knobs, but I've found that for me, setting the middle knob (treble) and then dialing bass in or out as needed seems to work best. Otherwise I'm all over the map, making "Cat Scratch Fever" sound like a cat yodelling in a rainstorm. Once you settle on an approach and work within it, it's much more consistant.

This can do the Clapton "Let It Rain"/"After Midnight" strat reediness like nothing I've ever heard. It shines on things like "Mississippi Queen" as well. You have to pick it up and experiment, but it have a very unique set of tones available.

Because of redundant setting in the mini toggle positions (1 and 5 are both all on; 2 and 4 are both neck and bridge; 3 remains middle pickup only) you can use the mini toggle for radical eq changes in mid song, setting up a razor lead tone on your rear pickup and then flipping the toggle up for a meaty clean rhythm part, for instance. Very cool, but you DO HAVE TO THINK with this guitar. Not as much of a "set and forget" axe as others I've had. This is a ultimately a good thing, although it is initially a little aggravating.

Got it used, so I can't speak to a factory set up. Came with .10s, I loaded up some .009s, and will probably need to have a new nut cut for it because of string buzz. Used instruments commonly have issues like these. The pickups are pretty much at factory settings; many people back these down because the output is SO overwhelming. Top and bridge are perfect, a few chips from the previous regime, but I like instruments with some character to them.No complaints. This is a VERY solid instrument... It makes my American Standard strat feel like a toy in comparison. The neck, as I said, is BIG... 12 inch radius, and massive. Adds a lot to the instrument's sustain I imagine. Small hands may want to watch out for this.

I've played it live now half a dozen times... No problems whatsover. The question is when will I ever put it down? Hardware is fine, finish is as brawny as the rest of the guitar. Strap buttons are now Dunlop Straploks (the only mod I've made so far), but the original buttons were terrific. I'd definitely depend on it, but I always carry a backup in case of broken strings or ear fatigue.

I've been playing for 30+ years now. After owning Gibsons, Fenders, PRSs, Reverends, Parkers, and several other brands I've culled my "collection" own to this, a Hamer Artist, and an American Standard strat. I have to say that this guitar is the first instrument I've ever played that's made everything before it seem like a toy. Not even my first pro instrument, a '69 SG Special, was this solid and satisfying. I think the PTB system, although daunting at first, is terrific.

Words of caution: although I've mentioned a few benchmark tones here, the Comanche is really a different kind of guitar. It's bigger, more intense, and feels different from anything else that I've ever played. A lot of people just don't quite know what to make of them, so take your time and get comfortable before giving up. I hope to get another soon. For tone, workmanship, and general vibe this may be the best non-custom American made instrument out there.

The features are well-known by now -- examine the reviews below. I will add that the pickup and wiring scheme is brilliant...the PTB (passive treble and bass roll-off + expander switch) allows for a ton of tonal options...no other guitar I've owned in over 20 years offers as much tonal variety. Absolutely first rate concept and execution.

A full spectrum of useable and excellent sounds.
Regardless of what style you play, you can do it justice with this guitar...rock, blues, country, jazz, folk, fusion...personally, I'm into the experimental and avant/post rock thing and I really like this guitar.

Hum with single coils is gone with these pups.

Amazing!

This baby has better action, fit, and finish than any Strat I've owned. The 12" radius is so much better than the vintage 7.5 and contemporary 9 that you get from Fender... I've owned several Strats and other Fender guitars and G&L really has them beat with the Comanche. Mine is blonde over swamp ash with gold hardware...just stunning. The gun oil tint to the maple neck is lush.

The woods are top notch.

Neck pocket is razor sharp, everything is rock solid...You could do better, perhaps, but you'd have to spend 2 to 3 times more from Grosh, Anderson, Suhr, et al to get there.

Tuning stability is fantastic...it was shipped by UPS half way across the country and it arrived *perfectly* in tune.

The only way to improve this guitar would to put stainless steel frets on it...but it was made before SS was the au courant feature among builders. My NiteFly can beat it on action ("nothing plays like a Parker" ain't just a slogan, it's the truth) but the G&L feels more organic (especially due to the rosewood fretboard) than my Parker. When it's time for a refret I'll see if can't get Chris Shaffer to do the fretwork for me -- he did a custom 19TET acoustic for me and the the fretwork was astonishingly good (you can find Chris at www.kronosonic.com).

built like a tank -- combined with the tonal variety of this guitar you could easily play this guitar for decades and be perfectly happy.

I don't know

playing for 24 years...I own and have owned more than my fair share of guitars from all the major manufacturers. My first guitar back in 1981 was a G&L SC1 and it was a dog. The radius was vintage and the frets were low and wide...just a bad formula unless you just wanted to strum cowboy chords...so I was hesitant to consider G&L again...however the Comanche fit all my current requirements so I took a chance -- man, I was overjoyed with what I got. It plays like butter, is built to last, sounds fantastic, and is beautiful.

I wish it had come with strap locks and a better case that actually fits the guitar.

The guitar has a longer headstock than a Strat meaning that it does not fit just right in the factory case...weird. The only consequence for this is that the 1st string tuner can get turned while in the case. Curious but not a problem.

If I lost this guitar I would definately get another just like it. It's a no-brainer.

Why buy a Fender product when you can get the real deal from G&L with a much better price to performance ratio? The last Fender I owned was an "American Standard" from 1988. I dropped it and to my horror discovered that it was made not just from plywood but what appeared to be wood sausage. The thing just exploded into little chunks. I vowed to never waste my money on a Fender again...in fact, after that, I sold anything that had "Fender" on it. Fender is just a huge corporation, ruled by bean counters, cranking out mediocre stuff as fast as they can.

If you want a "real" Neumann microphone then you buy a Gefell with the M7 capsule and if you want a "real" Fender guitar then get a G&L. It's pretty simple.

This is an american-made Stratocaster-style guitar, made by the company set up by Leo Fender and George Fullerton, after the Fender company was sold by the former, who, of course, was the founder.

Mine is a post-2003 (probably 2004) Comanche in ?Honeyburst?. Dating G&Ls: one can either refer to the G&L enthusiasts? site www.guitarsbyleo.com and hope that others? data is there, against which you can compare your own serial number, or for a definitive dating you can take the neck off, and apparently find a date stamp on the neck, and one in the body pocket. As I am loathe to remove the neck from what is a superbly-set up guitar, all I can find out from the serial number is that mine is post November 2003.

First, some words about the build quality: stunning; amazing; fantastic; awesome; gobsmacking? do you get the picture? I never thought I?d live to see such build quality in a guitar that cost me 620 quid! Everything is tight, no rattles, nor blemishes.. the hardware is great and the overall finish is stunning.

The features: stunningly-figured bolt-on (4 bolts) birdseye maple one-piece neck, tinted with gun oil, and finished to a brilliant high gloss. Apparently, 4 different necks are available for this guitar, and mine definitely has a ?C? profile, with a nut width of 1 and 5/8th inches, but I?m unable to say what the radius is. (Lack of carpentry knowledge)! 22 frets which are medium jumbo on my model, and very nice black abalone dot inlay markers. Graphite nut, locking (Sperzel?) tuners, bullet truss rod (one eighth of an inch AF), and a black plastic string tree for the top two strings.

The body is ash, with a beautiful bookmatched ?flame? maple top.

The pickguard is 3-ply white pearloid.

The pickups are white G&L Z3s, with 5-way selector switch Strat-style with a white cylindrical tip, with separate volume, treble, and bass rotary controls which are in chrome (known as the PTB system), and there is also a small two-way selector switch enabling more pickup configurations than the normal Strat-style: for example, you can have the upper half of the neck pickup with the lower half of the bridge pickup, or all three pickups together, but without the benefit of a manual, I?m unable to say which setting is which! I just have to rely on my ears.

The bridge is G&L?s own fulcrum-style, with separate adjustable saddles for each string, and a pop-in steel tremelo arm that has an allen bolt fixing, if you want to have a tight tremelo arm fitting. (Nice touch). I very much like the visual design of the bridge too: it?s chunkier than the stock Strat fulcrum, with rounded front corners as well. Looks very nice.

The lead socket is a usual Strat-style, recessed front-of-body.

The hard case is G&L?s own, plain-looking and uninspiring, but functional nonetheless, and I personally do not find it too small for the guitar. No complaints from me.

Now the sounds and playability: my rig is a GK 250ML Series 2 with a 2x10 Celestion stereo extension cab.

Although it looks to all intents and purposes like a super custom Strat, it?s much much more than that, as a previous reviewer wrote. I did get approximations of the stock Strat sounds, but not exactly, which pleased me no end, because the array of sounds goes beyond any Strat I?ve ever played, both clean sounds and overdriven. Absolutely gorgeous. It?s a separate guitar in its own right, not any sort of a Strat clone, at least sound-wise. I like the PTB system: separate bass and treble controls, enabling more shaping of sounds than the norm.. it sounds great with the GK?s inbuilt compressor too, which doesn?t happen with many guitars, in my experience. Overdriven in either of the parallel positions, with the treble cut out, it screams.

..and the playability? What can I say? It arrived with by far the best setup I?ve ever had in a purchased guitar. Only one thing have I had to adjust since receipt, which is quite stunning in itself: I just raised the 1st string a tad, to accommodate my bending style. The trem setup is floating, super-smooth, soft yet no sloppiness whatsoever, and the action is quite wonderful. With the high-gloss maple neck, it is low, slick and fast, with no buzz whatsoever. The neck is probably the best thing about this guitar, in my opinion. Superb.

Time will tell, but I've every confidence this superb build quality is built to last.

Never had to use them.

So what?s wrong with it? Nothing, really. All opinions are subjective, but nevertheless, being a confirmed ?V-necker?, I would prefer a V neck, and this option is available for this guitar. When I first got it, I thought that I?d prefer a fixed bridge too.. but this guitar has swayed me: I love the trem, but..

In my opinion, a Hipshot tremsetter might not go amiss. The bridge is so supersensitive, that any tuning automatically affects the sympathetic tuning of the other strings, which can be a bugger in the middle of a song. That?s not to say that this guitar has tuning problems, because it stays in tune very well? it?s just that on those rare occasions when one string does slip, it?s tricky to retune.
I?m not too sure about the graphite nut/string tree, either. It?s probably down to my sticky fingers, but it starts to catch on the second string after a decent play..

..but these are just minor considerations, when held up against all the positives this great guitar has. Would I buy another one? You betcha I would! It?s absolutely friggin? gorgeous! You can probably guess that I?m completely taken by this guitar, and the whole G&L thing.

I?ve been playing for 36-odd years, and also own a Fender Strat Plus, a Fender Strat Ultra, an Indie ILP5, and a Fender Classic. I would recommend the Comanche unequivocally, and am nothing but amazed that there isn?t a lot more interest in G&Ls in the secondhand market. More fool the public, that?s what I say. It?s a player?s dream of a guitar, IMO.

1999 Model. USA built. I wont insult it by calling it a Strat copy, it goes way beyond that, but it's a good starting point in getting a general idea. Z pick ups. Locking Sperzel machines. Thru body bridge, with G&Ls own tremsystem.
Std strat type swithching, with an extra switch enabling neck and bridge pairings, which gives a vast array of sounds.
Ash body with maple neck/rosewood board.
Beautiful sunburst finish, best I have seen and pearlescent scratchplate.
Comes with G&L case and signed certificate signed by "Leo's Missus"; a nice touch.

