G&L Tribute ASAT Special

Swamp Ash body, beautifyl shiny black colour with tortoise pickguard (which I found ugly and could never change because no-one sold ASAT pickguards here). Maple neck, made in Korea. All in all a really beautiful guitar.

The sound is really good, you can get that Clapton woman tone and the fuzzy Hendrix sound by changing the switch and it sounds great clean too. For me the sound was a bit too bright, so I kept the tone knob quite low most og the time. Didn't really suit my music style that well, but it sure did sound great.

Nothing special here.

I've had no problems with it, it feels really sturdy and heavy. Like a tank. I'm pretty sure you could depend on this one.

Haven't dealt with them.

This was my first guitar ever. I bought it used without playing it just because it looked so sexy.
The sound is great, I play mainly (hard and noisy (Cream, Hendrix, Doors etc.) electric blues. This guitar isn't exactly made for that aggressive music but it did it's job well. The cleaner sound is absolutely beautiful.
This would be a keeper, but unfortunately I don't have enough money to keep it. I changed it for a strat, simply because of personal issues, I like to get that attackive sound which I find that a strat does better.
All in all, a great guitar, and I'm sure that one day I'll regret that I didn't keep it. Oh well, I'm sure I'll find a new one then ;)
Because of the value for the price range, I'll give it a 10.

This 2007 Indonesian made guitar features a 3 piece swamp ash body, 2 G&L USA MFD pickups, 250k tone and volume pots with a .047PFu capacitor on the tone and a treble bleed setup on the volume. The finish is a thick, glossy poly that shows the grain beautifully. The bridge on this thing is MASSIVE and just promotes sustain for ages while the pickguard is the most beautifully tortoise shell simulation I've ever seen. The neck is a 25.5" scale maple neck with a rosewood fretboard with a 9" radius and a nice, soft and wide neck. The neck has a satin finish that takes very little getting used to, even if you're used to high-gloss neck finishes. It did come with a gigbag, as well.

This is where the guitar seems very split. I run into a Vox AC-30TB/6 with Greenbacks through a BBE Greenscreamer and an Arion MIJ SAD-1 Delay pedal or into a Line 6 Toneport. The neck pickup and middle position on this thing sound great. It's got tones of sparkle and low end to it without getting mudding or ear piercing, with a roll of the tone knob, it gets a smooth and tame tone very easily. The neck and middle positions can also give a great "SRV"-esque tone with the correct OD settings, but when you switch it into the bridge position, all that great tone just disappears. The bridge position sounds thin and muffled and takes a lot of adjustments to get it to sound good. Considering that I mostly play country influenced rock with a touch of blue in it, this guitar does the trick fairly well with the neck and middle positions, it's very rich and full sounding with a good amount of jangle and sparkle that makes my Strats jealous and makes my Les Paul wish it had never been born. The bridge seems almost useless to me, it took me about 30 minutes with the Line 6 POD Farm on my computer to get a decent sound out of it and I didn't even try with my Vox, I actually get a much fuller and articulate bridge sound out of my Les Paul with the bridge pickup split. The other bad things about this guitar is how noisy it is. One thing can be said about the bridge pickup, though, when you set it up correctly with the right effects and amp settings, it actually gets an absolutely perfect Tele tone, but with just a bit more wood in it. The G&L MFDs are ceramic magnet P-90 inspired pickups that are low impedance, but are designed to have about twice as much output per wind than most pickups and are supposed to be quite because of that; not true. This guitar picks up interference from anything and everything in my apartment. From the dining room, the fluorescent light in the kitchen added a good amount of buzz to the pickups, and my computer in the next room even affected the sound! Once I turned everything off, it seems kind of quiet, but it still buzzed more than any of my other guitars, especially in positions 1 and 3, position 2 is humcancelling. I can't imagine how noisy this guitar will be when I gig it in a club.

