# Where are all the cheap G&L guitars ?



## bagpipe (Sep 19, 2006)

I keep reading on various forii, that the main knock against G&L guitars is that they don't hold their value on resale. So that would tell me there should be a bunch of them selling for cheap on Ebay. But, I dont see them. Everyone still seems to asking for top dollar. I just tried a bunch of US made G&Ls in a local store and loved the necks - nice and chunky. I want to get one of the ASAT models with big MFD pickups. I don't wanna pay for a new one so I expected to find a bunch of used ones for sale at good prices. NOT!


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## deadear (Nov 24, 2011)

If they don't sell many new ones it is hard to find used.


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

not many dealers in canada for these so i doubt there are many people who own them.

I rarely see them pop up on kijiji here in edmonton.


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## Petey D (Sep 8, 2011)

I see them all the time listed on the Kingston & Belleville Kijiji sites, but not cheap! Usually around $800 - $900.


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## NB_Terry (Feb 2, 2006)

It took me a few weeks or so to sell a nice G&L Legacy (US) here on the forum in the $600 range, so I think you can still find deals on them. 

This was after trying unsuccessfully for a month or so on the local kijiji. I kept getting crazy low ball offers.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

They actually made *a bit* of headway on the used market in the past 2-3 years, they aren't as cheap as they used to be. Still, never selling my '93 S-500 that I've had from new, even if it isn't my #1 any more.


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## NB_Terry (Feb 2, 2006)

You probably saw these;

http://ontario.kijiji.ca/f-G-L-ASAT-Classifieds-W0QQKeywordZGQ26LQ20ASATQQisSearchFormZtrue

The $700 looks like a good deal to me. Not a steal, but fair.


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

I think that most people keep them and the ones who decide to sell them change their mind when they see the poor offers that they get. I highly recommend the Korean ones as I have had 3 and still have one. I had a beauty USA bass that a forum member here has now and I just recently had a great USA Comanche for sale here for quite a bit under half price and not one nibble of interest.

The bottom line is that they do show up but not that often...even the Korean Tributes which used to be common on eBay are rare now.


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## deadear (Nov 24, 2011)

Too bad the $700 dollar tele has the two large single coils. If it was the Bluesboy it would be long gone.


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## Bubb (Jan 16, 2008)

Seems to me great deals on the US models have been scarce since the Tribute line came out .


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## Bubb (Jan 16, 2008)

deadear said:


> Too bad the $700 dollar tele has the two large single coils. If it was the Bluesboy it would be long gone.


That's the one the OP is looking for .


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## Spikezone (Feb 2, 2006)

I think it's kind of slanderous to say that they would have poor resale value in the first place...they are generally head and shoulders better than most of the Strats you might compare them with, in my opinion.
-Mikey


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## zontar (Oct 25, 2007)

Mother's Music had them, but since L&M took over I only saw one that priced to lower, and it's gone now...


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## captainbrew (Feb 5, 2010)

I LOVE G&L guitars. My number 1 guitar is an early 1993 Legacy. Will never sell it. Best guitar I've ever played. I don't however like the more recent G&L's I've played nearly as much. They no longer have the 3 bolt neck with the micro tilt that ACTUALLY works and they don't do the bicut necks anymore amongst other things. 

I would look for a pre-1998 G&L if I was you. Can be found cheap and usually sound and play like a million bucks. 

Just my 2 cents worth.


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## traynor_garnet (Feb 22, 2006)

I cannot find "cheap" used ones either. Usually they are around the same price as a used Fender which (If you cannot play before you buy) means you might as well buy a Fender.

TG


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## Guest (Dec 1, 2011)

traynor_garnet said:


> I cannot find "cheap" used ones either. Usually they are around the same price as a used Fender which (If you cannot play before you buy) means you might as well buy a Fender.


That's been my experience too. I've been trolling for a while for one now. A Tele-type G&L.


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## washburned (Oct 13, 2006)

traynor_garnet said:


> I cannot find "cheap" used ones either. Usually they are around the same price as a used Fender which (If you cannot play before you buy) means you might as well buy a Fender.
> 
> TG


Only if you are buying for resale value.


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## Rich Rice (Feb 5, 2008)

One of our biggest customers was collecting G&L guitars for years- tons of them.. He has been selling off his collection lately, I might be able to hook you up with him- what are you looking for?


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## traynor_garnet (Feb 22, 2006)

washburned said:


> Only if you are buying for resale value.


If you cannot play the guitar before you buy (as I wrote in my message) resale value is huge. If I get the guitar and discover I simply don't like the neck, it is a lot easier to resell a Fender (reselling is also much easier than physically altering my hand to match the guitar's neck!). That's why I wrote "you might as well buy a Fender" if the used prices are roughly the same; go for safety if you are forced to buy unplayed.