This guitar does everything except balls out humbucker. It's a strat +50% of everything. The tone controls are actualy treble and bass, which gives many more options than just tone. Linking the neck and bridge pick ups sounds a bit like a Tele on steroids.
The Z pickups are awesome. Totally noiseless but clear as a bell and punchy. the only downside is the looks.They are an aquired tast, but worth the effort for the sound they produce. Think of the best Strat and Tele you ever heard, and then some more!

From the factory, the action was a little high for my liking, but 15 minutes of tinkering, and it was spot on. The whole finish neck and body, is the best I have seen. I thought the Korean G&Ls were good, but this is just superb. Stunning grain on body covered by a flawless see through sunburst laquer. The hardware is top drawer, with a trem which is fairly free moving, but completely taut. no slop at all.

I would stake everything on this thing lasting for years. It is built to last, and faultless.

n/a

I have played for 30+ years, and have a collection of Gibsons, fenders, Martins, and Tokai's. This iswithout a doubt the best built, finished etc guitar I own. The only thing missing I suppose is that bit of magic that comes with history, but that really is in the mind, (but it does count). If you can ignore this(the thing that makes you put up with battered crackly old Fenders etc,) this could well be a candidate for the best built guitar around. It is superb, and yes I'd buy again.

This one is a 2003. The features were the sole selling point for this guitar.

The Z3 pickups are just plain awesome. Instead of the standard 5-way strat style electronics, you can split them in two! So you can have the top 3 strings picked up by the neck, and then the bottom 3 picked up at the bridge. I love the strat sound, and didn't want to venture too far from it when buying a new guitar, but I just needed more diversity. This was the way to do it, the most versatile guitar I've ever played.

The hardware is top-notch. It has the nice schaller locking tuners and a low-friction graphite nut. The only problem I've had so far is the dual-fulcrum floating bridge. It's impossible to use the tremolo like I want to... expressive bend-downs, pushing the whammy bar all the way to the strings. This just knocks everything out of whack. So now I keep the whammy bar off and pull the bridge up with my hand when I need a little tremolo. This is the only reason it gets a 9 here.

This guitar will suit ANY style of music. I play in a jam band (I hate that term) that's blues based, but we venture off into bluegrass (great tele sound), jazz (smooth, deep 335 sound), gangsta-rap (no comment), reggae (great chirpy rhythm stuff) and everything in between. The Commanche has it all covered, like a jimmy hat.

My setup: G&L Commanche or '83 Strat-> Korg tuner-> Budda Budwah ->Boss OC-2 Octave -> Tremolo, I forget what kind -> Maxon CP-101 compressor -> Rivera M60 4X10. I've finally arrived at a point where I can get good gear, so I had to have the best guitar ever made to start the line-up!!

It's super-quiet, and I can emulate the sound of any guitarist playing through any guitar (the M60 kinda helps). There are other guitars out there that will make lots of sounds, but there are usually a couple that they're weak on. This one does it all, well. I've been playing it for 2 months for hours every day, and I still haven't made it around to all the possibilities.

The action is a dream. Another reason I wanted to stick with a strat-style is the neck. There's just something about them (Fender lovers, you know what I mean). The neck is just lightning-fast, and smooth like butter with the gun-oil finish on maple

The fit is prefect... It feels like the edges of the neck are cut just a little sharper than a standard strat, it allows you to feel the frets better on the top and bottom.

The finish is Fullerton Red, which is really more like a burnt orange. It reminds me of Fender's Candy Tangerine. Pick guard is 3-ply cream, black in the middle, and the knobs are black cylinders. Very tough looking. My favorite is the black abolone inlays for the dots in the neck.

The only flub in the finish is this little orange spot in the neck. It looks like someone picked it up with stain on their hands. Barely noticable, but it's still going to bug me forever. They get an 8 for sloppiness.

I'm sure I will keep this guitar forever. It's just solid.

Haven't dealt with them yet. If you ever need any support, there's a website: www.guitarsbyleo.com That has specs and forums, FAQ's and so forth.

I've been playing for about 10 years now. I take music very seriously, which is why I got a serious guitar. It has turned out to be everything I need and more. If I ever get another one, I'll go hollow-body, probably an ASAT. But this will be my main squeeze for as long as I can see. If it were stolen or lost, I would not be too surprised, cause that shit just happens to me sometimes. If I found the bastard who stole it, I would definitely get midevil on his ass... lube-free.

This thing doesn't even compare to other guitars. It was like Leo's gift to planet Earth.

The last thing, some people have mentioned the case... It's a piece of CRAP. It appears to be too short... that's cause it is. The neck goes all the way to the end of the case. I think they just half-assed it. It also has difficulty lining up and sealing when I close it. What the hell Leo?... Shouldn't it have a nice cadillac case, like a tweed or custom molded one? This calls for a 9. Sorry, but I think they could have paid attention to a few more details if they wanted to sell it for over a grand. If you're thinking of buying one though, don't delay!


www.barneysjiveband.com

Not sure of the year but purchased new from the music store. Pretty greenburst translucent finish over ash with pearloid pickguard. Maple neck with rosewood fingerboard. Jumbo frets, dual fulcrum tremolo and schaller locking tuners. Of course, it has three Z-coil pickups with seperate volume bass and treble controls. It also has a mini toggle switch for more pickup combinations above the standard 5-way strat configuration. This neck is considered to be a number 1 with 12" radius, but as I was shopping for Legacies and strats, I noticed this neck groove to be a bit deeper than the flatter C shapes of both the G&L and Fenders I was playing, which is what initially caught my attention to being seriously interested in this guitar.

I've had many guitars and this is very feature rich while being very user friendly.

Very unique in it's own right. I've read some people say it sounds like a 335 a strat and all that other stuff, but to me, it sounds like a Comanche. I was looking for either a legacy or a strat, but was captured by the looks, the feel of the neck, the appointments and most of all, the sound. While I no longer had a strat, I have other guitars that do the strat thing very well, and I was never using the strat I had prior to selling it, other than using the neck pickup on very few things. I, at first, thought I would update my strat and get a newer one with possibly a better feel and sound, but then I came across the Comanche. It might look like a strat (in body only) and it might feel similar to a strat, but that is all. I wouldn't even call this a super strat. Okay, maybe a super strat, but it's really its own thing. At first, the sound can be un-becoming as most people want to hear what they already identify with. This is where patience is a virture. Because if you stick with this guitar and get over it not sounding like a '54 stratocaster, then you will be trully pleased. In fact, I think the pickups and tonal variations on this guitar are addictive. Clean but warm, punchy and funky. Yeah, it doesn't sound like everyone else's guitar down the street, but that's part of the beauty of it. In addition, it's so much more than the guitar everyone else has and the guitar hanging up all over music stores. It's crisp and somewhat compressed and somewhat rubbery all around. These pickups seem to be more efficient than standard alnico pickups as they are more responsive to picking and string muting. And by being able to adjust the individual pole pieces on each pickup, you have an unlimited array of sounds from these pickups. Plus, the z-coils are not humbuckers in the true sense and they are not some stacked bullshit pretending to be single coils. The Z-coils are two seperate single coils reverse wound for noise cancellation. So, you get single coil vibe and clairity while doing away with the 60-cycle hum. Using the 5-way selector, you get the traditional strat layout with individual and two pickups together. Where this guitar sounds stratty is the 2 and 4 positions. Using the mini-toggle switch, the guitar now has 2 more pickup variations. You get neck and bridge together utilizing position 1 or 5 and you can get all three pickups by using the 2 or 4 positions. Regardless of location, the sound is the same when using 1 or 5 and 2 or 4. It would have been even better had this set up gone a little further and run a series and parallel instead of having too much of the same thing. Nonetheless the current configuration makes changing sounds on the fly very easy.

This guitar sounds very, very good, and the Comanche sound should not be criticized because it doesn't sound exactly like a strat. In fact, if you are looking for a vintage strat sound, do not get this guitar! Instead get either a strat or a legacy. But, if you are looking for a very cool sounding and versatile guitar you could get away doing some strat parts with while at the same time giving you a unique sound, you should strongly consider a Comanche. Or at least you should go play one and be objective. By taking advantage of the unique tone controls and pickup pole adjustability, you can virtually make this guitar do about anything you want it to. Some folks don't like to tweak and that's fine, but the tweaking and tone shaping on this guitar is simple. Instead of a capacitor that just bleeds the off treble like on most electrics, the bass and treble act more as an eq. This should explain some of the earlier reviewers that comment on the pickups having a flat eq response. These pickups should be flat so you can dial in just the amount of bass and treble you want. Makes sense to me anyway.

First class, first class and first class. So many guitars look so nice on the outside, but when you have to take the temolo guard off the back of the guitar, or when you go to change pots or pickups, you often notice the not-so-pretty part of the guitar. You see the unfinished and non-painted parts and where sloppiness really doesn't seem to matter. Well, after owning this Comanche, I can tell you it matters to me now. Not a flaw anywhere on the guitar. the frets are great, there are no finish marks, the hardware is top-notch and installed properly and on the gray areas that I mentioned above, everything is still finished and nicely painted. This gives me a lot of confidence having paid a decent amount of money for this guitar. CNC machines are great, but attention to detail still favors the handmakers. On top of that, the human side of manufacturing is what gave me my nice neck. You get precision, but subtle variances that trully make each handmade guitar unique. I'll tell you, it will be hard to want or shop for another assembly line produced guitar again.

Overall and excellent and professional job! Very impressive.

As I am addicted to the sound plugged in, it has quickly become my favorite guitar to carry around the house with me and play unplugged. Nice resonance, but the feel and the quality construction make this an easy choice when going to pick a guitar up.

Unless this guitar was dropped from a 5 story building onto concrete, this guitar will hold up well. I'd use for an entire gig no problem. I'd always have a backup, but probably wouldn't use it.

Never had to deal with them, but they are still a custom shop. I like the folks I buy my stuff from and they usually only sell equipment and instruments from manufactures known for quality and customer service. Paul Reed Smith gives you a 2 year warranty. G&L gives you a 10 year warranty. If you've had this guitar for 10 years, chances are it's going to last. Sill, having not called them directly, I won't comment.

I've been playing for around 20 years. Besides the Comanche, I own an Ernie Ball Music Man Axis Super Sport with MM-90s, a Guild Bluesbird and a Paul Reed Smith Customm 22 Soapbar.

I guess the only thing I would ask is why did this hang in the store so long?

Lost or stolen I'd get another one.

I love everything I mentioned above, the looks, feel, sound, playability and quality of construction and hardware. I hate that the store I got it from doesn't carry many variations of this model. My favorite feature is the mini-toggle switch adding more tonal variations.

I was out looking for a legacy or a strat and chose this one. Totally out of the blue and not originally even considered I contribute to my lack of knowledge and initial reservations about the Z-Coil pickups. After a tough trial, I was leaning towards the legacy but hated to spend more money on a strat type guitar, when I'd recently just sold my strat due to lack of use. I decided to give the Comanche a try and in just a short time, did an about face and bought this guitar.

