NEW G&L MATADOR Double P Pickup Bass

[Ben Jamin]

Anyone checked out the new custom shop G&L model?

Double split pick-ups with series/parallel on the neck and vintage G&L style

Seems like a neat set of controls to me - plenty of different tones and not too much fuss over loads of switches/knobs

First saw them on their Instagram, but there's also a couple of videos up now:

 

[gary mac]

Love G&L basses and guitars. Good to see that shape of headstock

[Cosmo Valdemar]

Cor!

[EliasMooseblaster]

And there I was thinking I was free of GAS. They always manage to come up with something, don't they?

[grayn]

5 hours ago, gary mac said:

 Good to see that shape of headstock

Totally agree, I really dislike G&L's usual headstock shaping.  This looks so much better.

Tone wise, I like both pickups with series switching.  Cool bass.

 

[howdenspur]

Think they do a blonde one - @discreet may be along shortly...

Edited October 7, 2019 by howdenspur
Typo

[ped]

The shape looks a bit awkward/big bottomed to me, could be the angle

[fiatcoupe432]

42 minutes ago, ped said:

The shape looks a bit awkward/big bottomed to me, could be the angle

Yeah not many people are fan of big bottoms

[Sven]

I think I absolutely need one of these Matador to go along with my El Toro...

Pun aside, seems like a good idea, there's not enough double Ps and it's a good take on the PJ concept, often doomed by J weakness...

 

Still waiting for a Toro reissue though...

[4000]

11 hours ago, fiatcoupe432 said:

Yeah not many people are fan of big bottoms

Speak for yourself.😉

[4000]

12 hours ago, grayn said:

Totally agree, I really dislike G&L's usual headstock shaping.  This looks so much better.

 

 

I actually much prefer the usual shape.

[Ben Jamin]

13 hours ago, howdenspur said:

Think they do a blonde one - @discreet may be along shortly...

Photographic evidence!

 

[Ben Jamin]

13 hours ago, ped said:

The shape looks a bit awkward/big bottomed to me, could be the angle

I think it's their trad. G&L shape. I see it as a happy middle ground between a Precision and a BB! Tastefully voluptuous.

Edited October 8, 2019 by Ben Jamin

[EliasMooseblaster]

13 hours ago, fiatcoupe432 said:

Yeah not many people are fan of big bottoms

But those that do tend to be trustworthy sources.

[AndyTravis]

20 hours ago, gary mac said:

Love G&L basses and guitars. Good to see that shape of headstock

I’d like one of their J basses with that headstock shape...the only thing putting me off any G&L ever. Including and ASAT I fell in love with but couldn’t get over that tin opener thing.

[wateroftyne]

Ooh.. like the idea, but I'm not a fan of the headstock. I like 'em a bit more defined.

[Lozz196]

Great amount of sounds available, and all good.

[NancyJohnson]

22 hours ago, gary mac said:

Love G&L basses and guitars. Good to see that shape of headstock

I'd concur.  The headstock is much nicer than the one the dog chewed. 

[Ben Jamin]

Anyone know why PJ might be more common than PP? I guess PJ is more aesthetically pleasing. 

As someone who knows absolutely nothing about electronics, surely matching the output of two P's is easier than a PJ?

[EliasMooseblaster]

I expect it's historic - way back when, if you wanted a bass with one pickup, you bought a Precision. If you wanted one with two pickups, you bought a Jazz. I don't actually know when the first PJ basses were produced commercially, but I could imagine them being easy for Fender to market as a halfway house between a Precision and a Jazz.

Besides, Leo was nothing if not practical, and they would already have a sound design for the Jazz bridge pickup.  Typically, the bridge pickups have slightly higher impedance than the neck pickups in Jazz basses; they may have anticipated a certain amount of R&D cost in getting the impedance right on a P-pickup for the bridge position.

 

(Please note that the above is all speculative and may well be complete cobblers)

 

[Al Krow]

18 hours ago, fiatcoupe432 said:

Yeah not many people are fan of big bottoms

And yet they will pay a small fortune for a Wal? 😁

[Cuzzie]

1 hour ago, EliasMooseblaster said:

I expect it's historic - way back when, if you wanted a bass with one pickup, you bought a Precision. If you wanted one with two pickups, you bought a Jazz. I don't actually know when the first PJ basses were produced commercially, but I could imagine them being easy for Fender to market as a halfway house between a Precision and a Jazz.

Besides, Leo was nothing if not practical, and they would already have a sound design for the Jazz bridge pickup.  Typically, the bridge pickups have slightly higher impedance than the neck pickups in Jazz basses; they may have anticipated a certain amount of R&D cost in getting the impedance right on a P-pickup for the bridge position.

 

(Please note that the above is all speculative and may well be complete cobblers)

 

Fender dabbled early 80s with the Elite II basses that we’re very good, and decent electronics, but often were pretty heavy. Similar time as their Elite starts came out that wee also special but an absolute bugger to play.

Ultimately the vast majority of people have conservative tastes and hence they didn’t take off.

G&L P pick ups tend to be pretty good (or they were) and a lot better than their MFD buckers.

Getting 2 split coils to match won’t take a lot of R&D

Edited October 8, 2019 by Cuzzie

[ped]

Wonder why it doesn’t have two MFD pickups as they are a brilliant sounding pickup IMO... 

[Cuzzie]

12 minutes ago, ped said:

Wonder why it doesn’t have two MFD pickups as they are a brilliant sounding pickup IMO... 

@bigsmokebass tell him not to get me started on that one......🤦🏾‍♂️

It would surely just be an L2000 but maybe a different pre-amp or not then?

[ped]

6 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

@bigsmokebass tell him not to get me started on that one......🤦🏾‍♂️

It would surely just be an L2000 but maybe a different pre-amp or not then?

You won’t change my opinion, though mine is limited to the P pickup in an SB1. Fantastic pickup.