Hi, I'm trying to decide between a G&L Comanche and a G&L Legacy on Ebay. The Comanche is a honey sunburst and looks really cool, while the Legacy is a fairly plain sunburst. According to the list price, the Comanche should be a no-brainer unless it goes several hundred dollars higher than the Legacy. Those of you who own one or both of the guitars, I'd appreciate it if you could post a review or give an opinion.

Thanks!

i've had both. the only real difference is the pickups and controls. bodies, necks, bridges are all pretty much standard, unless someone got the guitar with custom options.

what you need to decide is do you want the "legacy" (strat) sound, or do you want the "z-coil" sound. for my money, i love the z-coil pickups, they have a punch, clarity and fullness that fits the type of music i do. to some ears they sound a bit "lacking in character" which actually makes them great candidates for players who use effects.

to my ears, i've never found them to lack character. they just don't sound like single coil strat pickups, or MFD's or "noiseless" pickups. although because of the "z-coil" layout they are quieter than regular single coils. they also do look a bit "funny" to some folks.

read up on the z-coils and the variable switching options on the Comanche by doing a Google Groups search, reading the guitar and pickup reviews at HC, and looking at the G&L fan site (guitarsbyleo.com).

either way, G&L are great guitars, and some of the best bang for the buck available on the market.

jonc

Ive owned a Lagacy for a couple years and like it very much. Sounds/plays like a strat.

I replaced the bridge pup based on advice here to a SD Hot Custom (I think that is the name, 4 henry) and rewired to have the bridge pup on a tone control and neck on the other. This works well for me. The other 2 pups are g&l and I have thought of replacing all with suhrs etc... but have not, no hurry, it sounds good as is.

The trem is good and quality is good.

Have not played the other one.

I will pretty much echo what jonc said. There is a big difference in the sound between the z-coils and the Legacy single coils. Basically, the z-coils are louder, darker, and more aggressive sounding. They have more midrange and don't really deliver classic strat, but they have their own sound.

Here's the important difference between the Comanche and the Legacy: you MUST like the z-coil sound of the Comanche as it is because you cannot get replacement pickups for the guitar. Conversely, the Legacy takes standard sized single coil pickups, so you can change the tone by replacing the pickups.

If you are unsure about the z-coil sound, then I recommend the Legacy.

As others have said, build quality is great and the guitars usually have a very lively ring when strummed acoustically.

Regards,

Harris