I am intrigued at a Comanche I saw online with the ASAT special style top-mount bridge. I don't use a tremolo and for that, wish this guitar could have saved some wood in the back and came with the ASAT special bridge. Plus those bridge designs really make a guitar sustain well.

I'd just like to suggest you strongly consider playing a Comanche. If that's not your thing, then you should check out other G&L products. They are very fine instruments. After owning an ASAT Classic and now this Comanche, I am now hooked and convinced G&L is a superior product for a reasonable amount of money. High quality and the prices aren't cheap, but they are not outrageous either. Most good players know about G&L, so resale will be about on par with a Fender of similar contruction. On ebay there are about 50,000 strats for sale, while in the G&L section, there are a handful of legacy guitars on auction. The quality of these guitars is as good if not better than more expensive strat and tele prototype guitars and for good reason. I mean, you can't really get better than the original founder of the most popular guitars in the world. Only Leo knew the secret behind the Strat, and only he could be the one to make it better.

Mine's a 2002, burst finish with a maple neck/fretboard, and the standard z-coil pickups. The rest is described in the other reviews.

The sound is very good, and I can actually get close to the sound of my strat, LP and archtop - close. This would be a huge benefit for someone that didn't have these other guitars, but I'm finding that since I have a strat, LP and hollowbody, I reach for the real deal when it's crunch time, not for the Comanche. Don't get me wrong, this is a very versitile axe with tons of tone, but I prefer my other guitars at this moment.

The z-coils can get harsh if they're set too close to the strings. I had to back mine off a bit to soften it up.

Factory set-up was horrible, and the dealer didn't do any better. Nothing was close to being right. I took it to my guitar tech, and he got things in order, and the guitar felt great. As mentioned earlier, I had to back off the pickups to reduce the harshness of the z-coils. I haven't noticed any finish flaws - it's a great looking guitar.

Here's where I have a problem. The guitar is very solid - great hardware, but the problem is the dual fulcrum tailpiece. I change strings about every 7 to 14 days. When I change strings, I clean the fretboard, so all the strings come off. Big problem with this tailpiece.

The dual fulcrum vibrato takes a ton of work to get it settled into position so it will stay in tune after a string change. A huge pain in the neck! The vibrato feels smooth, sounds smooth, and I absolutely hate it.

The G&L discussion page suggests shoving a toothbrush between the tailpiece and the body to help with the tuning problem. Quite frankly, I don't have to do this with my USA strat, and I'm not going to go out of my way to do it here - I'll just sell or trade it and use my strat. I do like the sound of G&L pickups, so I am considering buying a used/beat up Comanche and Legacy, and swap the pickups with a couple strats.

I know all you G&L purists out there will think I'm nuts, but the tone doesn't justify all the screwing around for me. Maybe I'll just block the tailpiece if I can't get decent money for it. Sorry Leo, you know I think you're a genius despite all this!

Never dealt with them, but their website wants to send you to the G&L discussion forum for advice/problems. The forum is not an official G&L webpage - just enthusiasts. Nice people, but I wonder about the reliability of some info. I don't have an ounce of faith in any information that comes from an unknown teenager. I've got teenagers - I know how they are - it's a global conspiracy! The problem is, you don't know who's providing information - are they really an expert??? How do they know the answer? What makes them qualified? The answers may be right, but you just don't know for sure.

As mentioned before, this is a very well built guitar with a huge pallette of tones, and from a tone standpoint, it just might be the perfect choice if you could only have one axe. If you can get past the toothbrush string changing thing, it would be a good choice, but I'm having a problem with it.

If it were lost or stolen, I wouldn't get another one, but I'd definitely consider a G&L ASAT (Tele). G&L's are fine instruments - right up there, or better than Fender Custom Shop product. I originally planned to buy a G&L Legacy, but the one I tried had a tuning problem (now I know why) and I fell for the Comanche as soon as I played it. Have I praised them enough as I gripe about the trem?

One more thing, I'm not crazy about the case. Seems too short for the guitar. A minor thing, but how rediculous - build a great guitar and shove it into some ill-fitting stock case.

I own a LP Studio, two Strats, a Guild, an Ibanez, and a Martin A/E, and play through Fender and Mesa tube amps.

2001 G&L Comanche. Ash, 2-tone sunburst with ebony board. Hardtail. Ingenius passive tone controls (separate knobs for T and B). Expander switch allowing all 3 pups on at once or neck/bridge combo. See below for the rest of the specs. Controls give you LOTS more options than traditional Strat.

I must admit that although I liked the Comanche the first time I played one, I had trouble bonding with it. A buddy of mine has had one for a couple months and I recently house-sat for him for a week. I had permission to use his gear (except for the 1944 Gibson!) while there. After spending several hours with his Comanche and amps, I changed my mind. And by the end of the week, I wanted a Comanche BADLY! I got one.

This guitar is simply awesome. It is remarkably versatile and can cop a lot of tones, but after spending some quality time with it, you really start to appreciate it for its own sounds. It is truly unique. Some people below have said it lacks "mojo" or character. Rubbish! True, the pickups do not color the tone much and have a very neutral response, but it sure is pretty to me, both clean and dirty. Very stark and beautiful tones. More single coil than humbucker for sure, but with major output. Single coil tone with more output and ZERO noise. Great rock and blues tones...or jazz...or country...etc etc.

The nut wasn't perfect and the action was a little too low, but otherwise nicely set up. High quality hardware. These pickups need to be lower, a lot lower, than a real single coil. I've found the best tones with the neck pup almost 1/4" below the strings.

The finish is the best I've seen from ANY manufacturuer. Just gorgeous. It weighs about 7 lbs.

N/A. Too soon to tell, but its seems to be built like a brick house.

No clue. And no G&L dealers anywhere near.

This is the best guitar I've ever owned or played in 22 years. For those of you who are having trouble finding its voice, don't give up too soon and you will probably be rewarded. Keep tweaking, (lower the pickups!) and find the right amps. If I had spent just 20 minutes with it in a music store, I would have passed on it, but after a few hours I was hooked.

The ultimate Strat-style guitar. Leo Fender left his old company way behind with this one!

Bought my Comanche in 2001. Great looking "cherry-burst" with binding all around...Pearloid pickguard finishes it off nicely. Really one of the most handsome guitars I've ever seen. Standard Z-Coil pick ups, etc. I bought this from a E-Bay dude who had gotten himself a G&L Dealership and was struggling. I was told that this one has all the upgrades... Whatever that means. Locking Tuners, Floating Bridge, great feeling neck and a nice G&L case all came in the deal. Also has a phase switch for changing z-coil config.

I have in the past been critical of people who say... nice out of the box without getting a pro set-up. SO, I am going to eat my words here and tell you, aside from a minor adjustement to the bridge, the Comanche played great from the start. FAST. This neck and fingerboard feel down right fast to me. Very smooth. Great looking guitar, everything was perfect as far as fit and finish goes.

Have not played this one a lot. I've got fifteen guitars so they get rotated. Basically, I love the way the Comanche looks, I am trying to keep it as "mint" as possible. However, that doesn't mean it's a virgin. So far, so good.

Haven't had to call.... which is good, right?

It's a cool vibe. Not for everybody, but for most. Play one and see for yourself.

Blueburst finish, rosewood fingerboard, 5-way switch w/mini toggle for bridge/neck pickup combinations. Floating vibrato bridge. Z-coil pickups.

This guitar produces many useful sounds including a classic Strat but you also get a great Tele vibe in the deal. The tone controls are nothing like a Strat. There are seperate, global bass/treble controls. Rolling the bass tone control completely off and adjusting the treble to taste provides a completely different palet of tones compared to the "full-on" tone settings. Very cool.

I didn't care for the round chrome metal knobs on the tone controls so I removed them and installed a pair of chicken head knobs in their place. I left the metal knob on the volume but the chicken head knobs on the tone controls look's quite attractive to my eyes and it's much easier to see where I have those set while playing.

Great tones for any song I need to play and it's QUIET under any condition. Gotta love that!

I bought used but it was setup well with 10's. I bumped that up to 11's for a while, dropped back to 9's and then finally settled back on the 10's. During that process, I got very familiar with the floating vibrato bridge adjustments.

This is the best vibrato bridge I've ever used. Stays in tune when it's released and if you get the fulcrum point adjusted properly you can do pedal steel bends and still maintain reasonable tuning on the strings that aren't being bent. Very nice.

Overall the guitar maintains whatever setup I want.

If you break a string, you will be down a while although it's not as nasty as a locking nut arrangement. It's simply the nature of a floating vibrato bridge that tuning will be greatly affected by a string breaking or tuning change.

Truss rod, bridge, fit & finish are all top notch. Don't need to worry about anything falling apart.

I have no idea if they would be helpful/friendly or not?

25+ years - I've owned enough gear to outfit a medium size music store. I'm into tube guitar amps and I have a Matchless DC-30, '52 Deluxe and recently a couple of handmade amps of my own doing based on surplus Matchless trannies.

I mostly use real amps but I'm also a fan of the Yamaha DG Stomp. I use it direct (When I have to, argh!) into a console or as a pedal in front of my amp. It offers many effects and decent OD's in one package but that's a review for another category.

I was originally in the market for Z-coil pickups and I was seriously looking into the ASAT Z3 model but I decided to give the Comanche vibrato bridge a chance and I'm glad I did. I get most of the ASAT vibe in addition to the buttery smooth and accurate vibrato arm. I couldn't be happier!

This 1998 Comanche is an American made strat derived guitar, which sports many quality features including Sperzel locking tuners, Z-Coil pickups, and a smooth G&L tremelo. The finish looks great, being that it is a honeyburst finish over a highly figured Swamp Ash body. The neck and fretboard are maple, and the neck is thicker than both American Stratocasters and G&L Legacys.

The pickup switching system is similar to that of a strat, except for that it has an additional switch which allows the player to choose 2 extra pickup combinations. With the switch engaged, the neck and bridge pickups can be used to produce a tele sound, and all three pickups at once for an out of phase, hollowed-out sound.

The guitar has the shape and dimensions of a strat, and we all know what those sound like. The difference in sound lies in the Magnetic Field Design Z-coil pickups. The pickups have a far more powerful output than standard single coils, yet somehow manage to retain their sparkling high end. These pickups suit me very well, as I spend much of my time playing jazz.

Z-coils tend to produce a bigger sound than normal single coils, and they allow me to use various positions for jazz and other styles (some say they have an output more in line with that of P-90s). Let me add that the Z-coils are full bodied pickups that don't lose their high end like other high output pickups do. The sound of the neck pickup wonderfully rich, and the bridge pickup is twangy and biting without being thin or brittle. Overall,I am very happy with these pickups.

The expander switch allows for the neck and bridge pickups to be engaged at the same time, which is great for making the Comanche sound like a Telecaster or a hollowbody. I have an ES-135 which I don't play nearly as much as I used to because I can closely approximate its sound using the Comanche.

I did not recieve my instrument from the factory, so I cannot comment on its action set at the factory. I can, however, say that I have never had build quality issues with any of my G&Ls, or any G&L I have played.

The frets are well dressed, and do not stick out at all.

