FACTOIDS & TRIVIA

G&L's Customs Creations Department struck again in 2004 with the release of a new model, the ASAT Classic S. The “S” stands for “Session” as in Nashville session. The guitar is simply an ASAT Classic Semi-Hollow (sans F-hole) with a middle pickup. Recall that G&L attempted this once before with the ASAT Classic III, but with that model the middle pickup was a reverse wound neck pickup. With the Classic S, the middle pickup is an S-500 MFD. Unfortunately, instead of putting an S-500 MFD in the neck position as well, G&L opted to leave the stock ASAT Classic neck pickup. There is plenty of room for the larger S-500 neck pickup thanks to the "mini-bathtub" route in the body.  Though some may feel that the S model comes up short because of this, a quick test drive of the Classic S will prove otherwise. Thanks to the push-pull pot’s “expander” switch (allowing the bridge+neck pickup combination) this is an extremely versatile guitar. In fact, it makes the ASAT Classic III all but obsolete. The original production run aren’t super abundant (50 in honeyburst, 50 in 3-tone sunburst), but the model eventually became a standard catalog model with even more options available.

 Body: Semi-hollow; 2-piece ash

 Finish: Sunburst, polyurethane

 Neck: 2-piece maple, bolt-on

 Fingerboard: Maple; black pearloid dot markers

 Number of Frets: 22

 Pickguard: Tortoise-white-black-white plastic laminate

 Bridge: G&L ASAT Classic, chrome with brass saddles

 Nut: Plastic

 Tuners: Schaller M6, chrome

 Pickups: Three, G&L Magnetic Field Design single coil with adjustable pole pieces

 Controls: Master volume w/push-pull expander, master tone, 3-way pickup selector switch

 Scale Length: 25 1/2 inches

 Neck Width at Nut: 1 5/8 inches

 Body Width at Lower Bout: 12 5/8 inches

 Body Depth: 1 5/8 inches