Off the shop floor, this thing played and sounded pretty decent, the strings are a bit on the small side, but I'll replace with with .11's or .12's sometime soon. The poly finish is beautifully glossed and contains no flaws and the routing on the body is just perfect and the fretwork is flawless. The only aesthetic issue with the guitar is how prominent the different pieces of ash are on the sides of the guitar, on the top and back, you can barely tell when you're up close, but on the sides it's flagrant, not really a big deal. I was amazed by how well the guitar played and felt in this price range, one of the few guitars I own that I don't plan on doing a full on setup with. The controls are absolutely silent, as well. No crackling or popping, although the nut on the tone pot was loose when I got it, I had to tighten it. This guitar came to me as a "scratch'n'dent" from the shop, so, I'm going to ignore the cracks in the finish for this review. Overall, best guitar under $700 in terms of build and finish.

I know that build wise, this guitar is great for gigging, but with the noisy pickups, I'm not sure I'm going to keep it, at least I won't keep those pickups. The guitar as a whole is solid, and I know it's durable, as I bought one that was dropped. The wood is cracked near the neck pocket under the pickgaurd and the finished cracked in a few spots, but it's still one of the most solid guitars I've felt. The bridge and tuners definitely are top notch parts, but the nut is a cheap plastic one, that I'm sure with crack somewhere down the road, which would prompt me to simply upgrade to bone. Build wise, I'd definitely gig it without a backup, sound wise I wouldn't.

Never dealt with them, but I hear they're good.

In the 11 years I've played, I've acquired a rather eccentric collection of guitars without paying more than a few hundred dollars a peice (Epiphone Strats, Ibanez Lawsuit Copies, Epiphone LP Standards, vintage japanese guitars and a Squier VM Thinline) but customized the hell out of most of them, the ASAT is differant. For the money I spent, I got a guitar that rivals my customized guitars, but lacks any means of truly customizing. I like to tinker with my guitars, and about the only thing I could do to this would be to install the Rio Grande replacement pups in this. The noisy pickups and tone from the bridge pickup do turn me off quite a bit, but I feel that the quality and neck pickup make up for that. This thing is on the heavier side, though, and puts a strain on my should while I'm playing it, but it's a great guitar overall. If you can put the bridge pickup to good use, it'd be the perfect guitar. If it were lost or stolen, I probably wouldn't get another one, though, I'd rather get something with a more appealing bridge pickup tone.

Everybody knows about the history and the gentleman involved on this guitar...mine is a 2003 redburst/basswood body/rosewood board I believe it's a 9" radius.It has the "saddlelock" bridge which is working great so far.The big P-90 style single coils are great.I'm really starting to appreciate single coils over humbuckers as there is so much more clarity than a humbucker provides.

I play everything rock/metal/country it works very well for all providing you have the amp/effects. This guitar really shines with a tube amp I use a Hughes&Kettner 2x12 combo with minimal effects.For some reason I really like the middle position over the front pickup only, as it gives you that Hendrix/SRV sound. The pickups are a little noisy but there single coils and I use a gate anyways.

When I got this guitar(used) I bought a new set of D'addario .009-.042 which I have always used and like and the first thing I noticed was a little fretbuzz on the 3rd and 4th fret so a quick check of the neck showed a little backbow so I loosend the truss but still could not get rid of the buzz so I went to the G&L websight and found that in 2003 they switched to .010-.046 so of course the nut was cut too low for 9s so I went to a set of 10s and now the buzz is gone and it plays great.I have actually been able to lower the action.

I have no doubts about this guitar holding up...it's just such a quality build and you can tell just by the feel that it's way better than the stuff Fender is putting out these days.(fretwork/finish)

The only thing I have called G&L about is switching out the rosewood neck for a maple but G&L are VERY protective of there designs and don't sell spares.You can also forget goingto one of the guitar parts companys as nobody makes replacement necks to G&L Spec.

