👕 Get New Ernie Ball Merch Now!
  • Ernie Ball
  • Music Man
  • Sterling by Music Man
  • Security notice: Ernie Ball staff will never send you a direct message about a prize or giveaway, and will never ask you to click a link to "claim" anything.
    If you receive a message like that - even from an account whose name looks official - do not click the link. Please report it using the Report link on the message so the moderators can act. A scam campaign impersonating admin accounts was blocked on 29 July 2026; those accounts are banned and their messages have been deleted.
Axis 30th Anniversary

Leo's Basses

pan_of_qld

pan_of_qld

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 11, 2006
Messages
54
I loved the George Fullerton thread so thanks for all involved and now I'd like to read a book on the whole story. What's around that covers this important era?

I'd also like some ideas on something that's been on my mind for years:

I grew up in the UK with Fenders once I could afford them instead of Vox, Hofner, Burns etc. When I found my SR4 in '77 it blew the Fenders away. Leo's progression towards perfection I thought.

I bought a G&L 5 or 6 years ago thinking it would be a progression from the SR4 to a new level but found I just didn't get on with it. What went wrong?

I recently treated myself to an SR5 circa 2001 and it's just great. The SR4 plus a bit more (as well as the extra string). So the MM progress is doing fine but what's behind the Leo story? Was G&L a serious 'progression' for Leo? Was it a hobby for him? Any clues me old low-end mates?
 
Ive heard that Leo considers G&L his best work.. Im not sure if he had as much to do with musicman as he did to do with G&l, perhaps thats why the difference of styles.


Either way, i like Musicman the best by far, G&l being in second, but distantly so.
 
I've never owned one but I used to drool over them in high school
















while I was looking at the MM's hanging above them. Damn music store owner kept chasing me off, swearing I was rusting the pole pieces. :D
 
Hello,

Hopefully Big Poppa will chime in. I am interested in his opinion, as well... I would have to say 'Yes' in some ways, the G&L's are another level from the traditional StingRay. The reasons I have are:

1. If anyone's ever played a G&L 2000, they know that the sonic versitility seems almost endless with the active preamp it has and the many ways one can configured it.

2a. It has the dual humbuckers remnescent of the Sabre.

2b. Those are basically "MusicMan-like" pickups, however I can't recall ever hearing a G&L that has that distinctive MusicMan bite, I haven't played one since Junior High/Middle School.
 
I owned a G&L...I have some tapes of old rehersals playing that bass with some early GK amps. I liked it. From memory, it was a blue one that you could see the grain. Cool bass.
 
I've seen some early L2000's with mahogany bodies that are absolutely beautiful to me. The ASAT also is appealing, especially in the semi-hollow config.

But the Bongo sounds as good or better for less coin. Sounds like a deal to me.

But I wouldn't mind having both.:D
 
At NAMM I was actually impressed more by the G&L Tribute basses than the American G&L 's.It wasn't that the Americans weren't good but that the Tributes felt and sounded so close to the real thing that I couldn't see paying $600 more for the American G&L's
 
Randracula said:
At NAMM I was actually impressed more by the G&L Tribute basses than the American G&L 's.It wasn't that the Americans weren't good but that the Tributes felt and sounded so close to the real thing that I couldn't see paying $600 more for the American G&L's
Click to expand...
Don't let Steve catch you talking about G&L ;)
 
I think the pick-up voicing and the pre-amp options were probably where Leo 'advanced' from his designs of his StingRays but it seems to me that where he really did the most was witht he guitars at G&L and kinda refined his StingRay designs for the basses but seemed to concentrate on redefinig the Strat and Tele

just my 2-bits though
 
Listen to some Skunk Anansie. That's Cass Lewis using (I think) an ASAT on there growling away.

Great sounding bass.
 
Figjam said:
Ive heard that Leo considers G&L his best work.. Im not sure if he had as much to do with musicman as he did to do with G&l, perhaps thats why the difference of styles.


Either way, i like Musicman the best by far, G&l being in second, but distantly so.
Click to expand...
Wondering here also if maybe he had less to do with MM than with Fender and GnL. The GnL bass is a logical progression from the the Fender bass, in both tone and appearance. The MM is very much another path.

In tone, but certainly not in appearance, MM under BP has finally trumped Fender and GnL at producing the tone that Fender established back when they were pretty much the only game in town. Everything that Fender and GnL basses invoke, tonally, is wrapped up in the Bongo. The tone is there, but you'd still get kicked off the stage at a Roy Orbison tribute if you showed up with an orange Bongo. I know that if Roy were alive, he'd embrace the Bongo but once your dead, then semi-dead minds begin to take over your life.
 
82Daion said:
I've seen some early L2000's with mahogany bodies that are absolutely beautiful to me. The ASAT also is appealing, especially in the semi-hollow config.

But the Bongo sounds as good or better for less coin. Sounds like a deal to me.

But I wouldn't mind having both.:D
Click to expand...
+1. Having been Bongafied this past autumn [2005] with a 4HH and 5HH both with frets, I'd be way way gassed over a fretless Bongo if I didn't already have a GnL L2Ke FL to fill that slot. Usually, in any line or model of bass I take to, I get the FL before the fretted [and sometimes take a pass on the fretted, as with me and StingRays].

AFAIK, my GnL FL is mahogany, and I imagine the only Bongo that I'd feel was a justifiable upgrade would be a 'hog Bongo with a piezo bridge.
 
The G&L I refer to was an ASAT in blueburst. Very powerful pickups, interesting bridge, many many variations with the pups and toggles and well made and finished . . . maybe it's just me and my personal feelings.
Nice but just didn't do it for me.

On the other hand (and to prevent the thread being accidentally deleted) both the '77 SR4 and the '01 SR5 do the business for me and IMHO leave Fenders old and new for dead.

I have a Jap '62RI Jazz for the memories and to compare - it's a good standard to measure against.
Good for EB that they kept one of the best basses on the planet alive and have remained faithful to the original design.
 
G&L basses have their own set of fanatics, and God bless them, but I generally don't find G&Ls to have any sort of real sex appeal.

I don't know why. Every now and then, I see one with some outrageous bound body or sparkle finish and think, "Right, I'll have one of those" but then I don't.

And the ASAT, most likely to live at Camp Bovine due to my long love of all things Telecaster, hangs like a string of live cats around my neck. Completely lacking in ergonomics.

I'm still, of course, a big believer in whatever floats your boat is fine by me.

Jack
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Classic Rock N Roll Slinky
Back
Top