G&L restocked their clearance basses.

#21
I’m kinda surprised that they sell stuff like this honestly- I guarantee there are people buying the stuff and flipping it on the used market without proper repairs. That’s why most companies sell their rejects to a refurb company like MIRC who will theoretically make it playable before reselling (and issue it a new serial), sometimes using aftermarket parts or part out the useable parts in the case of bad necks.
 
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#22
sunbeast said:
Ya made me do it dangit! I haven’t had a G&l bass around for 10 years or so (though have used their P pickups in a number of basses), these Fallouts have definitely intrigued me and they had one that seems like it should be functional and not a project (vs some of the other clear outs with described headstock cracks and warped necks). Now I won’t have to continue living a lie with the G&L Club in my signature line (though I have continued to play an ASAT guitar as my main squeeze for 12 years or so)
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Hell yeah man! Great deal. Drop pics in the thread and let us know when it arrives.
 
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#23
sunbeast said:
I’m kinda surprised that they sell stuff like this honestly- I guarantee there are people buying the stuff and flipping it on the used market without proper repairs. That’s why most companies sell their rejects to a refurb company like MIRC who will theoretically make it playable before reselling (and issue it a new serial), sometimes using aftermarket parts or part out the useable parts in the case of bad necks.
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No kidding. They had a fully finished USA L1000 neck in tinted maple w/ abalone dots for $250. It's gone but the listing is still there. And their tuners, even brand new, are not expensive. That could have sent me down the project rabbit hole in a hurry if it hadn't been sold out.
 
#24
TimBosby said:
No kidding. They had a fully finished USA L1000 neck in tinted maple w/ abalone dots for $250. It's gone but the listing is still there. And their tuners, even brand new, are not expensive. That could have sent me down the project rabbit hole in a hurry if it hadn't been sold out.
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I’m curious what was wrong with it? I assume all these parts must be marked as “seconds” somehow too? In my G&L days I woulda probably bought a bunch of that stuff just because!
I think the Fallout will be a great combo of what I loved about my old G&Ls and my different current needs. The only thing I fear is the weight, as I’ve heard these can get up into the 10 pound region which is crazy for a shorty!
 
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#29
sunbeast said:
I’m curious what was wrong with it? I assume all these parts must be marked as “seconds” somehow too? In my G&L days I woulda probably bought a bunch of that stuff just because!
I think the Fallout will be a great combo of what I loved about my old G&Ls and my different current needs. The only thing I fear is the weight, as I’ve heard these can get up into the 10 pound region which is crazy for a shorty!
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I bought one. 8.8 lbs. I really wanted to like it. Figured the MFD would be a nice foil to my Schecter Banshee P Basses. Tonally it didn't seem as nice as the std wind Fralin in one of my Schecters or the Fender v-mod 62 in the other. Kinda dull aounding which I wasn't expecting.

Sold it locally for the same money
 
#32
sunbeast said:
Ya made me do it dangit! I haven’t had a G&l bass around for 10 years or so (though have used their P pickups in a number of basses), these Fallouts have definitely intrigued me and they had one that seems like it should be functional and not a project (vs some of the other clear outs with described headstock cracks and warped necks). Now I won’t have to continue living a lie with the G&L Club in my signature line (though I have continued to play an ASAT guitar as my main squeeze for 12 years or so)
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Got my Garage Sale Fallout ($235 shipped!) a few days ago, and upon inspection the only noticeable flaw was the miscut pickguard (just tight around the pickup)- will be an easy fix with a file. Pretty amazing that this wasn't considered worth the few minutes it would take to fix (or replace) at the factory- perhaps the price they list them at is around what they get from retailers anyway?

The bass showed up with abysmally high action and relief, so I assumed the neck may have been at issue as well. I set it up with my typical (for a short-scale) medium-low action and low relief and so far no issues or even any immediately apparent high frets (these days I generally expect a few from typical low-priced imports, so that was a surprise). I guess they just didn't bother doing much of a setup since it was marked as a factory defect. Oh yeah, mine weighs 8lbs 11oz on my kitchen scale- not so terrible! Kinda funny though given my last bass purchase was my Ibanez EHB1506MS, which is a 6 string bass with a 35" B string that weighs a pound and a half less!
4Mal said:
I bought one. 8.8 lbs. I really wanted to like it. Figured the MFD would be a nice foil to my Schecter Banshee P Basses. Tonally it didn't seem as nice as the std wind Fralin in one of my Schecters or the Fender v-mod 62 in the other. Kinda dull aounding which I wasn't expecting.

