My guitar collection - G&L

 
 

Oh the irony! The whole reason to introduce the Superstrat was the hard-rock/metal/shredding craze of the first half of the 1980s, was it not? And just when companies like Charvel, Jackson, and even Ibanez had put all their eggs in that basket, grunge came along and (almost) did all these companies in. Due to its wider variety, G&L was less affected but this particular model interestingly enough straddles both sides of the story. Introduced in January 1985, the Rampage is the simplest shredding machine possible, very much like Eddie Van Halen’s Frankenstrat. It has a comfortable, contoured soft maple body, hot Schaller humbucker with no more than a single volume control, rock solid hard-rock maple (pre-BBE) #3 neck with 12” radius ebony fingerboard, 1¾” nut width, and the popular “Black Krome” Kahler™ 2320 flat mount fine-tuner vibrato. And this model, in this incarnation, happens to become the go-to axe for a stalwart of the Grunge movement, Alice In Chain’s Jerry Cantrell. Sure, over time he swapped out the Schaller with a Seymour Duncan JB Trembucker (TB-4) or even a Motor City humbucker. Because how hard can swapping out a pup be on a guitar like this? As indicated on the Superstrats page, Greg Gagliano features no Rampage on his website. Jerry officially became a Gibson endorser in early-2020 and the Rampage Jerry Cantrell Signature model was delisted by May of that year. But G&L reintroduced the Rampage, initially as a Custom Shop exclusive, with the first one completed in March 2021. Check out the list of G&L instruments in the References/Links section for archived links for this model.

 

Rampage

The story behind this guitar

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I had always hoped to find one in a nice color like Hot Pink, Rampage Red, or New Yellow. Main preference was Rampage Red since that would match the stitched Rampage on a G&L jacket in my collection. There was a one available in Breda, the Netherlands, but alas. Although it could be picked up on my next family visit, it is a bit much work. But in May 2017 one became available on eBay. As offered, it came equipped with a Roland GK-2 guitar synth pickup, which I do not need. Fortunately it was easy to remove. The only remnant is a screw I used to “cover” the hole of the screw that held down the control contraption. I can live with the 2 holes where the pickup bar once was. And it turned out to be one of the earliest Rampages, about the 3rd month of production. The only control in the cavity is a CTS (R1378439) 250kΩ Audio Taper volume pot with a 200pF ceramic treble bleed cap. The shielding plate is exactly the same as what can be found in either the contemporaneous Invader and/or Superhawk. With such simple layout, what can go wrong sonically? Have pup, have volume, start rocking!

The story behind this guitar

1985

G017010

JAN 18 1985

JAN 2 1985

D’Addario EXL120 Nickel Wound Super Light (9-42)