G&L USA ASAT Classic S Alnico Electric Guitar, Rosewood Fingerboard, Hard Case - Butterscotch Blonde

Following on the heels of the ASAT Classic Alnico, the G&L crew in Fullerton turned their attention to bringing uncompromising alnico sonic flavor to the three-pickup ASAT Classic ‘S’. The single-coil Alnico V bridge pickup belts out meaty twang that that’ll stop you in your tracks. Flip to the Alnico V neck pickup and you’ll discover our spec offers a fuller tone that leaves traditional, anemic T-style neck pickups in the dust.

What’s more, the two pickups pair beautifully for an exceptionally sweet, jangly tone bursting with harmonics. But the ASAT Classic ‘S’ Alnico goes even further, with a reverse-wound, reverse-polarity G&L CLF-100 Alnico V pickup (as used on the G&L Legacy) in the middle. The result is the sweet, evocative “quack” of a good S-style axe. And we’ve added what is becoming a staple of G&L three-pickup axes: a push/pull tone pot that gives you the classic neck/bridge combination as well as all three pickups together, for a unique sonic depth that G&L players love.

These Alnico wonders aren’t just another flavor-of-the-week, having been carefully refined by G&L's Paul Gagon for personal guitars since the late 1970s. Back then, Gagon was an R&D engineer at another company when he was tasked with finding out what was so special about the early bolt-on guitars many players raved about. Gagon analyzed many examples of what were considered "holy grail" guitars, spending time out on the shop floor talking to builders still working in the pickup department since the ‘50s, all on a quest to discover where the real mojo was – and wasn’t. What he learned from the builders matched his own engineering analysis. You see, back in the day, the actual spec of pickups coming that down that old production line varied considerably. Moreover, that nagging imbalance between bridge and neck pickup was something he longed to improve on, and today, Gagon’s preferred pairing of Alnico V pickups has arrived to delight the ears of the discerning guitarists.