The wood and finish are as good as I've seen.

Build quality on this guitar seems to be very high, and I do not forsee any problems. However, I have only owned this guitar for 6 months, and I cannot accurately vouch for the durability of this instrument.

Have not had to deal with them yet, which may be a testament to the instument's quality and durability!

I've been playing for 15 years, and I have never played a better strat-style guitar. Every aspect of this guitar has impressed me, from the feel to the sound and finish.

Made in 2001...bought in '02.
LOOKS LIKE A STRAT, SOUNDS LIKE A TELE, ES-330, and STRAT.
Lots of features: mini toggle to activate all three or two of the unique "Z" pickups. Locking Schaller tuners. Volume, bass, treble controls are tastefully done, just need some numbers to read the settings.
Beautiful honeyburst with highly figured ash, tortoise-shell pickguard, wood binding, rosewood board on a satin finish maple neck.
Bridge is made of solid brass, chrome finish, floating tremolo...a real work of art! NO, I DONT WORK FOR G&L, but I would not rule out a reasonable offer.
Case is a bit cheesy, but you can upgrade from the standard hardshell case.

Like I said: "Looks like a Strat, sounds like a Tele, ES, and Strat" rolled into one heavy weight guitar. My guess its weight is in the electronics and dense wood...great sustain and sound whilst unplugged.
As other owners have pointed out; this is the ideal "desert island" guitar...provided there is electricity.
The amp makes a big difference. I am partial to the Carr Rambler. The Comanche really shines thu one of these...especially the Tele tones!
Does lack a bit of the single coil 'charactar', but these 'Z' coil pups are dead quiet. Have to agree with a fellow rater: "Not quite as good as Fender Vintage Noiseless pups."
You can get Mark Knophler tones from this axe. Real mellow and clear to real bite on the treble settings.

Fantastic fit in the neck pocket, beautiful workmanship. Wood grain is the most highly figured I have seen. Called "Premium" finish, but G&L does not charge 'Custom Shop' prices.
Some cant get past the headstock design, I must admit, I had a time adjusting to the asthetics. But you dont play the headstock and the necks, playability, and sound you can get from these kicks the hell out of 95% of the Fenders.

Heard of some problems with the input jack. I own three G&L's and never had a major problem with them. I believe they make a quality product for a reasonable price.
The finish is among the best I have ever seen in my 40 years as a player and student of the guitar.

10 year warranty, non transferable...never had to use it. Folks on the G&L Appreaciation Page, are fairly supportive, with G&L experts contributing on a daily basis. There is a way to register your G&L, too.
Hand made by 'deciples' of LEO FENDER... the King of solid bods!
Employees seem dedicated to perpetuating Leo Fender's mission statement of "making a great guitar the best guitar" or words to that effect.

Far as I am concerned, G&L is the 'real' Fender. Yes... I like the Comanche, plenty, especially with the right amp!
Can understand why it lacks that 'magic mojo' for some, but its a very good alternative to lugging around three guitars. This one can sound like many different type of guitars, but 'tone' is in the fingers of the artist. Heard some play these to perfection, an it leaves you wanting to play on, and inspire. Its own sweet sound? For sure!

I bought a 2001 Commanche off Ebay, Seller said it was a 9.9, and it was, not a scratch, a thing of beauty. Gunmetal oil polished maple fretboard is one if not the nicest neck I have ever played on. It has the Z style pickups with a switch, but because I got no manual, I don't know yet all the different configs for pickups but I believe their are 8. Tremelo is nice with locking tuners. It has an Ash body, w/ trans tobacco sunburst finish.

Like I said 8 possible pickup configs, very similar to a Strat's sound, but with not as much "vibe" (that inexplicable sound that makes guitars sound cool. It does what it is suppose to do very well. The pickups I rate above Tex-Mex, but below the new Noiseless. Definetly has that single pickup sound.

Unbelievable finish, and workmanship. This is where the guitar really shines. It definetly has store appeal. Action is great, neck is the best, knobs, trees, details are outstanding. If you were to walk into a guitar store full of Strats, you would pick this guitar out as the best playing, and well made on the floor. Really takes its advantage here.

I have an older G&L Legacy. It is like a tank. The Commanche looks and will probably be the same.

Never dealt with G&L. Guitar did come w/ a neat Certificate signed by Mrs. Fender, w/ a nostalgic touch describing where it was made (Fender Ave.), Case and candy included.

Overall, very impressive. Would do the job anywhere anytime. It simply lacks that magic mojo (at least for me).

Sunburst Swamp Ash Comanche bought barely used from Harmony Central ad, like new, volume, PTB tone system, 5-way and mini-toggle switch for an absurd amount of tonal possibilities. Birdseye maple neck and fingerboard, G&L dual fulcrum trem, locking tuners, graphite nut. Baseball bat neck, jumbo frets, slightly too small factory issue hardshell molded case.

Playing through a 50 watt Carvin 212 Bel-Air. Effects are a crappy Dunlop wah,( anybody want to sell a Fulltone Clyde Wah cheap?)Maxon compressor, Fulltone Deja-Vibe, Fulltone Supa-trem, Hughes and Kettner Replex all velcroed to a Furman pedalboard. I play blues, rockabilly and funk, I gig about once a week, and have been on a quest for the perfect tone for many years. I've owned a '57 Les Paul Special (stolen), a G&L Nighthawk(stolen with the LP), a G&L Skyhawk with a Kahler tremelo ( bought to replace the Nighthawk), a late '60's ES-330 ( bought to replace the LP Special, vintage Les Pauls had gotten way too expensive by that time), a Tokai Tele and a G&L ASAT. A few months ago I decided it was time to get rid of my museum piece ( the ES-330)and give the Commanche a shot. The 330 was a great guitar, I only paid $250 for it back in 1983, but the feedback I was getting from its hollow body in live situations was making it practically useless as a gigging instrument. The pickups( P-90's) sounded great, but the 60 cycle hum was starting to drive me nuts. So I sold it (probably too cheaply with a buy it now option on ebay)and replaced it with the ASAT and Comanche. I got the ASAT first and immediately fell in love with it, it was the perfect Tele, bright but not harsh, built like a brick shithouse, everything I'd never gotten out of my Tokai. Then I got my Commanche. When I first plugged it in I was using a friends amp, and I was blown away by the sustain. I'd tried a few other Comanche's over the years and had been very impressed, but none of them had sounded like this. I figured it was the amplifier. The next day I brought it over to my rehearsal space and discovered it was actually the guitar. The sounds run the gamut from everything you'd expect to get out of a Strat to everything you'd expect to get out of a Tele to an ES-335 and back plus its own tonal characteristics which I'm still exploring. The mini toggle switch and the ability to roll back your low end as well as your highs makes the range on this guitar seemingly infinite for a solidbody insrument. The guilt I'd felt about getting rid of the ES-330 has completely evaporated. The pickups are essentially noiseless. My feedback concerns are also gone. Instead of feedback and squealing, I have almost endless sustain. My Skyhawk had always been my main guitar, when I popped a string on it I'd reach for the 330, and last but not least, the Tokai (I have a tendency to break at least one string a set). Well, now I've sold the Tokai, and I'm thinking about selling the Skyhawk and replacing it with another Comanche. I love the Skyhawk, but I'm trying to be practical. The Skyhawk just doesn't do it for me anymore. Maybe I'll just get some string savers for the Comanche, and that'll be that. I'm afraid to screw with the guitar in any way though. When I bought it, it had .009's on it and the action was kind of high. I lowered the action, put .010's on it and reset the springs and the intonation. Everything worked out just fine, maybe I should just leave well enough alone.
In conclusion, the icing on the cake with this guitar is the response I get from audiences when I play out. You can do Albert King or SRV style string bends and ride the sustain forever, and people do seem to like it quite a bit. Just like me, everyone at first thinks the great sound I'm getting is from the amplifier, and I know that's a major component, but I've played a lot of other guitars through my Carvin, and nothing has ever sounded as nice as this.

I've seen a lot of complaints about the "swimming pool" routing on recent vintage G&L's, but it doesn't seem to affect my instrument in a negative way. There's a part of me that believes it might even be contributing to some of the more Gibsonlike semi-hollow tonal possibilities that this guitar has.
The guitar's birdseye neck and fingerboard are absolutely stunning, and the sunburst, which goes from yellow to red to black over the heavily grained swamp ash is also breathtaking. I kind of wish G&L would set up their instruments for.010 gauge strings and set the action a little bit lower, but everyone has their own personal taste when it comes to guitar set-up. You can't please all the people all the time.
The neck on this guitar is huge, and takes some getting used to, but just like the swimming pool routing I have to believe it contributes to the amazing tone.
As faras the overall workmanship, no complaints, stellar job.

This is the first guitar I've ever owned, electric, acoustic, stoptail, trapeze, locking or non locking trem bridge that actually stays in tune. I'll rehearse with the guitar, bring it home play it for a few days, bring it to a gig, and barely have to tweak the tuning before we play. Changing stings is also a thousand times easier than with my Kahler equipped Skyhawk. The locking tuners and graphite nut really seem to be the the right mix.

I needed an allen screw to keep the trem arm in place when I first recieved the guitar, the previous owner said he'd never had it. I contacted G&L by e-mail and they contacted me that day and sent me out a couple of replacements free of charge, so I'd have to say so far their customer support has been fine.

I've been playing for 29 years, on and off proffesionally for 25 years. I've described my other gear above. This is undoubtedly the best guitar I've ever owned, I wouldn't hesitate to replace it if it were lost or stolen. Hell, I might buy another one to use as a backup.
I've worked in music stores, I've played hundreds if not thousands of guitars. This is, without a doubt, the most versitile, best playing and best sounding electric guitar I've ever played. I hate to sound like an advertisement for G&L, but they really do deserve praise for getting it right. God knows there are enough companies out there building Strats, not too many of them in my experience have managed to do it well, and absolutely no one has been able to come close to doing it well for the price you can snag one of these for, either new or used.

Don't buy this superb guitar unless you want to keep it a long time or sell it for less than it's worth. The warranty is of little value unless you live within an easy drive of the factory. The store items at your dealer are likely shopworn and in need of work. It's a great instrument, but I hope you can buy yours cheap, just as I did.

That said, My Comanche was made in 2000 on Fender Avenue in Fullerton, CA. I know because it says so on my official Certificate of Authenticity bearing the machine-imprinted (not handwritten) signature of Ms. Phyllis Fender, Leo's wife. What an empty gesture the certificate is. If I didn't think it was a real G&L Comanche, would I pay this kind of money for it? No. And, am I convinced by the certificate? No.

It is, however, a real Comanche, so you probably know all the features, but let's run through them for the sake of uniformity in the format of this review. 22 medium jumbo frets. They're just the right size and shape for me. It has the distinctive, and wonderfully effective, G&L electronics and controls: One master volume pot, passive treble and bass roll-off pots, a Fender-like 5-way selector switch, plus the mini-toggle goober switch that allows you to get all three pickups at once or the bridge and neck together. The controls are one of the best things about this guitar, and they give it a surprising range of voices. I love them.

