G&L Fullerton Deluxe S-500 Electric Guitar

Description

The Fullerton Deluxe S-500 draws from G&L’s Option Order catalog to deliver a fully dressed version of Leo Fender’s 1982 double-cutaway classic, built at the original G&L facility in Fullerton, California. Bodies are alder, swamp ash, or western sugar pine depending on finish, topped with a Clear Tint Satin neck that keeps the whole instrument feeling cohesive from headstock to heel.

• 3-Tone Sunburst over Alder with a 3-ply parchment pickguard, in maple or Caribbean Rosewood fingerboard
• Andromeda over Alder with a 3-ply pearl pickguard and Caribbean Rosewood fingerboard
• Plum Metallic over Alder with a 3-ply black pickguard and Caribbean Rosewood fingerboard

At the heart of the S-500 are Leo Fender’s own Magnetic Field Design single-coils, voiced for sparkling highs and a solid low end that never crowds out the midrange. Backing them up is the PTB (Passive Treble and Bass) circuit, which lets you carve tone across all three pickups rather than just rolling off top end. A mini-toggle Expander Switch adds neck+bridge and all-three-pickup combinations to the standard five-way selections, so a single guitar covers a surprising amount of sonic ground, including a neck+bridge blend that flirts with ASAT Special territory.

The Dual-Fulcrum vibrato, another Leo Fender design, tracks pitch bends smoothly in both directions and stays in tune thanks to its stable pivot points, all operated through a substantial aluminum arm. Up top, the hard-rock maple neck wears a satin finish with a 9.5″ fingerboard radius and medium-jumbo nickel frets, striking a balance between comfortable bending and precise fretting.

This is Leo Fender’s forward-thinking approach to the bolt-on electric, still built by hand in the birthplace of the design itself.