You guys have seen the features all ready so I wont go in depth. basswood body, maple neck, manetic field pickups, gig bag, saddle lock bridge or watever that is. Overall great

For my music style it is great. I played it for over an hour at my local music shop. can go from bright and twangy to dark and fat just by using the controls on the guitar. The pickups have a special desing that give great tone combined with higher output and less windings on the copper coils prividing less hum than other true single coils. I never thought an obese basswood body would have the sound this thing has. I can do reggae to metal with is. It suits my style of reggae, rock, jazzy rock, blues, and metal. Gets an amazing late zeppelin tone. I want to get one of these after I get a new amp. If I do I'll give it a graphite nut and a switch for in series wiring for humbucker tones. It is very bright on the bridge but can darken up nicely on the neck and be suitable for jazzy stuff. I was amazed at how little the pickups hummed. I had to go on a death metal setting to get noticable hum a moderate volume. Sound is better than any traditional tele in my opinion. The bridge and thick body give incredible sustain.

This took me bu surprise. Stock srings were good, action was low, pickup height was perfect, and the intionation was perfect as well. appeared to be an enormous single piece of basswood. The body was especially heavy for basswood but the tone was unbelievable. The finish was totally flawless.

I can not tell as I do not own the guitar but it seemed rock-solid. Overall a fine guitar with an even finer price. I'm sure it would last quite along time with no problems. Other people have said that the tuneing machines weren't very reliable but I did a solid hour of playing without a single slip and I did alot of bending.

No opinion. Haven't dealt with them. I have heard that they are wonderful but I would probably take care of any problems at my local store.

Compared to my laguna guitar and my Ibanez gax with dimarzio pickups this thing is a tone beast. Haven't bought it.....yet. If I owned it and it were stolen I would do all I could to et then try toget a new one if a couldn't get it. I love all of the features. Wish it had a trem but then it wouldn't have the insane sustain. My favorite feature is the magnetic field pickups which in my opinion have unsurpassed tone. For the price you can't beat it. Even american fenders don't compare. I have decided that I will buy it based off of tone, playability, looks, and the reputaton I've heard for G&L guitars. I've only been playing for 2 and a half years but I've played about 200 guitars and I'd say this is the best one.

There's enough about how and what is used to make this particular guitar, so I won't bore you with more of the same. Mine is the solid body Tele style with maple neck in Blue. It's a Tele style, so it's minimalistic, made in Korea.

The guitar has two giant single coil "P-90" type pickups that sound terrific through my Fender Blue's Jr in all positions, Great for that country - rockabilly sound that I play most of the time. Be advised, these are VERY Bright sounding pickups and if you're an "older" player like myself, you'll be using the tone control more than you would on a standard Tele.

Now we get to the heart of the matter. I bought this guitar from Murphy's Music in Huntington on Long Island. Great guys and went wayyy ou of their way for me. The first one I bought wouldn't stay in tune, nt even last through one song during a gig. And before you ask, yes I changed the strings (I use 10's) and stretched them out, and prayed to the guitar gods and all of that. Still no good. So I brought is back to Murphy's, who got right on the blower with G&L in California. Those guyus asked some pertinent questions, and then said they would send me a new one from the factory as soon as they came in from Korea. It seems that this is a popular fiddle out there in the real world. So I waited about three weeks for the new one to come in, and the G&L rep along with the manager from Murphy's was waiting for me when I came in the store. I ploayed it, and it sounded great, and actually felt better than the $1300 dollar ones they had hanging on the wall. OK, when I got it home, and began playing it, same problem. So, taking matters into my own hands, I took the strings off, and put a set of Shaler Machine heads I had laying around in one of my drawers for the last 100 years or so. Eureka!!! problem solved. This thing is now an animal, does not go out of tune no matter what I do to it. The Machine heads from Korea are some type of cheap garbage. So if you get this guitar, which I do highly recommend, change out the machine heads right away for a good set of Shaler/Grover/Sperzel, what ever your heart desires, and you'll have a terrific guitar built like a tank that will feel and play like an instrument worth $1000 bucks more. Even with that problem the rest of the guitar is put together really well, so I gave it a 7 overall.

Like I said above, this thing is built like a brick wall, you could throw it off the roof and pick it up and play.

These guys know how to treat people. Right away the most important thing was trying to make me happy. And remember folks, this is the alleged cheapo Korean guita, and they still acted as if I was a rock star. I can't say enough good things about G&L and Murphy's Music.

