Go for it. You never know with a little cleaning and tweaking it could be your new favorite guitar. The earlier G&Ls were pretty much the same as Fender anyways.

I'd buy it just to have Leo's signature.How many people can say they have a guitar that was held by one of the most important people in the music world?Our bass player had a G&L,the Strat shaped one,and it almost played itself.The slightest pressure was all that was needed to fret a note or chord.I'd have it in a heartbeat,any G&L.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

My guitar teacher has a G&L Tele. I don't know the exact model but it's a nice guitar. He used to sell Fenders but lost their backing because he's such a small shop and now he sells G&L!! He claims he likes them better but I won't trade him.

There has been a lot of discussion/debate on the issue of autographs adding to or reducing the value of a guitar, but having an inspection tag signed by Leo Fender's own hand, now that has to add to the coolness factor big time!

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“All music is folk music, I ain't never heard no horse sing a song.” Louis Armstrong

The G&L Broadcasters are very collectible, in any condition.

In order to juice up the buzz about the company, one of the marketing guys hit upon the idea of issuing some guitars with the Broadcaster name (which we all know was the original name of the Telecaster...). All of them were to have black Bakelite pickguards, just like the original Broadcasters. The idea was to have Leo personally inspect and sign each of the guitars (as seen in the photos above). The marketing guy assumed (and was actually hoping) that Gretsch would issue a "cease and desist" order regarding their copyrighted "Broadkaster" moniker on a line of drums (just as they had in the early 50s). If the c&d order was issued, it would make a good story/publicity for the company AND remind everyone that the maker of the original "Broadcaster" guitar, Leo Fender, was making some really great guitars again.

Gretsch, predictably, sent the letter, and only a limited number of the G&L Broadcasters were made...voila, instant collectible, instant publicity, more people checking out G&L guitars, (hopefully) more sales.

...and now you know the rest of the story...Good day!


PS-The Broadcaster continued to be produced under the ASAT name, and some of the ASATs are pretty collectible, too. ASAT is a military abbreviation for "anti-satellite"; the name was suggested by author Richard Smith after he read an article about the Air Force's ASAT missile. Both Leo Fender and Dale Hyatt reportedly liked the image of a guitar shooting down things in space, and hence the name stuck. The name is often (incorrectly) interpreted to mean "After Strat, After Telecaster" or "As Same As Telecaster".

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

Here is a link with talk of average cost of a mint one
http://www.thegearpage.net/board/archiv ... 44638.html

For whatever reason, G&Ls never appealed, here. To each their own.

Played a couple of G&L's over the last month. A Asat and a S500, both were stunning. If they had Fender's history, I dont think anyone would look at the humble strat again. Leo said they were the best guitars he ever made. I can see what he means. Ok their not as visualy pleasing as Fender guitars, but they play and sound brilliantly. Its like he took everything I love about strats and tele's and improved it.

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No no and no

it's seems odd to me that this thread was started today. i currently am getting psyched about my next guitar purchase. i have been considering getting either another stat or tele either 62 or 57 hotrod strat a 52 hotrod tele or american standard tele or american standard strat . also i am considering a gibson traditional les paul goldtop, a 62 gibson reissue sg, or a gibson es-339.

however, just last night i was thinking i really should also check out g&l guitars. so last night i added a custom blues boy g&l to my list. i plan on going and trying all of the guitars and choosing the one i like best. and i will have to say the g&l blues boy with the humbucker in the neck really intrigues me.

I remember when they came out. I played a bunch of them and was never that crazy about them. Of that era, I think the only
famous musician who played one was Steve Morse ... he had a black Lead II, or something like that. It was actually a fairly small guitar if I remember correctly.

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Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

Even though it's very odd for me to be commenting about a non-Fender product, I'll do so here just purely as a public service for my fellow man: be very careful when buying a G&L Broadcaster. There are quite a few fakes out there in the used market unfortunately and I've had to learn my own lesson on the Broadcaster model the hard way. The fakes are true G&L guitars but built long after true Broadcaster production and in some cases even after Leo Fender's death. There are folks hanging out on the G&L forums who have access to the original production logs and can validate whether a particular instrument is legit or not.

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Director at Fender. Guitarist & guitar collector. All views/opinions expressed here are my own and not Fender’s.

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That is a good heads up Brad as the appealing thing to me right away was the Leo signed inspection. I played one 5 years ago owned by my friends son and must say it was a very nice guitar or should I say Tele.lol

Well this place never ceases to amaze me. Anywhere else the governer would be warning about going off product.

I thought when I first saw the LF signature, I bet thats desirable. Then got to thinking it's easy to forge too.
Some people eh?

Best head over to G&L and investegate before purchase mate.

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No no and no

The one and only G&L I ever owned was a bit of a dissapointment. In 2006 I bought a new Asat Special from the local G&L dealer. A beautiful guitar-candy apple red, maple neck, and played and sounded wonderful in the store. The 60 cycle hum I got in 3 out of the 4 bars I would play in made it hard to even use the guitar. I tried different amps, cords, no effects, direct boxes, isolation units etc. My Les Paul didn't have any problems so I started using that guitar in those places. I took it to the dealer and they shielded it more and it still didn't do the job. I mean the hum was so bad, and with only the 3 selector switch, I had no options other than to sell it. I paid over $1300 new, and sold it for $850 two months later.

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Life is like a sh*t sandwich. The more bread you have, the less sh*t you have to eat.

I've owned three G&L guitars--my first electric guitar was an F100 (still have that one); I also had an SC2 (which was essentially a "student model" ASAT) and a Nighthawk (they only guitar that I've ever sold and wished I had back--dem ol' mortgage payment blues).

I've also played a couple dozen other G&Ls, some owned by friends, some in shops...what I have determined regarding quality is this: the early models were, across the board, spectacular. If you liked the features (pickups, neck or body woods, whatever), you would like the guitar...well made, well set up, and good looking for the era (remember, this was in the ugly 80s--Kramers and Charvels ruled the roost. Yuk!).

I noticed that in the late 90s/early 00s that their quality went down--the fretwork sucked, the feel was bad, and there was some of the above-lamented 60 cycle hum I never got out of my single-coil axes (SC2 & Nighthawk) or the ones I borrowed (a friend's two different SC3 guitars, another friend's ASAT, several others).

Recently, just for grins, I tried out a couple of NEW (made within the last two years) S500s, a Geroge Fullerton Legacy model, and an ASAT Classic; the old qulity had returned...the fretwork and feel was good, and I didn't get a 60cycle hum until I put it directly under a neon sign hanging on the wall. I've now got my sights set on an S500 that's in a local shop, and this is the first new G&L that has caught my interest in several years. Their import "Tribute" line isn't bad--but as with every guitar (no matter where it's made or by whom), check it out before laying down the cash.

So maybe I just picked up the ten bad ones that came out of the factory, but I would at least be cautious of the G&Ls from around 1998 to 2005--there was something wrong with all the ones I tried from that era.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals