G&L Basses

If your first thought upon seeing a G&L Bass is that it looks a lot like a Fender, you have a good eye. This company has the same builders behind its designs as the instruments that defined a generation of electric guitars and basses: Leo Fender, George Fullerton and Dale Hyatt. Even the name, G&L, is based on the first initials of George and Leo. While G&L bass guitars may look a lot like Fenders on the surface, there are a lot of design changes "under the hood," including Magnetic Field Design pickups, Dual-fulcrum Vibrato and G&L's Saddle-lock Bridge. These improvements led Leo Fender himself to describe G&L's lineup as "the best instruments [he had] ever made." It's not hard to see why Leo spoke so highly of those design elements. Take the MFD pickups, for example: their Magnetic Field Design gives these pickups a characteristic sweet and clear tone. They use a ceramic bar magnet and adjustable-height pole pieces, which allows you to fine-tune the output of the pickup for each individual string - a big step up from having to adjust the entire pickup at once as you would in a traditional design. G&L basses also come with the Saddle-lock bridge design, which cuts down the side-to-side motion of each string's saddle to keep them from wandering. That motion can cause sustain to suffer in a run-of-the-mill bass, but with G&L you can count on beefy sustain thanks to Leo's advanced saddle-locking bridge concept.

No matter how you like your bass to sound, G&L has a model that will put a grin on your face. A semi-hollow ASAT bass is the perfect choice if you're looking for a softer, mellower sound than a solid-body, and if you're a bassist who likes the added range of a fifth string, then the L-2000 and L-2500 models are just begging to be played. If you're on a beginner, check out the Tribute series - these are the same great bass designs as the domestic-built G&L instruments in a package that's accessible enough for anyone.

With Leo Fender and his buddies being the creative minds behind G&L bass guitars, there's no way they'd be anything short of amazing instruments. Leo, George and Dale came through in fine style with every bass they built for this brand, blending their classic design philosophies with new pickup and bridge innovations that make the basses as much of a joy to play as they are to admire.