G & L Guitars

The birthplace of Bolt-On: G&L guitars was the final take on Leo Fender’s classic designs made for players all around the world. Founded by long time guitar innovator Leo Fender and his business partner, George Fullerton, G&L guitars continue to be made in Fullerton, California. With the idea of constant tinkering and improvement, Leo took his classic designs that became indisputably famous and sought to improve them. Making them his best instruments ever made. Concepts and designs like the Dual Fulcrum Vibrato, Saddle Lock Bridge, Magnetic Field Design pickups and Passive Treble Bass tone system allows for guitars and basses alike to be shaped into precise and distinct tones, chasing that “Perfect sound” in player’s heads.

Models such as the G&L Custom Shop guitar, Legacy guitar, S-500 guitar, ASAT guitar, SB-1 guitar, L-2000 guitar, and many others carry on the spirit of Leo Fender’s designs and ideas. Now running out of their plant in Fullerton, California and having an imported “Tribute” series made in Indonesia, G&L guitars are amongst some of session, gigging and other professional musician’s favorite instruments to perform their craft with. The imported Tribute Series and S-500 guitars use many parts from USA-made G&L guitars, like the Magnetic Field Design (or MFD) pickups and different bridge models. Some of the most notable G&L artists include Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains and Tom Hamilton of Aerosmith, along with many high profile sessions musicians in Nashville and Los Angeles. The Legacy guitar model aims to carry on the ‘Legacy’ of the original Stratocaster design that had been made notorious by artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Holly, David Gilmour, Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff Beck, to name a few. The Legacy guitar model takes the original synchronized tremolo bridge and completely reinvents the idea, aptly renaming it the Dual Fulcrum Vibrato, which is a more floating bridge design that aims to improve tuning stability along with allowing players to bend the pitch lower and higher and return to regular pitch without compromise. The Saddle Lock Bridge uses individual saddles to properly intonate the guitar as well as using a set screw to lock the saddles in place, allowing for a better transfer of vibration throughout the guitar. The Magnetic Field Design (MFD) pickups place a single bar magnet entirely beneath each pickup coil, and proprietary machined bushings house height-adjustable pole pieces to fine-tune the magnetic response to each string.  Central to the electromagnetic formula, broad, potent magnets radiate a single polarity upward through the coil.  The result is a stronger, smoother magnetic field right where the strings interact, for a fuller, warmer sound with less noise. The Passive Treble Bass system P.T.B. are dramatically more effective than a standard tone control, treble and bass frequencies can be separately cut with this exclusive passive style circuitry via two separate tone knobs. These knobs are wired to each individual pickup, allowing players to cut or add Treble or Bass to their guitars output prior to hitting the amplifier. With innovations like this, G&L guitars suit players looking to fine tune their sound.