Initially, the L-1000 was the only bass guitar in G&L’s lineup. This even though a picture of an “L-2000” appears in the 1980 catalog. But close inspection of that L-2000 shows it to be more like the Music Man Sabre Bass as far as pickup positions, wiring, and control panel are concerned. In late-1980, G&L added the L-2000 as we know it. Beyond the neck pickup, also present on the L-1000, it featured an additional Magnetic Field Design (MFD) humbucker positioned closer to the bridge. Both pickups on this bass have the cheese head slotted machine screws for pole pieces as was typical for the 1981-1982 era. Buyers had a choice of mahogany, soft-maple, or swamp ash body, and maple neck with either maple or ebony fingerboard. Initially, it was offered as the fully passive L-2000 or as the L-2000E with preamp. However, it was soon clear the L-2000E was more popular. Whereas both the L-2000 and L-2000E are still on the February 1, 1981 price list, only the latter is included on the April 1, 1981 price list and the former had been discontinued. The early active bass discussed on this page still has a skunk stripe on the back of the neck. The contoured mahogany body is finished in Natural Gloss which gives it a dark brown hue. While the Locktight (Saddle-Lock) bridge is black powder-coated, all other hardware is chromed. On pages 79 and 80 of his book “The Bass Space: Profiles of Classic Electric Basses”, Willie G. Moseley displays and discusses this “mismatched hardware”. Only few early L-1000 and L-2000 basses have this property, which makes this particular bass rare. The wiring harness, with all its switching options, endows this instrument with a plethora of sonic possibilities. The 34” scale hard-rock maple neck has a 7½” ebony fingerboard and 1¹¹⁄₁₆” nut width. See Greg Gagliano’s ggjaguar.com website for more history on the L-2000E. The L-2000, now with a series/parallel switch instead of a Splitter switch, is still part of the modern day G&L lineup. And the CLF Research version esthetically has a lot in common with the early-1980s version, as one can see here:

http://glguitars.com/product/l-2000-clf/.