Rediscovering Leo's Other Stratocaster - the S-500

[Erock_Germany]

Well, I have a G&L S-500. One day at a gig after switching from my CS 1960 Strat to the G&L I just felt the guitar sounded strange and so did the bandmates. I played a few songs and brought it home and hung it on the wall and there the guitar was hanging for close to a year now.

I have a fully loaded pickguard with Fralins, CTS, cloth wire etc. and was contemplating getting a new pickguard (original has a mini toggle and the Magnetic Field Coil pickups are bigger) and making it more traditional but......

I took the guitar, restrung it, lubed up the nut and saddles and started playing it and man, I now see the light where Leo was coming from. I played a rhythm with the CS Strat and saved it in the looper and keeping all settings let it play and plugged in the S-500 and did a comparison....

I was amazed how close they actually sound - I thought they sounded so different after the experience from a year ago. The magnetic field coils are a little less chimy but man they have the Strat quack and the really drive the front of the amp way different. They are a Strat, just louder and with a little less chime.

So now, I have scrapped the tweaking/modification idea, realized they are different but definitely Leo creations and what have just another Strat in the arsenal when this thing just rocks.

Any other folks out there digging the Magnetic Field Coil pickups?

In the end, different guitars and different sound. Not everything has to be the traditional Alnico PU configuration......guess my ears just needed time again to appreciate the difference.

[jerryjg]

Yep, sometimes you can't see the trees for the forest till you distance yourself aways. I've almost sold some stuff I ended up loveing, like my '59 Bassman replica. That was a close call- it turned out to be weak preamp tubes. I replaced the tubes and the amp sprang to life- worthy of its proud heritage as the holy grail of all amps.

[Guitar_Mc]

I have the magnetic field coil pups in my ASAT classic. I love them. I use that guitar far more than any of my other guitars playing out.