TG


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## marcos (Jan 13, 2009)

NB_Terry said:


> It took me a few weeks or so to sell a nice G&L Legacy (US) here on the forum in the $600 range, so I think you can still find deals on them.
> 
> This was after trying unsuccessfully for a month or so on the local kijiji. I kept getting crazy low ball offers.


Yes and I was the lucky buyer if memory serves me right Terry. This guitar was top notch,impecable with the best overall finish bar none in this price range. I did something stupid this past spring and traded it on a Ameican 2007 Tele. I could kick myself as I thought I would try a Tele for a while. Great sounding right out of the box, put a lot of high end Strats to shame.
I think these should sell in the 800.00 area no problem. Good luck finding a cheap one.


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## WEEZY (May 23, 2008)

Regarding the neck design - I took my Legacy to my tech last week for a set up. Long story short - he bad-mouthed the G&L necks - saying all techs hated them, they're faulty etc. I had never heard anything like that ever, so I posted a question on the G&L forum. One of the members sent my question to Steve Grom, the Director of Manufacturing for G&L Guitars. Steve immediately responded.

My question as posted on the G&L Forum:
*
Suddenly after 2 years of enjoying my '08 US made Legacy, I started noticing excessive buzzing and fretting-out on the neck. I raised a few saddles to no avail. So I brought it to my tech - a seriously great tech who's been doing it since the early '80's. He said that G&L's have a reputation for <censored word> necks - he said it was the way they're made. He tweaked it and did a full set-up - it's a lot better now except the D string is a bit sitar-sounding, but I can live with it.

Is this true? He also mentioned something about the patent that they currently have for making the necks is about to expire. Instead of admitting they have been making them wrong for years, they are just changing the method and using the patent expiry as an excuse.

has anyone heard about this?*

Steve Grom's response:
*
G&L Neck Design

Leo Fender's original design for G&L necks in the very early days was very similar to a Fender neck where the truss rod was installed from the back of the neck and a "skunk stripe" was used to hold the rod in place.

At some point about 1982 (I'm not exactly sure of the year) Leo had the idea of the "bi-cut" neck where the raw neck blank was cut length wise, a slot routed in the side of the larger piece, the truss rod was installed and the two pieces glued back together. This was a very interesting approach to truss rod installation and unique to any other guitar company. The bi-cut necks featured a truss rod that had an arch which matched to the corresponding arch of the slot that had been routed in the neck blank. To note, Fender necks all use a truss rod with an arch.

Over the years of using the bi-cut neck there were some consistency issues that may have been related to the design, the in-house tooling or tolerance issues within the manufacturing process. 

Several years ago (6 or 7, I think), the company decided to look at a more tradition method of installing the truss rod in an attempt to gain more consistency with the necks. At that point the truss rod was changed to a straight truss rod that would be installed from the top of the neck .... the fingerboard goes on and covers the rod. The truss rod change had nothing to do with any patent issues; the company was looking at trying to add stability and consistency to the necks. Let it be known, that the vast majority of the bi-cut necks made over the years are still in service and have experienced very few problems.

The neck in question with this member's post that was made in 2008 incorporates the straight truss rod design that had proven to work well for not only G&L, but a number of other foreign and domestic guitar factories.

I would also suggest to this member that someone check the bridge saddles if the "sitar" sound continues. From time to time we experience some variations in the area of the bridge saddles where the string goes over the front of the saddle. If he (or someone) determines the bridge saddles may be creating a problem, please have them contact me directly and we can arrange for replacement saddles.

I hope this information is helpful

Best regards,

Steve Grom*


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## GUInessTARS (Dec 28, 2007)

I have a '97 S-500 that I have owned since new. About 4 years ago I was interested in a humbucker guitar at the 12th Fret in Toronto. As I wasn't playing the G&L much at the time, and it was the best single coil guitar I owned, I thought I would offer it as partial trade. I brought the instrument into the shop and was told not to bother opening the case, they were not interested. Since then I have played the shit out of that guitar. It has been frozen, and cooked, in my car and the band van more times than it deserves. I just got it out of the case and it is nearly in tune and rings true up the neck. I think I'll keep it. It has the bi-cut neck with the 3 bolt attachment. Maybe once G&L lost their iconoclastic, innovative founder, they decided to go more mainstream. If their instruments look more like the originals and less like Leo's later vision, they can probably sell more of them. Maybe now that Leo is gone it's about moving units, not innovation.


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## bolero (Oct 11, 2006)

ditto, I have a '95 3 bolt Legacy & that guitar is amazing

I'd buy a used G&L over a Fender anyday


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## Gizmo (Aug 7, 2008)

My main gigging guitar is a USA Commanche with the best neck I've ever played....Looks like a Strat but with the Z coils can do a lot more and it is quiet. With 12's on it feels just right. I'd never sell it.

