Since this site intends to tell the G&L ASAT story, there are a couple of guitars where one might claim the collector has gone overboard. This may very well be one of them. You bought a guitar because of the string tree position? In the remainder I will try to convince you at least an exceptional specimen was added. Because it is likely an employee guitar, it has many transitional features; some of the old and some of the new. First of all, use of soft maple for the body on standard models practically ceased during 1987 with only a few leaving the factory until 1991. To have a 2-piece flame maple body on an ASAT built in 1989 is even more exceptional. A very similar 1990 specimen can be found on Greg Gagliano’s ggjaguar.com website. Second, yes, that string tree moved down close to the low-E tuning machine somewhere between March and September 1988. And whereas most ASATs with lower string tree are missing the (large) “by Leo Fender” script decal, this one still has it. This guitar has been fitted with a truss rod nut seated much deeper inside the channel. Likely it is the same as when a string lock mechanism behind the nut is present as for many guitars with a Kahler vibrato. Otherwise this is an absolute beauty. The all black hardware, including Locktight (Saddle-Lock) bridge, black powder-coated pickguard and black chromed Sperzel Locking tuning machines, looks stunning on this finish. The hard-rock maple #2 neck has a beautiful 7½” radius rosewood fingerboard. Of course, all of its sonic power is still derived from the 2 Jumbo Magnetic Field Design (MFD) pickups found on all ASATs with the same Broadcaster wiring harness. More information on the current ASAT Special can be found at:

http://glguitars.com/product/asat-classic-special/.