The pickups are G&L's own Z-coils. They're a great innovaiton, and I love them too. The body is two pieces of ponded swamp ash. The neck is bird's eye maple with black abalone position markers and a black graph-tech nut. The finish is really quite pretty. It's a red and black sunburst. If you look at the redburst finish example on the G&L website, you'll see a paint job where the black is really just on the edge of the guitar. Mine is prettier, and the black wraps about an inch and a half around the edges both in front and back. The center of the burst is actually more of a magenta than a candy apple red. Magenta is sort of a whore red, ya know? Sound ugly? It looked ugly to me for the first 8 months I was "dating" this guitar in the store. Now that I've got it home, I have to admit it looks fine. It's finished off with a white, three ply, mother-of-toilet-seat pickguard, chrome plated metal control knobs, and a machined stainless steel rod for the whammy bar. The neck has a satin finish, which enhances playability, even with a sweaty hand. The total effect is very handsome.

It's a strat body style. That is, offset double cutaway. The bridge is G&L's dual fulcrum tremolo. The tuning machines are German-made, crome plated Spertzel locking tuners. Very classy, and they work well too.

The neck is G&L's #1 neck; one-and-five-eighths inch wide at the nut, with its 22 frets spread out over a long scale (25.5") and a whopping 12" radius. These necks are hard to play compared to the short scale guitars I own. There's more string tension in a long scale guitar if you play tuned to pitch (I do) and the frets at the top of the neck are further apart. If you have relatively short fingers (as I do) the long scale is harder to play. You can't buy a Comanche with a short scale, I don't think, so you should go try one if you think these playability issues will bother you. I love this guitar in spite of these two factors, so it's no problem to me.

The guitar was supplied with a G&L case that is about a half inch too short for the guitar. This is because the headstock is exactly a half inch longer than a stratocaster's. Go figure. Supplying a case that actually fits the guitar would probably raise the price, so I'll let this cheesy touch go without any more fuss. It also comes with an impressive array of Allen wrenches that were handy in correcting some of the assembly errors.

This guitar can suit all musical styles, including mine. It's amazingly versatile in the sense that it seems to have an infinity of different voices available depending on how you manipulate the great G&L tone controls. I play it through a Fender Deluxe Reverb Reissue and it sounds great. Not as thin and tinkly as a stratocaster can sound, but I've always hated that sound anyway. It can get enough clean, glassy treble to go surfing, for sure, but not so much that it's annnoying. At the same time, while it won't get quite as fat and sassy as my thin-line, hollow-bodied Gibson, it comes remarkably close, and it will also do a very convincing imitation of a fat-bodied hollow jazz box. Like I said, the breadth of sounds it will cover is simply amazing. The pickups, because of the unique way they're wound, are as quiet as death. Bottom line here is that Jackie likes it.

There are problems in this area, but as far as fundamental build quality the fit on this guitar is amazing for the money. The inlaid position markers are so well done that it looks like they grew there. The neck pocket is so tight I can't believe it. And the finish, as I said, is really quite beautiful if you ignore the ding in the front. It goes through the paint and clear down to the wood. I paid $10 to have that repaired. Most of my complaints about this instrument fall into this category. Here they are:

The factory set-up (at least as the guitar was when I got it home from the store) was just plain awful. The strings were about 1 micron above the 1st fret, but about three eighths of an inch above the 12th fret. There was too much relief in the neck. My local all-star guitar tech and general set-up wizard (at Precision Guitar in Phoenix Arizona) fixed this without making a new nut. He did, however, have to fill and re-file the factory nut which was a mess as delivered. I like this guitar well enough to spend money on making it as good as it can be. But I'm not impressed at the condition it was in as a new guitar.

The frets protruded out the sides of the neck about a half a millimeter on each side. All the way up and down the neck. So did the nut. I'm not guessing on this next judgment, folks. This condition is a symptom of a neck that was made in a climate controlled factory and then shipped to Arizona. The guitar hung in the store for about 15 months, the neck dried out in the air conditioning, and it "shrunk." Neither the individual frets nor the nut shrunk, so when I bought it they stuck out. I paid to get that fixed too. The dealer offered to do it for free, but suggested that their tech has never done that job before. It only costs $35 to get it done right by an expert, so I decided not to let the dealer's amateurs anywhere near my guitar.

The strings were actually kinked where they crossed the nut, as if the guitar was whacked across the nut with a ruler or a drumstick. The four thinnest strings were driven down into the nut like a cheese slicer. This was repaired, but very bad in a new guitar.

The pickups were also maladjusted. All three are the same distance below the strings. Even I can look at that aspect of the set-up and see that it was wrong. Who knows how bad the intonation and other bridge adjustments were? All in all, this thing played like it was set up for a slide guitar player. That all changed, of course, but at my expense.

I'm lucky I got all three control knobs. They could have fallen off in the store. The Allen set screws on each one were so loose that I pulled them off the pot shafts without tools. And did no damage. Pitiful. I guess they slapped this one together in a big hurry.

In fairness, I have to say that I paid a very low price for this guitar. For that reason, the set-up expense probably should be my problem. I'm not happy about the ding, but it was repaired for a small price, and without having to ship the guitar back to the factory.

Will it withstand live playing? I suppose so. It looks like it will. From what I remember of live gigging, it should do fine. After all, it survived the factory and the dealer.

The hardware is quality stuff and should bear up quite well, and the finish is a good quality modern finish that should be very durable. The strap buttons are solid, and I guess I can depend on the guitar, in general. Although, I don't ask much of my guitars. I give them a good home under my bed, and I play them once a day.

Wouldn't gig with it without a back up, but only because I don't have to. I own three electric guitars, and I'm proud of all of them, so taking an extra one to a gig (if I gigged) would be like showing off. Show me a guitar player that doesn't like to show off.

The warranty, such as it is, is 10 years to the original purchaser against defects in materials or workmanship. I had a very friendly and business-like exchange of email with these folks about the condition of my new guitar. I still wound up paying to fix its problems because it was easier and cheaper than shipping it back to California and risking that set of hazards. They come on real strong in all their promotional material about the warranty, their quality, and all the usual corporate happy talk. But the warranty is written to protect the company at the customer's expense. I'm a lawyer and I've thought for a long time that the warranties on a lot of this contemporary music gear were largely worthless. G&L's is worthless to me, and I'd be glad to tell you why. These arguments apply to any warranty by any manufacturer that doesn't have a nationwide network of capable repair facilities. And G&L doesn't have one.

The warranty, which I've read closely, requires the customer to ship the instrument to G&L at the customer's expense for any and all warranty service. This is why it's worthless. Does the company think I'm going to pay $40 shipping to send the guitar to them when I can get the problem (like a ding in the finish, or a set of protruding frets) fixed locally for the same money? Of course they don't. Especially because if I did that I'd be giving the baggage apes at UPS a crack at my guitar. So, they can be sure most buyers from dealers will not return their guitar, and then the company doesn't have to perform its warranty. They call it a warranty, but I bear the cost of forcing them to perform under the warranty. And speaking of risk, the warranty also recites that if I want insurance on my guitar while it's in transit (either to or from G&L) I gotta pay for the insurance myself. This isn't a warranty. It's a piece of paper that says "warranty" at the top. But, all it does is tell me how much extra it's going to cost me to get manufacturing defects repaired at the factory. If it was a warranty, it would tell me how to get manufacturing defects repaired for no cost and at minimal inconvenience. If, as a legal matter, it really is a warranty then it's a worthless warranty. I rest my case.

I think I know what I'm talking about when I tell you there are only certain circumstances under which you should buy a G&L Comanche. Buy one if you can get it for half price, as I did. And buy one if you intend to keep it forever, because there's a puzzlingly low demand for these guitars. You may never be able to sell or trade it for a fair price. I know you may think this review reads like it was written by big jerk, and you may be right. But, so you'll understand that I'm qualified to have the opinions I've expressed here, let me tell you about myself. I've been playing guitar and bass guitar for 35 years. I was a working musician while I was an undergraduate in college and have used musicianship to er, uh, lubricate social contacts with memebers of the opposite sex ever since.

I own this gear: A Gibson Custom Shop ES-446s made in 1999. A Steinberger GT Pro that I use as a travel guitar. An Epiphone EJ-200 acoustic six-string. A POD v 2.0. A Fender Deluxe Reverb Reissue. A 1x12 extension cab for the DRRI. A Fender Frontman 15R that I use as a practice amp, on vacations, and other travels. And a battery-powered mini-Marshall that I use as a practice amp in countries with irregular voltage or other electical problems. I produced sound recordings for two years while I was in graduate school before becoming a lawyer. One of the problems G&L, and its customers, have is that there is a very limited market for their products, fine as these guitars are. I don't know why this is true, and I think at least part of the problem is that their marketing department must be screwing up. I should be easy to create demand for a line of instruments as fine as these. But there is no demand in many areas of the country.

As a result, two things happen. First, dealers want to sell "custom order" items more than their stock, because they can charge the highest possible price for each custom order. This keeps the price artificially high. Second, because of low demand (and because dealers don't promote the sale of stock items) the store's inventory of G&L models ages and becomes shop worn like mine did. Then, the inventory items need work by the time they do sell.

But the warranty that allegedly "covers" that work is a sham, so you the buyer have to get your new guitar repaired at your own expense unless you want to ship it to and from the factory; gambling that it will arrive, be repaired, and be returned without further damage. I choose not to take those chances, and I'm lucky. I have the money, and I know the people, to get the problems repaired by local people whose expertise I trust.

I'd buy another one, because I'd have no choice if this one were lost or stolen. There is no guitar like a Comanche, and there is no finer solid-bodied electric guitar in my opinion. I compared the Comanche to many other strat-style guitars from MIM and MIJ Fenders all the way up to Fender American Deluxe Strats. The combination of build quality, looks, and unique electrionics makes the Comanche a clear choice for me, because I'm willing to pay to cure its occasional faults.

I wish it had a case that fits and a shorter neck scale. Neither will ever happen at these prices.

Look out for neck shrinkage. It means that if you live in a dry climate, even if you buy a custom-ordered new one, you'll have to have the frets knocked down in about a year and a half when the neck is done seasoning itself. So buy one if you, like me, simply must have one. Negotiate politely but very hard on price, don't plan to ever get your money back on trade or resale, and place small reliance on the warranty.

Custom made this year Aug/Sept 2001 at the G&L plant in CA.
Honeyburst finish on Solid Swamp Ash body, standard Z-coil pickups (standard for the Comanche)Rosewood on Maple neck, Polished Glossy finish over Hand Rubbed Gun Oil Tint (matches the Honeyburst)matching headstock. Pickguard is pearloid. The neck is a #1, radius 12" width at nut 1 5/8". Other than this Comanche is just like any other, no fancy changes...
Locking tuners, G&L Dual Fulcrum Tremolo, Graph Tech Graphite nut etc...
This is a really beautiful electric guitar, the Honeyburst looks like it's dripping and with the see through finish the swamp ash's grain looks so rich and molten.
They did a real top notch job on this baby.
The case is the only real sore spot about what comes with this guitar.
They are standardised to fit the industry norm and thats Fender Strats.

