G&L CLF RESEARCH SKYHAWK & FULLERTON DELUXE COMANCHE £1,699 & £1,469
Contact Andertons Phone 01483 456777 Web www.glguitars.com
It’s been quite a while since this writer has had his hands on a USA-made G&L, and on first impressions there’s something very vintage-y about both of these pieces, as if they’ve been laid in storage since the early 80s. The truth is, while G&L (rightly) has a large fanbase, its original models seemed to almost place function over form and style, and even back in the day they seemed slightly at odds with where music was heading. Is it any different today? Let’s take a look.
Obviously, both of our models are based on Leo’s masterstroke design and – as many contemporary designers have found – improving on a ‘perfect’ design isn’t easy. Whether or not the Comanche, or indeed the earlier Skyhawk, improved on the Stratocaster is not actually the point: both designs illustrate the restless spirit of Leo Fender. Virtually every part of his Stratocaster has been tweaked, from the body outline to the control circuitry, creating a hugely familiar but different tasting dish.
The Comanche’s body, by design, is clearly the most Strat-like with a very similar outline. The 44mm-thick ash body is, when viewed from the base, a three-piece spread that’s very cleanly joined. In fact, looking from the front on the treble side it’s hard to see a join line at all. Contouring is quite deep on the back, too, and the tinted gloss finish to both body and neck certainly supports that ‘time capsule’ vibe.
The Skyhawk plays with the Strat’s outline a lot more. Its waist is slightly thinner and subtly offset, but the bridge sits further up the body – approximately 172mm from the break point on the E string saddle to the body’s base. The Comanche, like a Strat, is closer to 145mm. Effectively, then, the Skyhawk’s neck sticks out more from the body (about the distance from the nut to the 1st fret), but allows subtly easier high-fret access, even though both have a classic Fender-style squared off heel, on which sits the usual neck plate and quartet of screws. The body wood is okoume, a central African hardwood that’s also know as gabon – it looks very much like a lightly figured mahogany. It appears centrejoined, too, and the aptly named Old School Tobacco Sunburst finish again seems a slight throwback.
Necks on both are maple, of course, and rift-sawn where the grain is at a diagonal to the headstock face. As a result, there’s some subtle flame on the bass side of the Comanche’s neck; the Skyhawk’s neck, in contrast, appears plainer. Back in the day, G&L pioneered the Bi-Cut neck – the neck blank was cut into two pieces, the curved truss inserted into one side, then the two pieces were glued back together. But today’s construction is more conventional with a separate maple fingerboard on the Comanche. The Skyhawk’s is chechen (also known as Caribbean rosewood), another alternative to Indian rosewood with a less deep, almost light brown colour and a slightly polished surface. Fretting on both is seriously impressive, not to mention the nut work: smooth, with very tidy edges and filled slot ends and a nice rollover to the fingerboard edge. G&L apparently uses the Plek process to finally fettle the nut and frets.
Perhaps a little surprising are the noticeably different headstock shapes, as well as the decals. Another example of the restless spirit of Leo Fender? The earlier Skyhawk design looks a little quaint, not least with that pointed cut-out on the treble side. The Comanche’s is a little more Stratlike. Note, too, the different approach to string trees – the later Comanche is more Fender-like, whereas the Skyhawk, sensibly, pulls the top three strings under a single metal bracket that sits closer to the nut, and
Virtually every part of Leo’s stratocaster has been tweaked, from the body outline to the control circuitry
quite possibly evens out the bending feel, as well as ensuring a very clean back angle. Typical, it would seem, of G&L’s highly functional ethos.
Both guitars share the same hardware; the Dual Fulcrum vibrato was very much a part of the improvements Leo Fender made to the original G&L guitars. It takes that classic design and runs with it, using two sturdy Allen-key height-adjustable pivot posts, brass saddles with a large central hole, and nicely shaped ramp leading up to the break point of each. The hole from which the strings emerge has a slightly radius’d edge – the block is apparently brass and you can see the anchor holes are drilled deeper into the block than on a vintagestyle vibrato. Height adjustment screws sit well inside each saddle. Only the collar that holds the arm looks a little oversized, but it not only offers tension adjustment but also provides a very firm positive drive.