I've been playing for over 30 years, Rockabilly/Country/Classic rock/Jazz/Swing, basically whatever the crowd is paying for. I bought this fiddle as a backup for my custom shop Strat. I've owned a bunch of guitars in my time. Gretsch, Gibson, Fender, Guild. Is this the best guitar I have ever played? No, but it's pretty close for what it is, and for less than 500 bucks you have a great stand alone guitar that I would take on a gig without a backup. I highly recommend it.

This is a folow-up on my 1/17/07 review in regards to my returning my new G&L Tribute Special to the G&L factory for repairs concerning it's neck problem. My Special was delivered back to G&L on 1/23/07. On 1/31/07 Chris called from G&L saying that they had reworked the neck pocket making for a more snug fit plus leveled a few frets and recut the nut. It was ready to return to me set up with 10's and low action.

On 2/5/07 UPS delivered the guitar back here. It had sat outside 4 days in sub freezing temps so I left it in it's gig bag for 2 days while the woods and metals adjusted slowly to room temps. Turn around time was 18 days with 10 of those days in transit.

Finally I got the Special out and looked everything over very closely. I tuned it up and away we played. It seemed and felt perfect. The action was a bit high so I lowered it to my liking plus I adjusted the neck from .012" down to .009" which improved and eased fingering. It was a real mean playing machine now in my books, all of Chris' repair work was done to perfection, making my new Special one of the finest playing guitars I've ever had the chance to play and that covers a lot of territory during my 55+ years of playing. What a world of difference their leveling it's frets made in playing, not that the original frets were very un-even in the first place but this made for ultra ease of fingering perfection. Many thanks !

I'm positive that this gem will be making music long after you and I are out of the picture. From the word go, this guitar seemed well made with very top notch woods and hardware. Just the neck pocket thing was the only draw back I could see but my real main concern was what was G&L going to do about it. They passed this test with flying colors in my humble estimation and appreciation. Chris at G&L's Repair facility in Huntington Beach, Calif. was super to work with. I want to thank him for the tremendous improvement that he made to my guitar. Top notch attitude as well !

For the first time since owning G&L guitars in 1989 have I had to return one of their guitars for warranty work. That pretty much speaks for itself.

I wanted to pass this helpful info on to other owners or wannabees that G&L will stand behind their product. In the past I had asked the Yamaha people to stand behind their warranty as my brand new top of the line Mike Stern 1511 tele arrived with it's neck screws stripped out from the factory. I was disappointed on their indifferent attitude ! You can read that review in the Yamaha MS 1511 section. This case has a 100 % different ending and I'm pleased to say thanks to G&L for helping me out.

Mine is Black with a maple neck. This color combo for some reason comes with a red tortiose shell pickgaurd, which to me looks a little funky, kinda bluesey I suppose, but I really like black with white so ordered a white pearlescent pickguard which was easy to replace and now it is a very stylish axe. One of the features that drew me to this guitar is the bridge which is called the "saddle lock bridge". It is a heavey hunk of chrome, and after the intonation is set there is a screw which goes in laterally and locks all the individual saddles (which are thick chunky peices of chrome as well) together in a solid mass. Much better design than the standard Tele design. When I first picked up one of these guitars at the shop and played it unplugged I was amazed at how well the string vibration is transfered to the body, which is itself a nice heavy hunk of wood which makes for lotsa sustain. The high output single coils take a little getting used to, for my ears they are very high pitched and require backing off the tone knob, but once you get the thing figured out it's got great tone and lot's of single coil power. The neck is solid and the tuners are a nice high ratio and stay in tune well, even though this guitar goes from the nice warm house out to the cold garage for band practice and then back in the house. The fit and finnish of this Korean made but American designed guitar is absolutely in the same league as the Fenders and G&Ls that cost twice as much. NO mex fender comes even close. I have owned many guitars in my 48 years and no other guitar comes close for value. My one gripe is that it came with the action set pretty high and uneven, but I fixed that myself very easily, it even comes with the tools to do it! It comes with a very nice gig bag, but I don't believe in gig bags and bought an aftermarket Fender style tweed case. I am giving it a 10 because it plays, feels, looks and sounds like a guitar that costs over twice as much, just an outstanding value.

