My guitar collection - G&L
Another unique prototype produced by G&L in the pre-BBE days, entered as such in Dale Hyatt’s sales log on 10-9-87 under invoice #3944. The appearance of this one-off is rather spartan: 2-piece swamp ash body in Natural finish, single-ply black plastic pickguard, black powder-coated aluminum Saddle-Lock bridge and control panel, black chromed volume control and tone control, 3-position pickup selector, flame hard-rock maple neck with 7½” radius maple fingerboard, and black anodized G&L branded Schaller closed tuning machines. Everything a “Poor man’s Broadcaster” would look like even including the U-shaped bracket for a string retainer on the headstock. So what makes this prototype so special? The same pickup combination as found on the ‘SCav-2’ from 3 years prior. Clearly not the neck pickup which is the standard Jumbo Magnetic Field Design (MFD) single-coil pickup. The magic is all in the bridge pup: an HG-2R “Angled Offset” humbucker as introduced shortly before on the Cavalier, adding the highs and clarity Mr. Fender loved so dearly. It should be noted that unlike the ‘SCav-2’, here the rout has the proper 11° slant, so the strings run properly over the pole pieces, and is shorter than for a Jumbo MFD bridge pickup, indicating the HG-2R was purposefully installed. This prototype also has a unique wiring harness Leo was experimenting with around that time, combining the pickups out-of-phase when used together. I know of no other instrument that has this as a factory provided feature. As expected, no other webpage exists for the ‘CavASAT’.
‘CavASat’ prototype
The story behind this guitar
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As stated in the text for the HG-2, Jon Chaikin had sent me a list of instruments he wanted to sell. Strangely enough, the ‘CavASAT’ is not part of it. Still, when Jon was about to move to a different house in May 2014, he dropped me an email offering this guitar. He had gotten it a number of years earlier from Tim Page who ran Buffalo Brothers at the time. Tim had gotten it from John Paul Daniel, guitar player in the Eddie Rabbit Hare Trigger Band, who either bought it from Dale Hyatt (version 1) or received it as a gift from Leo (version 2) while the band toured the factory in the day. According to Tim, both stories may be true. Dale Hyatt would be the man they would be dealing with. And of course a meet-and-greet with Leo would be another highlight. John Paul told Tim the ‘CavASAT’ had been in Leo’s lab and Dale showed it to him. Leo said he could have it, Dale wrote it up! Two things stick out right away when you pick up and play this guitar. First off, the finish is extremely thin and always was that way as evidenced when looking under the pickguard. Turns out it is not a finish at all; only sealant has been applied, which explains why you can feel the wonderful grain of the ash. Secondly, each pickup by itself sounds great as expected. That bell like quality of a good MFD neck pickup and the Cavalier bucker with more highs than you might expect from a bucker. But together? Together they create magic! The sound is something entirely unique and beautiful. Must be some of Leo’s magic he put into that out-of-phase circuitry. One would seriously wish other G&Ls would have received a similar treatment.
The story behind this guitar
1987
G021821 (prototype)
OCT 01 1987, marked ‘3’, ‘5’, another illegible stamp, ‘2’ written on butt.
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