In Tribute

Thanks to the Asian-made Tribute series, you can get yourself some G&L style for not a lot of money. Even the models made in the USA look rather tempting, too…

G&L TRIBUTE S-500 £489

This was G&L’s initial attempt to update and evolve the Stratocaster, a design that, by then, was nearly 30 years old! Although the larger humbucking MFD pickups had already appeared on the F-100 and G-200, the S-500 introduced the more Fender-like MFD single coils. The contemporary Tribute version is exactly that, including all the G&L DNA of the Dual Fulcrum vibrato, PTB circuit and Expander. Numerous colours are available and either maple or Chechen (Brazilian cherry) fingerboards.

G&L TRIBUTE COMANCHE £519

This affordable version of our reviewed Comanche, introduced in 1987, uses USA Z Coil pickups and a mahogany body paired with a maple neck and Brazilian cherry fingerboard; the Expander circuit is on the Treble cut control. More mainstream is the Legacy that didn’t appear until ’92, after Leo Fender had passed away the previous year. The Tribute version (from £449) uses a basswood body with more conventional Alnico V single coils along with the Dual Fulcrum vibrato and PTB circuit.

G&L TRIBUTE ASAT SPECIAL £449

When G&L developed its first Tele-style guitar, it was called the Broadcaster! Unsurprisingly, that quickly changed and the ASAT (“military shorthand for an anti-satellite missile,” said George Fullerton) was born . This Special recalls that first model with its distinctive MFD pickups. The more runaway success came with the Classic, which uses a Tele-style six-saddle bridge and similar MFD single coils to our reviewed Skyhawk. Tributes start at £449.

G&L USA ASAT CLASSIC THINLINE £1,249

On to the USA-made models: the ASAT Thinlines joined the line-up around ’98, at the time differing from the Fender Thinline-style with chambers on both sides of the solid centre section. This Classic has a Fender-style bridge plate (Fullerton apparently took his ’53 Tele engineering drawings to a tool and die maker and asked him to replicate the bridge plate but with six barrel-style saddles), with MFD single coils on a swamp ash body.

G&L USA FULLERTON DELUXE LEGACY £1,299

The USA Fullerton guitars fall into standard and Deluxe categories, as here. While the standard Legacy starts around £999, as we observe in our review, it’s the Deluxe models that most closely emulate the original builds. So, here we have a light ash body, maple neck and fingerboard with a 241mm (9.5-inch) radius, CLF-100 Alnico V single-coil pickups and, of course, the Dual Fulcrum vibrato and the PTB controls.

G&L USA FULLERTON DELUXE ASAT CLASSIC BLUESBOY £1,429

For ‘Bluesboy’ think neck ’bucker, in this case a G&L A2S4248N Alnico II. It veers furthest from G&L’s original vision yet remains a lot of guitar for the money; this spec includes a light swamp ash body. A more period-correct piece is the Fullerton Deluxe ASAT Special (from £1,195), with the Leo Fenderdesigned Saddle Lock bridge and rectangular MFD single coils. There’s a lot of colour choice – check out the Butterscotch Blonde swamp ash version.