The American made high output single coils have a very bright output, I had to back of the tone knob to not break windows, but the tone knob works well and is easy to get great tone. I saw alot of other reviews that mention problems with the pots, but both the volume and tone knobs on mine seam to work great.

The action is great once I lowered it myself. No string buzz anywhere on the neck. This guitar has better fit and finnish than the American Standard Strat that I bought in the mid 90's, and way nicer tuners.

Though I've only had this guitar two months at this point, judging by the fit and finnish and the obvious quality of all the hardware I would have to say this guitar seams very reliable.

Haven't called them.

I've been playing along time and this is one of the nicer guitars I've had, right up there with my '73 Les Paul Standard and my mid 90's Strat. Because of the value, I would buy another in a heartbeat. This brings up one of my pet peeves. Why have guitar prices skyrocketed so high in the past 10 years so much faster than everything else? You could buy a Les Paul Studio with a hard case for 500 bucks in like '95, now they are trying to sell korean guitars with crappy tone for 500 bucks. With the Tribute series of guitars you get American quality (though made in Korea)and American sound for the same or less price as the competition. I am very impressed with these guitars.

I just bought my new G&L Tribute ASAT Special tele last December 26, 2006. It is a natural finish with maple fingerboard, typical G&L S/S soapbar pickups are quiet as is all switching, hardtail bridge, stock tuners that run smooth and hold, G&L gig bag, etc. It is a Korean made G&L with the new headstock decal but it looks like a USA G&L. Well finished and well fretted. No qualms at all. Keep reading below.

I play this thru my Peavey or Flextone 2x12 amps-amps and guitar compliment each other-I play old country, rock-n-roll and rock-a-billy-Good full sound but not too tele

I noticed this guitar was setting up different but I didn't pinpoint the problem until after the 48 hours return period was over at Nitro-Tone Music. The neck rides on a high spot in the neck pocket and this lets the neck wobble or teeter, pulling the tuning and intonation out while playing. You can see the gap under the bass strings close when you tug lightly on the neck. The gap is not as bad under the treble strings. I emailed G&L in Calif, send them a close-up pic of the neck pocket. An hour later, the factory was on the tele telling me to send the guitar back to G&L Repairs in Huntington Beach, Calf. The guitar was sent today via UPS ground, so we'll see how he factory reacts to my problem. The party on the other end of the line hinted they will replace it ???

So now comes the acid test as to what G&L will do in may case. I think the guitar body needs routing or planing in the neck pocket area, this might let the neck set flat. Maybe the neck would ride too deep in the pocket ??? I'll be happy to see the same guitar come back in a nice playable condition. Anything beyond that will be greatly appreciated and G&L will have a life time happy customer. I like my neck straight (.007) with the action just high enough so it won't fret it. I pick light using a Fender light pick and use 09-42 strings so I can set the action really low.

I will let you know how G&L handles my problem. If the initial contact was any indication, I see no problems at all. The guitar will either be fixed or replaced. It'll take 2 weeks for the guitar to get there and back plus the in-shop time, so I look for it back in 3-4 weeks or around Feb 10-15, 2007. I'll give a more complete report whenever it gets back.

I've been playing for 55 years and I own nothing but G&L guitars, in fact I own 5 Tributes and 1 USA Legacy. I've never had an occasion to contact G&L and I've been playing G&Ls since 1988. This will be very interesting to see what happens on this so stay tuned and I will report back. I feel either the factory or dealer should have caught this problem but sometimes things happen ??

G&L Tribute ASAT Special Premium with Maple neck and finger board and natural finish Swamp Ash body and tortoise shell pick guard (swapped for black at the first oportunity). 2 MFD soap bar style passive pickups, 3 way selector, 22 frets. Everything you need, nothing you don't.

