G&L USA ASAT Special Guitar, Quartersawn Maple Fretboard, Classic C Neck, Blueburst

PLAYER'S PERSPECTIVE

As proud G&L dealers, we're stoked to present you this awesome custom-ordered ASAT Special from their Fullerton factory in a sleek, cool Blueburst finish with a quartersawn maple neck! The ASAT is G&L's evolved take on the original T-style guitar designed by Leo Fender himself - dialed up a few notches - and we're stoked with how this blue-clad example turned out.

Here at the shop, we love guitars that are modern and practical with "quality of life" improvements that cater to the player, but retain the vintage tone we all love. This model features a custom-ordered "Classic C" neck profile, which, while meatier than G&L's usual Modern Classic profile and gets as thick as .960" at the 12th fret, feels equally as fast-playing while harkening back to the thicker necks of vintage instruments. Next is the bridge - compared to their ASAT Classic bridge, this one is also a bit reminiscent of an offset-style bridge or even one used on basses. The design is just awesome! Additionally, this guitar also feels way more comfortable to play than an average T with the pronounced belly cut for improved ergonomics when you're sitting down. 

Now the pickups is where we take a big departure from the traditional T-style configuration. G&L does make very good vintage-faithful T-style pickups - however, these "Jumbo" MFDs are pretty far off the beaten path, in a good way. The only way to truly describe them is... bigger. Not just physically, but the tone as well. Take the standard "T" tone and turn it to 11 - it's still spanky, warm, and twangy, but almost twice as thick and the midrange of these pickups is significantly more in your face. There's a little "JM"-style chime in there too, as well as some P90-style aggressiveness and thickness. They're absolutely kickass.

Details

The G&L ASAT Special just might be the quintessential G&L guitar, viewed by many as Leo’s ultimate single-cutaway. Back in 1985, Leo Fender launched this model under the G&L Broadcaster name, which prompted a response from Fred Gretsch of Gretsch Guitars over the name just as it had thirty-five years earlier. History buffs will recall that the Broadkaster® name is owned by Gretsch, and once again, a Broadcaster from Leo was required to have its name changed. This time around, the name became "ASAT" which is US military shorthand for an "Anti-Satellite" missile.

The ASAT Special, as the model became known, features jumbo single-coil Magnetic Field Design pickups, each with a narrow bobbin aperture for a coil which is shallow yet wide. In this regard, an MFD jumbo single coil is similar to a P-90 or Jazzmaster pickup, yet the MFD principle provides a punchier bottom end and brighter top end sparkling with harmonics. Leo further departed with the past with the addition of his innovative Saddle-Lock bridge which transfers string energy right into the body end-grain for an incredibly resonant instrument. The result is one of the most versatile guitars ever, serving up ballsy twang to searing blues to smooth jazz tones.