Another bit part of the original G&L guitars were the MFD (Magnetic Field
Design) pickups for which Leo Fender was granted a patent in 1980. Various types have been used over the years and here the Comanche uses perhaps the most visibly out-there Z Coil version, which refers back to the classic Precision bass pickups: two coils in that classic offset with the bass sensing coil heading towards the neck. The Skyhawk’s pickups look more conventional, although they share the distinctive polepieces where a height-adjustable screw sits within a threaded insert.
The circuits on both are identical, however, even though the placement of the Expander mini-switch varies: the Comanche’s switch sits right behind the master volume (rather uncomfortably if you like to swell), while the Skyhawk’s not only adds a red plastic tip but places it more out of the way by the lowest tone control. And while the volume and two tone concept of the Strat is retained, the function differs. Along with a five-way lever switch and master volume control we get both a treble and bass control, G&L’s Passive Treble and Bass (PTB) circuit.
Feel & Sounds
If there are some oddities to the designs, both share a very good weight and come with very similar necks that are on the thinner side, depth-wise. There’s less taper than many, too, so the neck doesn’t get overdeep in higher positions. The feel is pretty similar to Fender’s Professional series, for example, with a depth of just over 21mm at the 1st fret slightly, filling out by the 12th fret to approximately 22.5mm, whereas the American Professional gets a little deeper at around 23.5mm. We’d call it C profile with a little shoulder, and that gloss polyurethane is actually quite a welcome change from bare wood, satin or often sticky nitro gloss.
Warming up our test amps with a pair of Strats then plugging in the Comanche, we’re in for a different ride. First up, there’s less hum in front of either our computer monitor or from the mains transformers in our amps. The trade off is a slightly darker voicing at the neck (less so the bridge, although there’s a definite touch of Telecaster here) and quite a humbucker-ish tonality. Pulling back the bass-cut control
With the Comanche, it’s all too easy to get side-tracked as you explore the tone options
thins that slightly for a more conventional Strat-like voice, but can make the bridge rather too thin and spiky. But restore the bass, then pull down the treble control, and kick in a crunchier amp tone, and again we move into a more conventional humbucker-like voicing that’s some way off ‘classic’ Stratocaster. In fact, it’s all too easy to get side-tracked as you explore the tone options. The bridge and middle mix, for example, has quite a honk to the expected hollow flavour, giving a little more poke that’s useful for dirtier funk rhythms. The neck and middle is softer, but again there’s a darker character here that takes a little while to get a handle on. It’s definitely a ‘Fender’ you’re hearing, but with considerable tonal shade.
Swapping over to the Skyhawk and it’s a slightly knocked-back version, a little demure in comparison, but there’s still that noticeable hum reduction and a slightly rounded high-end, albeit slightly less than the Comanche, and it sounds slightly smoother, too. It’s not hitting the amp quite as hard, either, which for clear, rich voicings might be an advantage. And that’s where this one really excels: dial in a cleaner Fender-like amp voicing, add a little treble and bass and some generous reverb, and the rich, balanced cleans are big and very bold. Again, the combination of the volume (which, pulled back, cleans the sound a little via the treble bleed capacitor) and those treble and bass cuts means there’s a lot of ‘Fender’ here, but it’s quite refined with less brashness compared with the Comanche. It shares a slight ‘hint of humbucker’, especially with the treble control pulled back, and is very usable with crunchy to actually pretty gained voices. Switch over to that clean amp, though, and you have a very serviceable jazz voice at the neck for your comping, or kick in a boost and you’ll find that it’s perfect for those fusion leads. If you want to just run everything full up, you’d be missing a trick here.
The Expander function (see the ‘Under The Hood’ box on p97) is aptly named. The additional all-three-pickups-together sound gives us yet another hollowed mix choice, while the combined bridge and neck shouts Tele – or again with that more humbucker-y voicing, it chases a more Gibson-like mix.
Back on the Comanche and you really notice the textured volume lift – working