I play everything from SRV through AC/DC, Satriani, Dream Theatre. Pretty much anything that doesn't involve guitars that look like an implement of medieval torture. Played through a VOX AC30, the ASAT is pure perfection and gives up some top notch blues tones without effort. It sounds great distorted too, even into Mesa Boogie high-gain territory. The responsiveness of the pickups is quite astounding, I swear you can hear your own fingerprints. It can be quite bright but the tone knob works well to take the edge off even the most brittle of amps. Roll the tone all the way back, flick it to the neck pickup and your well into Jazz territory. The unfinished neck is great to play, much nicer than the painted neck of my Gibson. It's not overly noisy for a single coil guitar either. The ASAT Special is probably one of the best and most versatile guitars I've had the pleasure of playing.

I've owned a G&L ASAT Special and a G&L Legacy and the build quality is always second to none. I looked at MIA Fender's but G&L's are just plain better in my opinion.

Built like a tank, it will stand up to live work as well as and probably better than anything else out there. The strap buttons are big enough, they work fine but if you are a really energetic performer, strap locks would be a good idea (they are anyway). The finish on the body is tough and durable but the neck is unfinished which makes it nice to play but can be nicked if you are rough with it. It's a trade off though and one I'd take anyday.

Never had to talk to them.

I've been playing for nearly 20 years and I own a Gibson Nighthawk and an Ibanez RG1570 as well as the ASAT. Right now the ASAT is still my favourite even though the Ibanez is my newest toy. It will do just about anything you care to ask it to from pristine cleans through hard rock and all the ay to all but the heaviest of metal tones. Tune down to drop D and it sounds fantastic. I like that it is really simple, 2 pickups, 3 way switch, 1 volume, 1 tone, you just plug it in and it sounds great. I was going to buy a Gretsch Duo Jet but this just hit all the right buttons. If it got lost I'd replace it in a heart beat. I think G&L got it absolutely right with the ASAT Special, I can't think of any way to improve it.

Brown/black sunburst Tele-style with tortoiseshell pickguard. Basswood body with maple neck and fretboard. Two single-coils wound at the G&L factory in CA, 3-way switch, volume and tone controls (pots upgraded by previous owner -- though other reviews note them as a weakness), hardtail bridge. Electronics made in USA, the rest made in Korea.

I don't get the Les Paul comparison. Perhaps one with P-90s, but the humbucker crunch is one thing this one does not do. And why should it? The Gibson sound is overdone anyway. This guitar has the characteristics of the nicest Fenders you've ever played all in one. Maybe it's the basswood, but this reminds me more of a strat than a Paul.

There are definitely Tele qualities, especially when you're playing on the 1st-3rd strings in the bridge position. The crazy thing is that while it's very bright on those strings, you move to the 4th-6th (still in bridge position), and it gets very warm and full -- like many guitars in the middle or neck positions. What people say about the tone and volume controls are true -- they are very functional and you can get all kinds of sounds out of this thing using them. The neck position is very warm as well, and doesn't overload the lows. Roll back the tone and it gets really smooth. The highs are subdued, but it doesn't deaden the tone like so many other guitars.

I play post-punk/indie. Again, this isn't a guitar for metal or palm-muting crunch sounds, but I don't play any of that stuff anyway. I play through a Peavey VTM120 head (dropped to 60 watts by removing 2 output tubes) with an Avatar 2x12 cab. No effects, just amp overdrive & the knobs on the guitar.

Bought used, but only needed a little adjustment.

The strap buttons were stripped out when I bought it, but that can happen to any guitar. This thing is heavy and solid. I plan to keep it for many years, and expect it to hold up. If I could only have one of the guitars I've owned, past and present , it would be this one.

That said, I wouldn't gig without a backup no matter how great the guitar. Strings break.

Not applicable.

I've been playing for 17 years. I have owned a Gibson, 2 Fenders, and 2 Ibanezes -- none of them compare to this one. It sounds great, feels solid, and plays beautifully. Some people don't care much for the looks -- esp. the pickups, but I think they make it stand out -- it's a nice middle ground between unique and classic, I think.

I have known several people who replace their Fenders with G&Ls and never go back. I can now see why. If this were stolen I would definitely replace it. I will probably track down another one anyway.