I have a Blues Deville 4-10's tweed w/ ox blood grill cloth. This with my Danelectro pedals and a crybaby with the Comanche I have a very lethal arsenal. The sound can be very bright so some tweeking and the tonal qualities are out standing! I'm still learning what I have here and for now I'm a very happy camper! I also have a Legacy Special and I havent even picked it up since I got the Comanche.
I don't have any complaints. I'm still in the breaking her in stage.

As far as set up I don't have a real problem with what they did at all. The place I took it to for the first set-up was quite impressed with her and how she was set-up from the factory...

If I had anything to complain about it would be because it was so freshly made, I understand that there's a settling in period where she needs to really be played and played hard to set. I get a buzzing when playing un-plugged in the 7th to 14th fret area of the E-A & D strings. Originally this was mainly the G string's problem so I'm playing her hard and going to take her in for another professional set-up hopefully by week's end here just before the year ends.

At first when I used this baby to play live I just got her and went to Grass Valley in California to show my Uncle. This same weekend we had a benefit to do in So.S.F. and this was easily one of the hottest days of the year! I couldnt keep her in tune so I was very glad I brought along my Legacy Special for backup...
The finish appears to look like it's going to last with out any worries. The hard ware seems to be very solid I don't get any crackling or anything when turning the knobs. This guitar seems to be thee guitar for me I can go from A surf/spy/spaghetti Western tone to a real rich acoustic sound and then I can get that Quack and then I can go to a harder edged sound with out much tweeking! This is how versatile she is...

I dealt with them when I needed a new neck for the Legacy Special I purchased used and they were a big help...Hard to get ahold of if you don't know the way. I made contact with Tim at Buffalo Bro's and he hooked me up and as well help me in the ordering process of the Comanche! Very knowledgable and a heck of a lot of help too.
The warranty is the G&L standard...
So far no issues or problems have surfaced to have to find out how they deal with a brand new instrument so I don't have a comment.

I put the guitar down for almost 15 years after being so disgusted with myself and those around me, it seemed like either the drugs were more important or it was all about the party and believe me I was there enjoying the excesses! But when I finally decided to get serious about it I found out how much I didn't know about the guitar and my skill level as a guitarist was minimal...

I was so locked in with my way of playing I couldnt break the habits I instilled. So the best thing I could do was put it down then when I came back to the guitar I'm actually learning and hearing and listening!
there's so much I still don't know, but the difference is I can learn, absorb and play and now I know what I want to sound like, what it's going to take to get there etc.

This Comanche is a major stepping stone for me!

When I picked up the guitar again I didn't quite know where I was going, though the Swing thing was a big influence for me so I had purchased a Washburn HB-30 that looks like a Gibson 335, I had a Bigsby Tailpiece put on it, then after struggling with re-stringing it I purchased a set of locking tuners to compensate with needing a third hand!

Then my wife graced me with a MIJ Strat and I started to find my sound and I was in Strat heaven, till I started reading more and thats when I was all of a sudden I was blinded by this new looking guitar with these strange looking pick-ups it was on the cover of a Guitar Player Magazine. this issue was about strengthening your chops...
This guitar was/is the Comanche I couldnt get this image out of my head...
I checked here to read reviews and joined the Guitars by Leo Forum http://www.guitarsbyleo.com
learning all about this guitar and the differences from the other G&L guitars.
I would be heart broken if she was stolen or lost. I'd strike with a vengance on the fool that tried! I'd replace her if it came to that.
I love this guitar so much.

There are a couple of specific features that sets this axe completely apart from other strat clones I've owned over the years. In this case, the pickups are really powerfull and have a lot of character (despite the look of them, which is not exactly of my preference), but you have to be extremely careful with them because they can be overly bright for distorted tones. Thankgod, the independent treble and bass tone controls allow for a deep and fine pallete so you can dial in the right amount of brightness for each situation, making the system a real monster. I don't really use the switch for the aditional combinations because I've never found a use for them. The standard tones are great for themselves!
The tremolo is great. NO way back to a standard Fender bridge. This is really better and the grafite nut seems to help the tuning stability, which is incredible.
The neck has a nice profile and the frets are very well seated, almost as good as my parker Fly. Fine craftmanship. For the rest it's a standard strat on steroids but built by people who seem to treat them with loving care.
The hard case is nothing special, just ok.
The finish is almost perfect and the satin finish in the neck is a welcome, really comfortable, much better than my Music Man Silhouette Special. If you are planing to buy a strat don't confuse yourself with the logos, buy a G & L!!

It's a great guitar if you are searching for the Mike Landau thing, because the clean sounds are celestial, and the distorted tones you can get are really stratish, not humbucker dullness.
I love it for the blues. Great quality tones.

Almost perfect. Really. Better than any Fender I have owned.

My brand new 2001 Comanche with ebony fretboard, locking tuners (standard), white blonde finish with matching headstock, tortoise pickguard, 5 way selector, mini-toggle and Dual Fulcrum tremolo has to be one of the best guitars I have bought to date. I ordered it cusom through KTJmusic.com and I could not be happier with the features. Not to mention all transparent finishes come standard with swamp ash bodies. The case completely stinks. It does even fit the guitar, but I didn't buy it for the case.

My set-up is Comanche - Mesa Boogie V-Twin preamp pedal - Fender Blues Deville OR Mesa Boogie V-Twin preamp pedal - POD 2.0 - Marshall VS30R (practice and small gigs). I have been extremely happy with the sound so far. The mini toggle really helps to broaden the range of sound capable by this guitar. I have been playing Gibsons for years (I have a SG612 and a Chet Atkins Country Gentlemen) and recently I purchased a Fender Strat Deluxe which I also like quite a bit and it has been single coils ever since! The z-coil picks are really quiet and have quite a bit of output. More than most other single coils I have tried. Not to mention the pop they get. I play blues, funk and rock and the pop is crucial when you want to be funky. This has become the guitar of choice for me.

The set-up from the factory was great. The action was a little low so I got a bit of buzz but the intonation was dead on. The pickups were nicely set. I actually played around with it and I put it back where they were when I was done. The wood had a few small cosmetic irregularities but it is after all wood. The only gripe I have is that G&L use some cheesy parts. The premium knobs are brittle plastic and the some of the other pieces are also plastic. I feel like for however much they are saving with these plastic parts I'd rather they charge a few bucks more for quality metal parts. It's just my feeling

I plan on using this guitar in all of my live situations. I always bring a backup because I have a tendency to break at least one string per hour set so I'd be foolish not to bring a backup but if I learned to play softer, I would definitely use this guitar without backup in a live situation. All of the necessary parts seem to be well constructed. E.G. Strap buttons, tremolo, tuners etc. It's just some of the knobs and things but I never really end up using any knobs during shows. I use a volume pedal, I always use the neck pick-up and when I need a brighter sound I change the channel on my POD. I could see myself using the mini toggle quite a bit since I find it pretty useful.

When I got the guitar I immediately saw that the case did not match the guitar so I called and G&L said that they would not have more cases that would fit my Comanche for at least a month. Not acceptable. They didn't even offer another option. But when I called about getting some white pickup covers they were very helpful. They even called me back when I left my number on a answering machine. That I couldn't believe. Other than that I have not had another reason to call G&L.

I have been playing for 15 years and I have become quite the sound snob. I would put this guitar against anything in it's price range. I just got the guitar recently so I can not comment on it's longevity from a reliability stand point but I find this guitar to be just right for my playing style and for the quality of sound. I tried standard strats, deluxe strats, 57 reissues, Jeff Beck Sig. Strats, Eric Clapton Strats, Ibanez's (Jem, s540), I even tried a 60 N.O.S. strat (a sharp guitar and well made) but I kept coming back to the Comanche. For some reason I feel like I am missing out because I don't have a Fender logo on the head stock but the longer I own this guitar, the more I like it!

It's a G&L, and that means hand made in Fullerton, CA. Strat style, swamp ash body with a stunning 'blue burst' finish, 3 Z-coil pickups, 5 way switch(standard, strat style position assignments)and a mini toggle for additional pickup combinations (all 3 or neck+bridge together), G&l dual-fulcrum vibrato, rosewood fretboard on a lovely C-shaped bird's eye maple neck w/gun oil finish, Schaller locking tuners... the list goes on, but each feature adds class instead of clutter. Overall, this instrument is an example of form following function--although you're unaware of this until you take a close look. It is quite visually appealing. It looks like it comes from the future and the past simultaneously; it is a unique and pleasing blend of the familiar and the cutting-edge. The neck, although absolutely wonderful to my hands, may be a bit narrow for some--especially towards the top where it tapers in a bit. I find this feature most pleasing -they finally got a Music Man bass neck taper on a guitar- however, like its narrowness, this may be a drawback for some players- although it can be ordered with a different neck.

I had never considered giving a perfect 10 to any guitar until I played the Comanche. I play such a wide variety of styles that no one instrument seemed suited to every song on the set list, but the Comanche honestly manages to do it all, as far as electric sounds go. As previous reviews have noted, it is possible to mimic the sound of just about any traditional electric guitar, although this is just one aspect of its capabilities. The Comache has a slew of its own sounds-- quite unlike anything from a Les Paul, Strat, Tele or arch-top. Yes, this solid body can produce a very convincing 'hollow' tone. Name a style of music and the Comanche can bend to fit it, but it has its own voice, as well.

The Z-coil pickups are as quiet as any humbucker thanks to their treble/bass string pole reverse winding, and can sound as dark as the muddiest 'bucker out there by rolling off the treble knob. They can also get as sharp and twangy as a vintage Tele by deleting some bass. With both controls on full, however, their sound is unique-- not somwehere in between. The best way I can think to describe it is a slightly treblier P-90 without the Gibson's natural compression, but these pickups can only really be described in terms of themselves. The Z-coil is open, warm, full yet bright, and powerful enough to give a swift kick in the pants to a good tube head. The output is probably comprable to a vintage PAF... maybe a trifle less, maybe more.

Unless you want it to, the Comanche really won't sound like anything you've heard before...make sure you like it and it's ceramic magnet Z-coils before dropping any cash. It isn't exactly traditional, although it can come close enough to win a cigar.

For my tastes, however, it is as close to perfection as anything has come-- and I do not say this lightly. Nothing I have played comes as close to the sounds I hear in my head as this guitar, and I have gone through hundreds of other instruments in this search.

It's a G&L... neck is tighter than a drum, action is set kind of high, but I would have set it that way anyway. Finish was flawless, but these have a tendency to scratch easily and the rim around the hardshell case proved this... It arrived with .009's. These strings do not do this guitar justice in any way. I put .011's on and had to add the included third vibrato spring and make a slight screw adjustment. The vibrato tension screw was missing, but see my comments under customer service. There was some left over wax in the allen holes on the pickup polepieces, but this is the only hint of any sloppiness anywhere on it at all. It falls short of 10 here because of this... I didn't want to do it, but it wasn't perfect.

Rock solid. This guitar will survive the next cataclysm with only a few scratches added to the one I accidently put in it. Future archaeologists will find G&L's and will be able to play them once they figure out what they are.

I had never dealt with G&L or BBE until I needed to order vibrato tension screws. I didn't feel I had the right to request a free one because I got the guitar on ebay. I ordered a set from G&L's website, but made an error in completing my order. I sent them an email, and the next day a representative actually CALLED MY HOUSE!!!! The young lady who called was the most courteous, knowledgeable company rep I have ever spoken to. There are very few manufacturers who would actually go to such lengths to clear up such a minor situation. G&L has built a reputation of personability and attention to detail, and they truly live up to it.

