Jump to content

G&L (Coil Tap)


invader-sim

Recommended Posts

I have my beady little eyes on a G&L ASAT Deluxe, it has two Alnico 5 humbuckers with coil tap, I was wondering whether or not coil tap is any good?

 

Also, down the line, if i wanted to change the humbuckers for something fresh, how would I rig up the coil tap on the new ones? And what if I were to install one bucker and, say, a P90? would the system no longer work because the P90 cannot be split?

 

If anyone knows anything it would be much appreciated, in fact, if anyone has played G&L guitar before I'd like to know because they look great and I'm interested

 

thanks :rolleyes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Once you turn it on, the coil just keeps flowing until you turn it off. It's a cool feature.

 

 

In all seriousness don't worry about the wiring if you're thinking about swapping the pups in future, there are diagrams for almost every wiring combination. Obviously if you buy a single coil pup the coil tap wont effect it at all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

you can coil tap a P90. what you're referring to is coil splitting. a coil tap is cutting out a number or windings from a pick up to lower the output. a coil split is splitting a humbucker down to a single coil.

never played one, but always heard great things about G&Ls.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Coil taps rarely sound good, if you're after the single coil thing, there are better forms of wiring to get it. EDIT - Phill got there first, cunt :p

 

G&Ls are decent, personally think they are a touch overrated, but that's more down to the people who buy them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Coil taps rarely sound good, if you're after the single coil thing, there are better forms of wiring to get it.

 

G&Ls are decent, personally think they are a touch overrated, but that's more down to the people who buy them.

 

they sound alright. obviously not as good as a proper single coil that is built for that sound, but it adds a nice bit of versatility to a humbucker equipped guitar.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeh, of course, it's just the coil tap is already built on the standard guitar, I'm buying it for the humbuckers primarily, and the fact that it's a tele shape, with a vibrato!

 

What do you reckon though? $2000 bucks and I could either get a guitar or buy a pedal board and a pedal power block cause i need one soon (my pedal collection is growing)

 

I'm also interested in upgrading my pickups in my tele US standard to some noiseless ones, the Kinman ones look good plus I'm in Australia so they're local.

 

When you say G&L's are overrated, what do you mean? Are they less good quality than people think or what? Because if I'm buying a guitar I want it to last... this looks like a good option.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 years later...

Hey Invader,

 

'Can't answer the electronics questions - 'sorry! I've owned 11 Strats, all USA made, and only two G&Ls - a Commanche and a Legacy HB. They're excellently crafted instruments, and even if I had to part with everything else, those two would stay.

 

You could make the argument a G&L is to a USA Strat what a Lexus is to a Toyota. Both desirable, both fine quality, and both give you good bang for the buck. Neither will be a 'wrong' choice, but one is just that little bit more cared for in the building process. The fit, finish, and hardware on the G&Ls is exemplary. It's easy to see they didn't come off an assembly line among 2,000 others that day. The tone is a bit 'clearer' than a Strat, esp. when playing lower strings through the rhythm pickup. Great articulation. That doesn't mean 'brighter,' just less cloudy, or ill-defined than the Strat. The dual-fulcrum tremolo on my Commanche is buttery smooth, and stays in tune very well, without lock-down hardware. Lots of gain in the pickups.

 

Leo himself claimed G&L guitars were his best creations, and I agree. Before you spend your inheritance, get one in your hands! It's the only way to make an educated decision. Good luck!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

locking as the thread starter hasn't been active since 2011, and this probably isn't going to go anywhere

 

But for what it's worth, I wouldn't compare them to toyota and lexus in this case. Those are pretty much almost exactly identical, just lexus is a lot more expensive because of cosmetic appearance. I wouldn't say that's the case with fender and G&L, as while they are similar, they are different. Now if you had two identical guitars, one with a flashy finish, fancy woods, inlays, etc and one that was still a quality guitar but with your average finish, non-figured wood, standard inlays... with different names on the headstock... that really says nothing about the overall quality of the guitar. The second guitar could be built just as well, and be a total workhorse, for a lot less. They could even be built by the same company. This is where it's fair to make that toyota/lexus comparison. However, the particular guitars you might have tried may have varied in quality. The US fenders I have tried certainly have. Maybe G&L has tighter quality control than Fender does. Actually, they probably do. That's not my point though. My point is it's got a CD PLAYA PLAYA PLAYA PLAYA PLAYA

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...