This project is all about the modification of a G&L ASAT.  I bought the body off eBay, and discovered that it had come from the factory as an ASAT Special, which had been modified to take a pair of humbuckers.  And it got a Les Paul style switch.   And all I got was a body, no neck, pickups, bridge, or any other hardware.   The included pickguard was a hand done unit, not from the factory.

I can't make out the full date, but it is from March of 2000.

The neck and bridge pickup routes have some writing in them from the factory, some of which has been obliterated by the mods already done to it.

Since this body has been butchered already, I am going to convert it to an ASAT III, which is the ASAT body with the S-500 MFD pups in it.  So one of the first things that had to be done is remove the LP style switch and fill the space with wood putty, and I put a G&L "Bomber Girl" sticker over it.

As of Jan 19, 2007, the body is at the G&L factory getting a new neck put on it, and I should get the body back sometime in February.

Things that I already have for this guitar are:

• Pickups
• Pickguard
• Bridge

Things that I need or am going to do are:

• Drill out the jack for a 7/8" jack cup
• Hot dog plate for the controls
• I am thinking of stripping the finish and putting some quilted maple veneer on it, and then doing a "black burst" finish on it.

Veneering is a challenge, as I do not have a vacuum press to use.  I have been experimenting with clamps to no good effect.  But I have found a company in the SF Bay Area called The Sawdust Shop, and they have a 4'x8' vacuum press.  Yes!!!  This might just work.

Jan 30, 2007

I found a neat little veneering vacuum bag tool from Rockler that I experimented with today, and it will do the trick.   It is a manually operated vacuum press bag.  The price is reasonable, especially when you consider the price of using The Sawdust Shop and the need to experiment and wait around for things to finish and dry.  The vacuum bag is actually made by a company in Hawai'i, called Roarockit.   They designed it for use in teaching kids to build their own skateboards, using plywoods and molds.

Feb 14, 2007

I got all of the electronics parts that I need.  I have decided to implement a G&L style tone arrangement, called PTB.  I also wanted to implement an off/on switch so that the bridge pup could be on when ever the neck pup is in use.  So I got a hot dog plate with 3 holes in it, instead of the normal 2.  And a 250k ohm pot with a push/pull switch in it, a 1meg ohm pot, and a miniature 500k ohm pot from AllParts. (You have to do a search on "mini pot" to find them.)  The mini pot gives me enough room on the hot dog plate so that I don't have to cram everything in.

I also had to meld 2 schematics, one from Seymour Duncan and one, Legacy Schematic Block Diagram, from G&L, into this schematic.   I have not yet soldered it up, so I don't if it will work.  But I will find out before too long, I hope.

Mar 29, 2007

It worked!!!!  Yee-Hah.  I expected to have to rewire this thing and what not, but NO!  It worked!

This is what it looked like when I got it from CB Perkins, my Dealer.

This is the headstock and the neck date info.

The one thing that I dislike about my ASATs, and it is a MINOR issue, is the manner in which the jacks are mounted.  I much prefer the old style jack cup, so I had to drill the appropriate hole.  I used 100lbs of shot to hold the body down.

The body started out as an ASAT Special, then was rerouted for humbuckers.  Since I was converting it into an ASAT III, I had to route out the middle of the body.  And with the pickguard and pups.

And this is it, sort of put together.  It worked!  It still needs to be finished, put the wires away, do a setup, that sort of stuff.  So it is not playable.   Yet.