Had a Legacy and it was as good if not better than my USA Strat. Neck was just to slim for me so unfortunately I sold it. If it would have had a fatter neck, I would have sold the Strat instead.

I think one of the disadvantages of G&Ls though is that replacing the neck is not so easy because Fender necks don't fit..

Picked up a beautiful butterscotch USA ASAT Special her locally for $500 last year, so deals can be had but they do seem to be getting increasingly rarer I think. Can't believe some of the prices people are asking for used Tributes!


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## Kenmac (Jan 24, 2007)

Gizmo said:


> My main gigging guitar is a USA Commanche with the best neck I've ever played....Looks like a Strat but with the Z coils can do a lot more and it is quiet. With 12's on it feels just right. I'd never sell it.
> 
> Had a Legacy and it was as good if not better than my USA Strat. Neck was just to slim for me so unfortunately I sold it. If it would have had a fatter neck, I would have sold the Strat instead.
> 
> ...


Gizmo, I agree with you wholeheartedly about the Comanche and the neck. Out of all the guitars I own it's got the smoothest and best feeling neck. I posted this before but here's a photo of my 1991 G&L Comanche and no, it's not for sale. )


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## Gizmo (Aug 7, 2008)

Oooooh, an original. Very nice Kenmac.
How do you manage to cope with all the switches?




Kenmac said:


> Gizmo, I agree with you wholeheartedly about the Comanche and the neck. Out of all the guitars I own it's got the smoothest and best feeling neck. I posted this before but here's a photo of my 1991 G&L Comanche and no, it's not for sale. )


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## sulphur (Jun 2, 2011)

When I picked up my PRS CE24 in '94, the guy I went shopping with picked up a Commanche.
A great guitar that is still his #1 today. His is in a nice trans blue. Sweet guitars for sure.


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

WEEZY said:


> Regarding the neck design - I took my Legacy to my tech last week for a set up. Long story short - he bad-mouthed the G&L necks - saying all techs hated them, they're faulty etc.


I have known a number of great techs and a couple of bad ones. Without knowing the particular guitar in question, I would never go back to that tech again.


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## krall (Apr 19, 2009)

A couple of decent priced G&L's here:

http://novascotia.kijiji.ca/c-buy-a...ute-Legacy-electric-guitar-W0QQAdIdZ325645064

http://newbrunswick.kijiji.ca/c-buy...e-G-L-Tribute-Asat-Classic-W0QQAdIdZ335888255


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## Guest (Dec 4, 2011)

Both those are MiK and seem about average for what the Tributes sell for. I think we're all looking for the deals on the MIA stuff that were supposed to be out there.


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

iaresee said:


> Both those are MiK and seem about average for what the Tributes sell for. I think we're all looking for the deals on the MIA stuff that were supposed to be out there.


Exactly. I also see them for about $500 brand new online (in the USA). Once again, they are worth it (I think the Korean G&L product is FANTASTIC) but the market says that you should be able to get them for less. I know that I see a lot of ads on kijiji saying (not G&L related) "I bought this for $800 a year ago and it is in perfect condition so I want $650". The expectation is often out of whack with reality.


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## Kenmac (Jan 24, 2007)

Gizmo said:


> Oooooh, an original. Very nice Kenmac.
> How do you manage to cope with all the switches?


Thanks Gizmo. I mentioned this before in an older thread here on the forum, the guy who sold it to me included a diagram which showed how the switches work. Basically I can choose to have either one, two or all three pickups on at the same time plus I can also adjust whether I want the E, A and D strings to be amplified by a chosen pickup or the G, B and high E strings. I've got to see if I can find that diagram. If I do, I'll scan it and post it.


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## marcos (Jan 13, 2009)

Kenmac said:


> Thanks Gizmo. I mentioned this before in an older thread here on the forum, the guy who sold it to me included a diagram which showed how the switches work. Basically I can choose to have either one, two or all three pickups on at the same time plus I can also adjust whether I want the E, A and D strings to be amplified by a chosen pickup or the G, B and high E strings. I've got to see if I can find that diagram. If I do, I'll scan it and post it.


Wow, that really gives you a lot of choices. Did not realise they had this feature. Fun to experiment with I bet.


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## Gizmo (Aug 7, 2008)

I guess the pickups must be non standard to allow you to select which strings. Also I see that there are only two controls....Vol and Tone I presume.

I love the Vol Treble Bass controls on mine, very powerful and very useable. So much that I've wired my Strat that way too.

I've never seen a real "deal" on a Commanche...they seem to hold their prices very well.