I have had this guitar for about two months, and in this short time it has become my absolute favorite. I take my G&L Legacy along to gigs just in case I break a string. If not for this unavoidable difficulty, I would not need any other electric guitar on stage. Ever. It's nice to have others for recording, as each instrument has its own unique personality, but for live shows the Comanche can handle it all.

There is not enough good that can be said about it, in my opinion. It probably isn't for everyone, but that's about the worst thing that can be predicated of it. This is the one guitar that I honestly would take to a 'desert island' situation (provided the island had electricity) and be perfectly happy. It is exactly the right blend of tradition and innovation I had been dreaming of, it replicates its lineage very well but does not fail to put its own spin on it. They are not cheap to come by, but are an immense bargain compared with a Gibson or a custom shop Fender-- both of which (speaking from experience) have shortcomings which the Comanche more than makes up for.

Subjective preference aside, the Comanche is an exquisitely crafted instrument worthy of the title 'classic'. If it hasn't already, it should have earned its place in the museum next to the Strats, Teles and Les Pauls-- none of which have ever been able to please everyone. While, like the classics, it cannot do everything, but it comes as close as physically possible while maintaining the ability to do its own thing. It is in this last sense, more than any other that the Comanche deserves its place in history as a guitar which takes things to the next level.

Hand made in Fullerton California,USA! 22frets, 3 of the "Z" pups, 5-way toggle plus mini toggle plus bass & tone controls that realy work grained/matched ash, clear orange finish, satin sinish maple neck, rosewood board, G&L bridge is a real work of art. Schaller locking tuners, standard G&L case (kind of cheesy)
I bought this guitar with the attempt to consolidate my collection, but exchanged it for another G&L model with a better neck...necks are a priority to me.

Lots of different tones can be acquired with this instrument. Tele to strat to Gibson ES-335. Real rich quality. Playing through a Fender Vibrolux "custom". A/B at shop thru a Peavey delta Blues both sound great. Can get the 'squawk' sound too. the Z pups are different not only in design. they cancel hum fairly well, but like other reviewers say; "they are NOT single coil"...make sure you like them!

These are hand made...at least that's what "they" say. I belive it.
You have a choice of necks that could make your head spin at first, but if you are picky, I would NEVER purchase one over the internet. each G&L has a nuance. This particular one was set high and the neck seemed to 'crowd' me...one man's pleasure ic another's poison. This one had a 12" radius, 1 5/8" neck. It was my 'poison" as it just did not fit my fingers. but I cant knock it for what it is. Only problem was a volume control that crackles...could have been dust.
Finish is outstanding, matching grain shws well with clear orange finish. All G&L bridges are works of art. Medium jumbo frets were finished well.

No opinion, but I know pro musicians who swear by this guitar. I ttok mine back for an ASAT semi-hollow that fits better.

Staff at Bananas @ Large are great. 10 year warranty from G&L...a company who's mission statement is perpetuating George & Leo's dream.Can't get much better than that.

Great guitar that has all the tones. little bit of an identity problem...it looks like a strat (body), sounds "like" a couple of guitars (Tele,Strat, Gibson) depending on settings. However, I would rate this guitar very high based on its unique ability to deliver all tones with high quality sound. If it only had the neck of my ASAT....I'll always keep searching for that perfect "10". Bang for the buck? It has to be the Comanche!

This guitar was manufactured in 1998. Swamp ash body finished in clear red and weighs in at 7.5lbs.. The neck is hard rock maple with a moderately thick 12" radius slab rosewood fingerboard, large frets and Graph-Tech graphite nut. It has Schaller locking tuners and G&L Dual Fulcrum tremolo. Comanches come with a 5 way switch plus a mini toggle switch that adds a bridge/neck or all three pickup combinations. It has a volume control and seperate treble and bass controls (PTB system). It has a three ply pearloid white pickguard.

What sets this guitar apart from other strat style guitars are the G&L magnetic field Z-coil pickups. Although they are single coil, they are split and wound similar to humbuckers and they are very quiet.

The guitar came with a molded hardshell case. I believe the case is manufactured by SKB with the G&L logo molded into the side.

I don't play professionally, but I enjoy all types of music from oldtime Bob Wills country swing to Led Zepplin to Smashing Pumpkins. I also enjoy playing blues in the styles of Robert Cray, SRV, Eric Clapton and B.B.King. This guitar can do it all. Initially I found the treble to be too bright, but with practice, I've found the PTB tone controls allow me to roll-off the treble quite a lot without losing clarity of tone. This guitar can duplicate some great Telecaster country twang!

It can also come as close to a Les Paul growl as any guitar out there. I can play a lot of Santana type tones with this guitar. The interesting thing is that it is also capable of delivering a jazzy Gibson 335 tone as well. I think for a solid body guitar, this one comes as close to duplicating a semi-solid and even a hollow bodied electric tone as any guitar available. It takes practice and lots of experimenting to get there, but it will deliver.

I also own an '87 Fender American Vintage '57 re-issue. I love this guitar's deep, rich sound but the Comanche will match it's tone as well. The Comanche has amazing sustain and with very little coaxing you can get great feedback from this guitar. John Jorgenson plays one on "Passion" on the "Return of the Hellecasters" CD. Take a listen and you will see what it can do. For someone looking for a multi-purpose guitar, the Comanche would be hard to beat!

I've played this guitar for almost 2 years and I am still discovering the sounds it is capable of delivering. My 16 year old gets ahold of it and can play Garbage, NoDoubt and Rob Zombie music and loves it as well.

This guitar rivals any custom shop guitar on the market! The clear red finish reveals a beautiful woodgrain on the swamp ash body, and it is as smooth as glass. The neck has a satin finish that gets smoother and faster each time I play it. The frets are well dressed and nicely finished on the edges. Some people will criticize the swimming pool routing in the pickup cavity, but I think this adds to the tone. Unplugged this guitar has a nice resonant sound, and it carries over once you plug into an amplifier. The guitar was well setup when I got it with very low action. After a few months, I began to have some fret buzzing, but this is easily remedied with adjustment. I did change the original .009 SIT strings over to .010 GHS Boomers and have been very pleased with the results. The neck bow is easily adjusted at the tuner head and intonation is also easily adjustable. I especially like the fact that you can adjust each individual polepiece on the pickups. I've tweaked them and have dialed in the sound that most pleases me. This is a well designed guitar! Learn how to use it and it will deliver endless amounts of satisfaction.

I don't use this guitar to perform with, but I would think that it would stand up to the rigors of professional use very well. For someone like myself, this guitar will be handed down to many generations of guitar players. It's construction is superior to my Fender Stratocaster, and the Strat is very well built.

I haven't had a reason to deal with G&L directly. My local dealer is great and I can assume that this is what they expect from G&L.

I have played guitar for 35 years and have owned several acoustic and electric guitars during that time. I currently own this guitar as well as the '57 Fender Strat re-issue, an '83 Squier Strat and several acoustics. I was looking for a guitar that would move me out of my comfort zone of the last 20 years and would excite me about playing guitar again. I am old enough that I can afford what I want and I was ready to treat myself to whatever I found. I looked at PRS, Parker, Hamer, Gibson, Heritage, McInturff and Fender Custom Shop. After several months of trying out guitars, a friend of mine suggested I look at a G&L. I did and bought this guitar after playing it for 10 minutes. It wasn't the fanciest looking nor was it the most expensive, but it fit into the same class of guitar as these others and in my opinion it was the best guitar for me! (I could have bought two of these for what they wanted for most of the other guitars I looked at! By the way, if there were no G&L, I'd have probably bought a Parker or a Heritage, they are also beautifully designed guitars!)

I have read that the Comanche was Leo Fender's no-holds-barred guitar design. He wasn't totally satisfied with the Stratocaster and wanted this guitar to be it's successor. The Z-coil pickup was something that he had worked on for many years and I feel that they put this guitar into a class by itself. They can be overly bright sounding to some people, but they are very quiet and responsive and with the proper amplifier and a little tweaking of the tone controls, any tone is possible with this pickup design. I would think that if I were a professionally player looking for a versatile guitar at a good value, this one would be it. It is for me!

American-made this year (2000), strat-style, 22 frets, solid swamp ash body with see-through blue-burst finish and white pick guard, thick, solid maple neck with black dot inlays, locking Schaller tuners, a low profile G&L bridge (no whammy), 3 G&L Z-coil pickups, (neck, middle, bridge) with 5-way switch and an extra toggle switch to get all three pickups together. Included G&L hardshell case, (cheesy case - great guitar). Compared to your general strat-style guitar, the Commanche earns an easy '10' on features.

This guitar delivers the swamp ash tone perfectly - absolutely perfectly. I play many different styles, including a lot that would use a heavy humbucking tone for which this guitar is not suited all that well, (but it can and does work for these - just adds its own flavor). For strat and tele tones, this thing is spot-on! The sound is not bright at all: very ballsy and rich... tone, Tone, TONE! I can't say enough about it's tone...

I'm play it trough a Rivera R55-112 amp, which is pretty nice, (hand-made with 2 EL34 tubes and 5 12AX7's and a custom Celestion speaker), and it sounds great through there. Sometimes I like to jazz up the effects a bit using a Digitech RP7 floor unit, and it sounds equally amazing with that.

I primarily play using only the neck-coil. The other settings are OK, but I like the ballsy growl I get with the neck coil - SRV all day! It probably deserves a '10' here, but I'm only giving it a '9' because it doesn't quite do everything - as noted, the neck/mid settings don't get much attention from me. (I've also played some pretty incredible tone guitars like McInturffs - the G&L is good and you won't find a mahogany-bodied guitar with this kid of amazing swamp-ash tone... but this can't mimic mahogany either).

The action was way too light: there was a lot of buzzing and it would fret out if I did a decent bend (which I do all the time). But, it's very easy to raise the action on a G&L, so that was no problem. It also ahd '9's on there and a guitar with this kind of tone is begging for heavier strings... that also improved the action. The pickups could be raised every so slightly, and I did tweak some individual coils as well, but that's probably my personal taste. The finish is gorgeous: a dark blue burst that's real nice to look at.

Overall, though, the playability is nowhere near that of a perfect '10' (which would be any guitar by McInturff), and not even quite a '9' (which would be a PRS or a real good Fender). I place this at an '8': very nice, but there is competition out there that is truly unbelievable... if G&L could deliver this same guitar set up as well as a McInturff, I'd be in heaven!

This guitar is a warhorse: the neck is very thick, (almost too thick if you're playing fast runs using the low strings). The straps are solid, the pick guard is thick and will withstand plenty of abuse... I love having a solid ash guitar: it's made to be beat on: no pretty flamed maple here! Very durable - very reliable. An easy '10'!

I haven't dealt with them.

I've been playing for over 12 years... right now, I either own or have on order: a Terry C. Mcinturff (TCM) Empress Custom, a TCM Monarch, a G&L ASAT Classic, this G&L Commanche, and 2 old Yamaha RG-series guitars (shredder-type). Also, Takamine NP-15C and Taylor 710CE acoustics. I've also been through a fair number of other guitars as well. Since I purchased this through Ebay, I couldn't compare it with anything - but I liked the number of pickup options - that was a strong selling point for me.

