G&L Legacy HSS USA electric guitar “Strat” Spanish Copper Metallic

Although the G&L Legacy electric guitar was released one year after the passing of Leo Fender, it is designed to the specifications of the original Stratocaster but with a few modern features specific to G&L instruments. The Legacy included, for instance, G&L’s Dual Fulcrum vibrato and Schaller tuners and was available in a combination of different tonewoods. Even if the G&L guitars from before Leo Fender’s death are more collectable, the Legacy electric guitar is still considered a high-quality instrument.

The Legacy’s vintage-spec CLF-100 Alnico V pickups have that unmistakable chime and quack reminiscent of the best examples from the late ‘50s, thanks to the work of G&L’s Paul Gagon. Gagon found his inspiration reviewing original prints stored in Leo’s private laboratory at G&L, but that was just the start. In the early ’80s, Gagon was an R&D engineer at another company when he was tasked with finding out what was so special about the early bolt-on guitars many players raved about. Gagon analyzed many examples of what were considered holy grail guitars, spending time out on the shop floor talking to builders still working in the pickup department since the ‘50s, all on a quest to discover where the real mojo was – and wasn’t. What he learned from the builders matched his own engineering analysis. You see, back in the day, the actual spec of pickups coming down that old production line varied considerably. That meant coming up with the right specs for the Legacy pickups was more challenging than simply following the prints.