Sold it locally for the same money
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Curious if you have experience with the long-scale G&Ls with these pickups? I played them as my main basses for several years, so I was pretty familiar with what I could expect from the general tone of the Fallout. Of course the short scale means less upper-midrange harmonic stuff going on than an L2000 or L1000, but with the action and pickup height dialed in (I find lowering the pickup makes a huge difference adding clarity with these MFDs) there is plenty of liveliness for me and I really appreciate the even-ness and thickness across the board that the MFD pickup imparts (both things that some short-scales can lack for my taste and the MFDs add a pleasant bit of compression/saturation/chunky midrange to my ears that really gels things together). I'm not a fan of D'addario XLs, so if I end up keeping my Fallout those will be the first thing to go. Then I'll probably swap the pots for 500K or even 1meg (something I did on my main player L2000/L2500 as well) and possibly add the passive bass-cut control from the L-1000/2000 (kinda surprised that wasn't included on these basses). There's also a little trick I figured out on my last vintage L2000 where I removed the polepieces from the non-active coil in single-coil/OMG mode which made both series/parallel and OMG modes sound more focused to me- doing this while lowering the pickup and raising the poles on the other coil made my L2000 a special beast!

Those Banshees do look awesome though- if I could find one for $235 I'd grab a few!
 
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#33
TimBosby said:
Great deals. Basically full G&L Tribute basses for under $200.
Unfortunately they are all SB-2s and J basses and Fallouts which violate my personal prohibition against 1.5" necks and shorter than 34" scales :)
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I am tempted by one of those SB-2s after stupidly selling a killer US one many years back, but I've found I like one of those MFD pickups put into a P I already own just as much as an SB-2. Still, for the price...if I hadn't bought this Fallout I'd probably grab that SB-2
 
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#34
I will also add that my "Garage Sale" Tribute Fallout with clear (and documented) factory flaws doesn't have any clear "factory second" markings like the typical "Used" stamp or modified serial number that you always see on refurb factory second instruments sold by MIRC for example. This is a strange business decision in my opinion, and would definitely make me more wary of ever buying modern G&Ls on the second-hand market again given some of these instruments are documented to have neck twists, loose-fitting neck pockets and other more major structural issues that resellers could conveniently fail to mention. This is the reason refurb businesses like MIRC exist, is to make flawed instruments playable AND to clearly mark them as having been factory seconds. G&L selling faulty parts in rough condition on the used market without any clear markings to differentiate them from "good" examples is just potentially damaging/diluting the brand IMO.

It also makes me curious if the custom SB-2 that I bought new from a retailer years ago (probably 2005ish) for a really good deal that had some clear build flaws that were undisclosed to me (what looked like router slop at the butt of the neck, a slightly misaligned bridge and/or pickup routes) was just a customer return that they were allowed to unload like that. Fortunately none of the flaws in that case made it less than an awesome bass for the money, but had I paid the full price for its custom features (I think it would have been an extra $400-500 in 2005 money) I would have definitely returned it. In any case, the flaws on that instrument should never have made it out of a factory with proper QC procedures.

tobias3469 said:
The grey 4 string Kiloton looks awesome! But with a “mis aligned neck” ?? How does that even happen in 2024? Aren’t they using CNC machines in Fullerton?
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After many years away from G&Ls, I looked at a few G&L threads recently and it seems like the G&L factory (and Custom Shop) has been screwing up alot for quite a while at this point. Of course a CNC can only do as good as it is programmed and supervised to do, and it seems like the G&L factory has been lacking proper supervision for some time. Here is a recent illuminating interview with the new guy running the Custom Shop now that mentions some of that chaos, as he has ended up also apparently trying to fix major issues in the main production line: G&L Guitars Is Bringing Leo Fender’s Heritage to the Modern Age - SPIN
I figure if he was allowed to make some of those comments in an interview with a big publication like Spin then things must have been pretty bad (this is essentially PR trying to improve a lagging brand image)
 
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#36
4Mal said:
@sunbeast Yep. Plenty of L1K, L2k, L2500 experience as well as JB2 and SB2 experience. The Fallout didn't remind me of any of those... Mine also had no marker identifying it as B stock. No discernable flaws other than weight.
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Actually I may have bought some G&L something or other from you years back when I was living in Portland- I know we met at some point in Hood River?
That's interesting though, as my Fallout definitely sounds like the modern L2000/2500 basses I owned- or at least like a short-scale version! I'm pretty pleasantly surprised, and though they seem to be heavy for short-scales still not as heavy as a number of the other G&Ls I've owned. It is basically a full-sized body with a short-scale neck and Tributes are often on the heavy side, so the weight isn't a big surprise (I'm just glad it isn't 10+ pounds!)
 
#39
AlteredCourse said:
Is there anywhere else to get the corresponding hardware (mainly the saddle lock bridge)? Good chunk of the garage sale items don't have the bridges.
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They usually have them in the G&L store, but they are missing right now so perhaps running low. That may explain why they’ve been removing them from so many of these sale bodies (but weirdly not all of them)
 
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#40
They added a bunch of bass necks recently.
I did the math, and - if you're ok with a black G&L L2000 USA body and a maple USA LB-100 neck, just add pickups, preamp, knobs, and you're at $718.75. Hardware is sold out, but if you can find four tuners and a bridge, you could get a USA L2000 for under $1000 easily.
 
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