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Interesting day.
Rained off, so stripped the G&L. Not only a swimming pool, but the guitar's birthday as well! And I'm confident it's an Ash body.
Cleaned, tweaked the intonation, restrung and spent a couple of hours playing the result.
It sounded encouragingly good.
Then I discovered the key to making this guitar work. The volume control is hyper sensitive. The whole tonal character changes in a quarter turn of the volume knob. And the Bass & Treble cut knobs have a huge effect as well.

Armed with this insight, I headed off to band practice to discover I have a Strat with more clarity and tonal variation than I ever thought possible. When you know how to drive it, this thing is incredible. I love it!
So this thread is closed. I'm not messing with it. It's as close to a perfect Strat as I can imagine. I'm just going to accept Leo knew better than me and play the hell out of this thing.

Starting to realise I won the lottery with this guitar.

Me and Slowy both put a couple of bids in against each other for this. But I think it's obvious this guitar went to the right buyer, you know when you've got a winner

StratMatt wrote:Me and Slowy both put a couple of bids in against each other for this. But I think it's obvious this guitar went to the right buyer, you know when you've got a winner

I owe you for spotting it Matt. Still embarrassed I was bidding against you but it's certainly come to the right home. It has just become my #1 gigging instrument.

Good on ya mate (in the Speights voice over tone), good to hear you found out how to work with what you have.

Slowy wrote:I'm just going to accept Leo knew better than me

Not bad for a guy who didn't play guitar!

WellyBlues wrote:

Slowy wrote:I'm just going to accept Leo knew better than me

Not bad for a guy who didn't play guitar!

I wonder if he's unique in that sense. How many guitar builders/designers out there don't actually play guitar?

codedog wrote:

WellyBlues wrote:

Slowy wrote:I'm just going to accept Leo knew better than me

Not bad for a guy who didn't play guitar!

I wonder if he's unique in that sense. How many guitar builders/designers out there don't actually play guitar?

Once I played an acoustic made by a guy who couldn't play a single chord. It was a really impressive guitar, although there were obviously a few bits that he didn't understand having not been a guitarist.

Still a great instrument though. He got a friend of mine to professionally record some songs using the guitar.

codedog wrote:

WellyBlues wrote:

Slowy wrote:I'm just going to accept Leo knew better than me

Not bad for a guy who didn't play guitar!

I wonder if he's unique in that sense. How many guitar builders/designers out there don't actually play guitar?

Sure I've told this story before:
I have an American friend who was instrumental in the development of the G&L Comanche.
Leo Fender gave him a prototype with the instructions, "Play it, come back next week and tell me what you think."

The following week, Leo, brusque as always picked up a clipboard and pencil, "Well?"
Every comment made was met with a sharp, "Why?" and a furious scribbling.

Leo didn't need to play; he knew what to ask from people who could.

How about these?

Thought I'd jump on the G&L wagon and picked up a nice Sonic Blue one yesterday. Its basically brand new, still had the plastic on the pickguard. Fresh strings and a setup and it plays great. Indonesian S500, mahogany body, rosewood board. Pickups are growing on me, still tempted to get some replacements but I do like the treble and bass controls. Coil tap to activate the neck and bridge pickups together.

StratMatt wrote:Thought I'd jump on the G&L wagon and picked up a nice Sonic Blue one yesterday. Its basically brand new, still had the plastic on the pickguard. Fresh strings and a setup and it plays great. Indonesian S500, mahogany body, rosewood board. Pickups are growing on me, still tempted to get some replacements but I do like the treble and bass controls. Coil tap to activate the neck and bridge pickups together.

Never heard of the S500. Seems like the ultimate modern incarnation of Fender's Strat. The Legacy is a bit Old School so we may each have received our ideal instrument.