One more instrument in the Dale Hyatt Collection. The headstock does not have a model decal on the sickle headstock without the G&L hook. So what to call it? When it was first offered to me in mid-2013, a couple of months after Dale Hyatt had passed away, the label was simply “G&L Prototype 5 string bass”. But is is clearly similar to the L-5000, with only 2 differences. First, the obvious addition of a second Z-coil humbucker between the black powder-coated Locktight (Saddle-Lock) bridge and the pickguard, mounted into a perfect rout, machined by Lloyd Chewning, on the contoured soft maple body with just a sealer coating. Second, the pickup selector is a mini-toggle switch in the pickguard beyond the volume control, tone control, and output jack. The quartersawn hard-rock maple neck has a 34” scale, 1¹³⁄₁₆” nut, 7½” radius maple fingerboard, and Ultralite bass tuning machines, all specs identical to those of the L-5000. What also should be clear is that this model has little-to-nothing to do with the ill-fated L-5000E announced on G&L’s June 15, 1988 price list. Beyond a preamp, that instrument was also intended to have 2 humbucker but likely more similar to the MFD buckers on the L-2500. And the L-5500, which became the BBE-era 5 string bass, has the same neck width but looks quite a bit different with its EMG Soapbar 40DC buckers. Hence the name ‘Z-5000’ was chosen for this prototype. The bass resided for quite some time with Roger Cox, one of Dale’s close friends and co-creator of Ampeg’s famed SVT amplifier, before being returned. A second ‘Z-5000’ with S/N B019420, likely augmented by a previous owner, popped up on Facebook in late-2018. The additional Z-coil on this Black ‘Z-5000’ has the same location as on this prototype but now with its pickup selector located between the 2 controls and a simpler wiring harness: just a treble bleed cap on the volume pot. No other information is available on this model which clearly did not make it into production.