G&L USA L-2500 CLF Research Series 750 5-String Bass, Old School Tobacco Sunburst

The new Wide•5 of Fender Avenue is the biggest thing since Leo’s L•2000 hit back in ’81. We call it the G&L L•2500 Series 750 and it’s packing everything that makes the L•2000 and L•2500 icons. So what’s new? The Series 750 is a fiver with a full 3/4-inch string spacing at the bridge, just like Leo’s four-string basses – that’s why we call it a Wide•5.

After all, it’s in the name: Leo’s four-strings have “three-quarter-inch” string spacing, so we’ve got 3/4″ > 0.750″ > 19.03mm. When someone says a five-string has “nineteen millimeter” string spacing, that’s just a metric conversion of Leo’s original four-string spec, so here on Fender Avenue it’s gotta be “Seven-Fifty.” The CLF Research L•2500 and other G&L fivers continue with narrower 11/16” string spacing at the bridge, as popularized on 1980s for fivers. The L•2500 Series 750 is for players who want the full three-quarter inch spacing on the most iconic of G&L designs.

Series 750 means there’s a new Wide-5 Saddle Lock bridge plate housing five of the same saddles you’ll find on an L•2000. This new bridge is all about maximizing string energy transfer to the body – especially that knockout B-string. The new body shape draws on classic Fender Avenue forms, melding them into a fresh hit for the ages. That’s a sweet story in itself, as Series 750 arrives exactly forty years after the G&L L•2000 did. And those big pickups are more than stretched out brutes: all the harmonic detail of the best MFD humbuckers speak in a clear voice over massive B-string energy.

Sure, Series 750 is a brand new model but classic Fender Avenue details are everywhere. That graceful early CLF/G&L headstock flows into a slim, rounded neck profile that’s rock solid thanks to a true dual-action truss rod and twin graphite reinforcement rods. And those big, beautiful machined CLF knobs popping against the sweeping chrome control plate that houses the Trig-Tone Preamp.* Even those little color-coded mini toggle switch tips have outsized mojo. This is retrofuturism of the very best kind.