Kenmac said:


> Thanks Gizmo. I mentioned this before in an older thread here on the forum, the guy who sold it to me included a diagram which showed how the switches work. Basically I can choose to have either one, two or all three pickups on at the same time plus I can also adjust whether I want the E, A and D strings to be amplified by a chosen pickup or the G, B and high E strings. I've got to see if I can find that diagram. If I do, I'll scan it and post it.


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

Gizmo said:


> I've never seen a real "deal" on a Commanche...they seem to hold their prices very well.


I had mine on eBay for $1100 plus shipping...it would be $2500 to buy new. NOT ONE BID. I then listed it for $1200 shipping included. Again, not one bid. There was some minor metal tarnish and some minor fret wear on about 3 or 4 frets but not a nick, ding or scratch on the neck or body.


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## Kenmac (Jan 24, 2007)

marcos said:


> Wow, that really gives you a lot of choices. Did not realise they had this feature. Fun to experiment with I bet.


Yeah it is. For example if I wanted to have only the E, A and D strings coming through the neck pickup and I want the G, B, and high E strings coming out of the bridge pickup I can do that. I was checking out the new Comanches online and they aren't quite as versatile but they do include a toggle switch that allows you to choose either neck and bridge pickup on at the same time or all three pickups on at once.



Gizmo said:


> I guess the pickups must be non standard to allow you to select which strings. Also I see that there are only two controls....Vol and Tone I presume.
> 
> I love the Vol Treble Bass controls on mine, very powerful and very useable. So much that I've wired my Strat that way too.
> 
> I've never seen a real "deal" on a Commanche...they seem to hold their prices very well.


Yes volume and tone and the tone control actually *works*. It's not clarity or mud like most tone controls. As for the pickups I don't know if they're non standard or not because, from outward appearances anyway, it looks like the new Comanches have the same pickups. BTW I can't seem to find that diagram but I did find a drawing on the G&L website that shows how the switching system works: http://www.glguitars.com/instruments/USA/customcreations/Comanche_Studio_6/index.asp 
It's a very versatile guitar.


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## sneakypete (Feb 2, 2006)

I wanted one of the MIAs for a long time but in this Japanese city they were always well over a thousand dollars used. Saw one of the MIJs for 50% one day and bought it...very nicely made, sounded good, felt good...but I ended up not playing it very much so I sold it. So they make em in America, Japan, Korea and Indonesia...somebody must be buying them I guess.


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## Gizmo (Aug 7, 2008)

This looks like a decent deal on Kijiji Ottawa for a USA Comanche

http://ottawa.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-s...-for-your-acoustic-or-cash-W0QQAdIdZ337442271

(no affiliation...just want someone to buy it before I can't hold out any longer ;-)


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## GuitarsCanada (Dec 30, 2005)

Gizmo said:


> This looks like a decent deal on Kijiji Ottawa for a USA Comanche
> 
> http://ottawa.kijiji.ca/c-buy-and-sell-musical-instruments-guitars-My-gear-for-your-acoustic-or-cash-W0QQAdIdZ337442271
> 
> (no affiliation...just want someone to buy it before I can't hold out any longer ;-)


The whole lot for $1200 is a pretty good deal


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## did291 (Jun 30, 2009)

I have a 2006 US legacy, first gen new neck, and pleck. Still is my best one by far, will never sell it except to feed the familly.


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## Roryfan (Apr 19, 2010)

captainbrew said:


> I LOVE G&L guitars. My number 1 guitar is an early 1993 Legacy. Will never sell it. Best guitar I've ever played. I don't however like the more recent G&L's I've played nearly as much. They no longer have the 3 bolt neck with the micro tilt that ACTUALLY works and they don't do the bicut necks anymore amongst other things.
> 
> I would look for a pre-1998 G&L if I was you. Can be found cheap and usually sound and play like a million bucks.
> 
> Just my 2 cents worth.


Agreed. Don't dismiss the 3-bolt models because of the crap that CBS produced in the 70s. Snagged an early 90s Legacy off the bay for $600 shipped and it was killer. Gave it the S-500 wiring treatment with a push/pull volume pot and was able to dial in some really cool tones thanks to 7 pup choices and the Treble & Bass pots. Outside 2 with the bass rolled off was a fave. 

And those gun oil neck finishes.....mmmmm.....

There's not a lot up right now, but keep checking the G&L fan club marketplace.

http://www.guitarsbyleo.com/MARKET/market.php3


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## captainbrew (Feb 5, 2010)

Oh and I forgot to mention that the early G&L's used quarter sawn maple necks. My Legacy's neck is extremely resistant to temperature and humidity changes. I've compared this guitar favourably to some Suhrs. No kidding.


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