If it were lost or stolen, I would definitely replace it, but might ask for a thinner neck on the next one.

What do I love? The TONE!!! What do I hate? The fact that I bump into the 5-way switch a lot. That will change when I reverse it. Favorite feature... the extra toggle switch that gives me more tones.

Overall, I give it a '9'... FANTASTIC guitar - the best swamp ash guitar I've ever played. BUT - it could be better still... as noted above: if it had the amazing setup of a McInturff, then I'd give it an '11'!

'99 Strat style; solid swamp ash body; 22 jumbo frets; clear orange finish; 3 single coil Z-shaped pickups; 1 volume, 1 treble 1 bass control; five way pickup selector + mini toggle to activate the two outside pickups or all 3 pickups together; dual fulcrum vibrato tailpiece; Sperzel tuners; long-scale hardrock maple neck; hex wrenches, extra vibrato spring, hard case included

I've been playing for 23 years, full time pro for 16. I have to play a little bit of everything at one time or another, and so far the Comanche has been very good at covering different styles. I've been using it regularly with 3 different bands: straight blues, country and a variety "showband". My main amp is a Fender Hot Rod DeVille, and I use a variety of Boss boxes. I'm able to dial in a lot of different tones with the seperate treble and bass controls. The neck pickup with both tone controls full on gives a nice warm sound, and works well with a Boss Blues Driver. I've found that any time the bridge pickup is on I have to roll back the treble a little bit. When I play Country, I roll both the treble and bass back a little bit and use the bridge pickup for a Tele type of sound. The guitar came with 9's on it, and I've kept 9's on it since I got it (Sep 99), but I think I'll go back to using 10's so that it has a little fatter clean sound. The two seperate tone controls are great-you can dial in a lot of sounds. The vibrato works well, but it isn't perfect as far as staying in tune goes. I've never used a bar much anyway, but I need to have it available. I'd feel comfortable using the instrument for just about any style except Big Band jazz, and even then it would work in a pinch. It isn't a carbon copy of any other guitar, but it can give you the flavor of a lot af different styles. That was what I needed, and I'm quite happy with it.

The action was good out of the box, but the intonation was off. The workmanship is excellent and the finish is beautiful. I have a little trouble with the low E going sharp when I use the vibrato arm. I guess it must be getting hung up in the nut, so I'll make sure to have that checked out next time I take it in for it's 3000 mile servicing.

I have no reason to think I would have any problems with this instrument(knock on wood). All the components are high quality. I expect to play this guitar for many years.

I've had no need to contact the company.

As I said before, I've been playing for 23 years. I've owned Fender, Carvin, Gibson and Ibanez guitars. The Comanche ranks right up there with the best. I would definately replace it with another Comanche if it were stolen. I can't say it's a 10 because I don't know what a 10 is, but this guitar must be pretty close.

1999 Strat style swamp ash body, hard rock maple neck with rosewood fretboard with 12" radius and 22 frets, graphite nut, dual fulcrom tremolo, and Schaller locking tuners. 5 way pickup selector with mini-toggle (neck plus bridge or all pickups together). It has everything I need and nothing I don't. Hard shell case has G & L stamped on it. Awesome. I used to think a humbucker was needed for Led Zep type riffs. Then I found out John Paul Jones is the man responsible for writing the classic Zep riffs and Jimmy Page used a vintage (single coil) Telecaster to lay it down. Page's hottest work is with single coil pickups! Same with Hendrix, Clapton, Buddy Guy, Robin Trower, etc. I love single coils. Tube amps and single coil pickups are the way to go. And G & L's Z-coils produce no unwanted noise.

This is exactly was I was searching for. Single coils that are mighty, have beautiful strat type clean tones and overdrive that has clarity and expression. Unbelievable. Before ordering this I owned a Carvin DC127T. That is a nice guitar to learn on, but it is a toy compared to the Comanche. I visited 48th Street in New York City and tried out all the high-end guitars such as Paul Reed Smith's and Gibson Les Pauls. These humbucker types sounded very muddy to me and very uncomfortable to hold against the body. I also tried some Custom Shop Strats (they are very nice but not much depth to the tone), and Godins. These guitars cost about twice as much as the Comanche and pale in comparison in my opinion. I also tried out the SRV strat, American Deluxe Strat, and some others Fenders and I was not too impressed. I tried the G & L Legacy Special and the S-500 and knew I would get a G & L.

The action was set too low. I have to raise it up a little. Also, I have to install another spring on the tremolo so it won't move when I do string bends. I don't mean to sound like I am talking about my baby, but it is the most beautiful guitar I have ever seen.

It is a very well built solid guitar.

10 year warranty is great. The guitar comes with some nice documentation and a big certificate of authenticity. But there is no manual! Fortunately, I have the Guitar Player Repair Guide for setup information.

I have been playing 20 years. But intensely for the past 4 years. I love this guitar. It was a long road to find out that a G & L Comanche guitar and a Fender Deluxe amp with a Digitech RP-7 is the ultimate rig for me. (I have to sell my Roland Bluescube before I can get the Fender Deluxe, however.) I would try out all the guitars you can at the local guitar stores and play them through a tube amp. If you love single coils, check G & L's! If you like the Z-Coils, try a Comanche! You may not want to put it down.

1998 Comanche, special order model with Bird's Eye Maple neck (22 frets), Rosewood Fretboard, & Ash body with Honey see-through finish. It has standard Strat 5-way switch, with an extra toggle switch for more options (w/toggle up, you get either the bridge & neck p/u's together in positions 1&5, or all 3 p/u's together in positions 2,3,&4). This guitar has three G&L MFD "Z" coils that are ceramic magnet pickups with adjustable pole pieces. There is a separate bass & treble tone knob, which I have never had before, but is VERY handy to have. It has a satin finish on the neck, strat body style, Dual Fulcrum pivoting bridge, locking tuners, & graphite nut. The neck is soft "V" neck, that is very fat from fretboard to back of the neck. Deluxe hardshell case was included.

My style is Blues/Rock, with a little Jazz thrown in from time to time. I use different amps depending on the situation. I have a BF Fender Pro (1x15" speaker), Blonde Bassman, & a Re-issue Marshall 1987X. This guitar sounds good through all these amps, & I can switch from clean to bright channels with no problem. The main qualities about this guitar is that it very versatile & is very quiet (not as much single coil hum because of the special wind). You can get a pretty close humbucker, sound, & a close approximation to a Strat sound. The dual bass/treble tone knobs have a lot to do with this versatility. If I cut the bass almost all the way down, & the treble close to all the way up, it sounds like a Strat. If I reverse this, it sounds thick & full like a double coil (- good smokey jazz sound also). But with everything full on, it is very trebly. Too trebly. Also, a compaint is that it is a little on the harsh side. I think this is because I use Alnico pu's, & the ceramics take some getting used to. Not as smooth by any means. But still expressive. It sounds close to these other guitars, but does not replace them. It has a niche all its own. Listen before you buy one to be sure you like the sound. But change the knobs when trying it out. Don't just try it with everything full out.

Bought it used, but it was set up very nicely. It is one of the best playing guitars I have. G&L is (almost) Fender Custom Shop quality at a Fender Factory price in this regard. Everything in this category is top notch. The whammy takes some getting used to if you're a Fender whammy guy. I don't like the whammy as much as Fenders, but that's probably preference & years & being used to one thing, it's not really a quality issure.

Great reliability/durability. I can't think of any problems at all.

I lost a G&L whammy bar for an old Legacy, & good luck EVER finding another one! I live in Dallas/Fort Worth, TX, & I can find only one G&L distributor! It took three calls to G&L to find a current one. They kept giving me names of stores, & the store would be out of business or tell me they were not a G&L distribtor. I have had no reason to call G&L about the Comanche. I mean, they tried to be helpful, were nice about it, but I didn't get the proper info off the bat, & I still don't have a whammy bar!!

I've been playing ~20 years, have had a lot of Strats, Teles, Les Pauls, & now a few G&L's over the years. Too many amps to name, from Fender to Marshall to (gulp) Seymour Duncan & Roland Jazz Chorus. Never been a big effects guy. A little reverb, wah pedal, delay, & compression, & not a lot of any of these. Overall, I like the guitar a lot. It is a neat design, & people always ask about the guitar, because it LOOKS cool. Kinda different with those Z coils. It is a great guitar for someone that is sick of changing guitars in between every song. It is a little harsh, but that is not necessarily a bad thing, & besides, the tone controls can tame most of that harshness. If you're hooked on Alnico pu's, I would give this a listen to before buying. But it is one of the best MADE guitars I have, & is solid as a rock. And it was a steal buying it used. If I paid $650 for a Fender, it would not be CLOSE to this quality. The sound & the whammy bar setup are the only two things to think about before buying. G&L's are a diamond in the rough. I am suprised their resale is not as good as factory Fenders. Oh well, it's my little secret...

Strat body style, ash body, maple neck with ebony fingerboard, 22 medium jumbo frets, dual fulcrom tremolo with graphite nut (non locking), sperzel locking tuners, made in the U.S. 1999. It has the Z pickups with 5 way switch (standard strat selections) plus a switch which can connect neck/bridge and all pickups together. Blueburst finish. It comes with a hardshell case.

The sound is similar to a strats with a rounder top end. The Z pickups are hum cancelling so they are very quiet. The variety of sound is quite good. There are a total of 8 pickup positions. Plus the tone controls are very good. One for bass and one for treble. This guitar was made with versatility in mind. It is a little strange at first to hear single coils without hum but that's easy to get over. The sound is somewhat similar to Fenders Noisless pickups but I believe the Z's have more character. The guitar can get a heavy distortion without feeding back like typical single coils would.

The guitar was made great! I custom ordered it so it was brand new when it arrived. The neck pocket is very tight and the fretwork is meticulous. The only thing I would say against it is that the nut was definately set up for .009 size string. I put in 10's and had to work them in the nut. The setup wasn't the greatest, low action, intonation off. This could be because it's brand new and the neck needs a little time to settle. It had been shipped from the factory to the store than to me. I'm going to give it very high marks for the way it was made but say the set up was not that good.

I haven't had it long but I'm not worried about it's durability. It was handmade with quality parts and the work is very proffesional. I have a G&L ASAT classic that I've had a couple of years and have had zero problems.

The warranty is ten years. I called G&L twice. Once to change my order (neck size). And secondly when I had a question about adding a third spring for the tremolo (included). Both times I was able to speak to techs who gave me the information I needed. I'm not positive but I believe these are the actual guitar builers (G&L is a very small company).

I've been playing about eighteen years and have owned about fifteen different electric guitars. I would say the workmanship on this guitar is comparable if not better than a Fender Custom Shop. The z pickups are great but you should make sure you like them before buying this guitar. They have a unique shape and you would have to do some work putting in other pickups. The tremolo won't stay in tune as much as a locking system but is very good (I had to work it in a little). I would say it's comparable to the wilkinson roller system. For the price I think you would have to look very very hard to find a guitar this well made.