G&L ASAT Classic Custom Guitar Review

While our focus is on our free guitar email newsletter, we sometimes take deeper dives into things like guitar gear.

Check out my review of the new G&L ASAT Classic Custom Guitar, offered as a limited edition model through Sweetwater.

Overview

G&L typically produces 3 different versions of their popular ASAT tele-style guitar line:

  • ASAT Classic: Features 2 G&L MDF (magnetic field design) pickups
  • ASAT Special: Features 2 G&L Jumbo MFD single coil pickups
  • ASAT Bluesboy: Features a single coil pickup in the bridge position, and a humbucker in the neck position.

In the ASAT Special, the neck pickup is the main one people seem to rave about, and in the ASAT Classic, people tend to favor the bridge pickup.

Every once in a while, G&L releases a limited edition run of a model called the 'ASAT Classic Custom'. This guitar is arguably the best-of-both-worlds, featuring a standard MFD single coil pickup in the bridge position, and a Jumbo MFD single coil pickup in the neck position. The middle position is of course a combination of the two pickups.

While I was familiar with the regular MFD pickup from owning an ASAT Bluesboy, this is the first time I've had the chance to play a guitar with their Jumbo MFD pickup.

The Jumbo pickup has a such a cool and unique sound to it. It's often mistaken for a P90, but it's a single coil. I've heard it described as 'hi-fi', which is pretty accurate. It's a bit of a fuller tone than the regular MDF pickup, but is still a single coil pickup at heart.

The MFD pickups are pretty bright, and I find myself usually dialing in the tone volume to only around 40-50% to find the sweet spot. I also tend to prefer this guitar with the volume knob turned slightly down.

Check out the video above for a more detailed review and specs on this great guitar.