My guitar collection - G&L

 
 

The pickup combination on the Custom Shop ASAT RMC P-90/HB, or something very close, first appeared on the Fallout. This model was introduced during the 2013 Winter NAMM and is inspired by the different ways guitarist Robert Poss, of the mid-1980s noise band Band of Susans, modified his arsenal of SC-1 guitars. This particular guitar was marketed as B-stock, a designation for instruments usually held in reserve or built for artists. Not entirely correct about which more below. But indeed, this one has a number of upgrades. The Mustang-shaped body for the production Fallout is either alder or swamp ash. Here the body is mahogany and finished in Nitro Shell Pink, a hue similar to the Sunset Coral on the ASAT Classic Bluesboy Alnico Semi-Hollow prototype. It has a Saddle-Lock bridge with the G&L AW4470B bridge humbucker close to it and a G&L AP4285B P-90 in the neck position set in in a 3-ply parchment pickguard. These pups are controlled by a relatively simple wiring harness, identical to the one used on the Korina Collection ASAT Deluxe II and later, consisting of a volume control and push-pull tone control to enable the coil-tap on the bridge pickup. Not a coil-split mind you. When pulling the tone control, you still have a humbucker but at a reduced output cleaning up the tone quite a bit. The pickguard is made of 3-ply W/B/W plastic. The hard-rock Eastern maple neck has a Nitro Vintage Gloss finish, a rosewood fingerboard with 9½” radius, Jescar Medium Jumbo 57110 frets, 1⅝” bone nut, and G&L branded closed tuning machines. On the “Specifications” tab on the Fallout webpage on the G&L website, the bridge pickup is still stated as an AW4380 in error, even as late as early-2020. It also incorrectly states 12” as the default for the fingerboard radius. Also note all pictures show a Seymour Duncan JB (TB-4) bridge Trembucker which is available as an option but not the default either. Still, knowing that, visit the following link for more information

http://glguitars.com/product/fallout/.

 

Fallout (Nitro Shell Pink)

The story behind this guitar

Year:

Serial number:

Neck date:

Body date:

Strings:


After its introduction, this model was never on my radar. That was until the release of a Custom Shop ASAT RMC P-90/HB in 2019 with a very similar pickup combination. And then it became luck over wisdom again, as has happened with several instruments in this collection, while in the process unearthing a good story. This particular guitar had enough interesting differences compared to the “standard” production Fallout, i.e. body wood and finish, that Rayhill Audio in Barton, NY got the call when they listed it as a B-stock instrument on Reverb in late-2019. However, the complete story was unknown to me at that time. And that story was only pointed out by another G&L aficionado well after it had been purchased. Chip Schumann is the founder of the ”Fans of G&L - CLF Research Guitars by Leo Fender and George Fullerton” private Facebook group. When he declared February 21, 2020 to be “Fallout Friday” for that group, I posted a picture of this guitar only to have Chip tell me what was so special about it. It turns out that after G&L had developed their own nitrocellulose lacquer in 2016, they produced a limited run of instruments with varying body wood/color combinations and such a nitro topcoat. Amongst them, a number of Fallouts with a mahogany body in Nitro Shell Pink finish. Now you can only get such a nitrocellulose finish when ordering a G&L Custom Shop instrument. The previous link goes to a post on the Guitars by Leo website stating there are separate posts on the G&L Musical Instruments page on Facebook. And when I did a search there for this serial number, strangely enough I got 2 results. The first, dated May 22, 2016, indicates the guitar was heading to The Candyman Strings and Things in Santa Fe, NM. However, the second posted on July 10, 2018, states the same serial number being shipped to Audiomusica, a distributor located in Chile. Could this be? Not likely if it ended up in NY as we now know. A typo then? Much more likely. The guitar is fun to play and I have it almost constantly out next to my favorite ASAT Classic and my 4-bolt George Fullerton Signature. With its humbucker and P-90 pickups, the Fallout provides a nice complement to the pickups on these guitars.

The story behind this guitar

2016

CLF076921

none, marked ‘Fall’, ‘Nitro’

APR ?? 2016

D’Addario EXL110 Nickel Wound Regular Light (10-46)