This is not a review I just want to say, briefly, from a guy who has played G&L guitars continuously since 1980, this is a bunch of bullshit.
G&L has launched two new Tribute models called the Ascari and the Fiorano claiming that the inspiration came from a Leo Fender 1980 drawing of the never-produced G-100. What are these guitars, really?
Here's the gut-wrenching marketing spin they're putting on these models: "Born of history. Entirely new."
"The inspiration was G&L founder Leo Fender – specifically a prototype drawing discovered in Leo’s laboratory two years ago. It was dated January 18th, 1980. It was Leo’s idea for the G-100, a 24¾” scale, three-tuners-to-a-side axe, rendered on paper by his partner, G&L co-founder George Fullerton. “The G-100 drawing literally fell out in front of me,” says Steve Grom, G&L’s director of manufacturing. “I’m not ready to say it was a sign from Leo, but it was certainly startling and revealing."
Well, if Steve Grom was startled I am dismayed. The Tribute Ascari looks even less appealing than the Cort, which is, itself, a poor imitation of a PRS. This, friends, is the kind of shenanigans you get when companies shift from making guitars to selling guitars. G&L just took a dump on their own namesake for the sake of selling mass quantities of disposable McPlanks.
This was the sign from above? Tweaking a Cort M600 and slathering it in a thick coat of marketing snake oil that implicates some kind of Leo Fender vision?
Had G&L actually built the G-100 (or anything close to it) I would have bought one. Instead, I bought a PRS. And had G&L not descended to this low level of oily spin it would never had occurred to me to try my hand at a partscaster which turned out every bit as good as my two ASATs.
It's not about the guitar. Tweak and rebrand a couple of Corts and market them on their own merits. But for pity sakes, don't try to pass this crap off as somehow inspired by Leo Fender, that it is historical, or that it is new.
As far as I can recall this is the first time G&L has gone completely sideways on their marketing and I suspect, after reading about the failure of Fender's attempted IPO, that things are not looking too rosy in Fullerton either.
G&L has launched two new Tribute models called the Ascari and the Fiorano claiming that the inspiration came from a Leo Fender 1980 drawing of the never-produced G-100. What are these guitars, really?
Here's the gut-wrenching marketing spin they're putting on these models: "Born of history. Entirely new."
"The inspiration was G&L founder Leo Fender – specifically a prototype drawing discovered in Leo’s laboratory two years ago. It was dated January 18th, 1980. It was Leo’s idea for the G-100, a 24¾” scale, three-tuners-to-a-side axe, rendered on paper by his partner, G&L co-founder George Fullerton. “The G-100 drawing literally fell out in front of me,” says Steve Grom, G&L’s director of manufacturing. “I’m not ready to say it was a sign from Leo, but it was certainly startling and revealing."
Holy shit. Here is what the G-100 was supposed to be:
And what has G&L delivered? Let's just look at the Ascari -- the other model is so goddamned ugly it will burn your eyes out
"Born of history. Entirely new." Really? It's a Cort M600 with a few tweaks.
Well, if Steve Grom was startled I am dismayed. The Tribute Ascari looks even less appealing than the Cort, which is, itself, a poor imitation of a PRS. This, friends, is the kind of shenanigans you get when companies shift from making guitars to selling guitars. G&L just took a dump on their own namesake for the sake of selling mass quantities of disposable McPlanks.
This was the sign from above? Tweaking a Cort M600 and slathering it in a thick coat of marketing snake oil that implicates some kind of Leo Fender vision?
Had G&L actually built the G-100 (or anything close to it) I would have bought one. Instead, I bought a PRS. And had G&L not descended to this low level of oily spin it would never had occurred to me to try my hand at a partscaster which turned out every bit as good as my two ASATs.
It's not about the guitar. Tweak and rebrand a couple of Corts and market them on their own merits. But for pity sakes, don't try to pass this crap off as somehow inspired by Leo Fender, that it is historical, or that it is new.
As far as I can recall this is the first time G&L has gone completely sideways on their marketing and I suspect, after reading about the failure of Fender's attempted IPO, that things are not looking too rosy in Fullerton either.