Playing the World's BEST Single Coil Pickups!

Yes, Leo Fender was a genius - and that applies to his pickups too!
His MFD pickups, while popular in certain circles, are not on the forefront of many player's minds. These pickups offer a level of customization and flexibility not found on traditional single coils!

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All riffs written by Darrell Braun

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GEAR LIST:
Camera - Canon 80D,
Lenses - EFS 24mm prime, 50mm prime, EFS 18-200mm
Lights - 2 soft boxes + LED cold shoe light
AMP - Mesa Boogie Blue Angel + WGS G12A
Featured Guitars - G7&L ASAT Classic
Audio Interface - Tascam UH-7000

PEDALS:
- Lawrence Petross Design Sixty 8 and Eighty 7

- Aleks K Honeymoon2 and Hot Ice

- Ruach Amp Juice

G&L PICKUPS:

Enjoy!

[DarrellBraunGuitar]

Messing around with these pickups was really cool!
People often treat them like one-trick ponies, but there are some seriously versatile sounds available!
Enjoy :)

[Jzgtrguy]

I really appreciate a demo that uses clean sounds where you can actually hear what the picjups sound like. A lot of pickup and guitar demos are really amp or OD pedal demos because they're so distorted that you can't tell what's going on. Thank you.

[jasonlee]

Leo listened to players and made changes accordingly. This is well documented. There was a time when Fender guitars were seen as very modern and futuristic.

[douglasholdenjr.]

Never too old to been playing 40yrs.... learned something I didn't know. Thank you, Sir. Great video!!!!

[bradrehn]

I am awestruck by how "game changing" these adjustable pole pieces are, yet in so few reviews of the asat series G&L's does anyone mention them!
This seems like a huge development in personalized pickup design and function.
So why is it so seldom mentioned.
Thanks Darrel for shedding light and spreading knowledge on guitars and Leo's unparalleled inventions, particularly.

[bigfootingermany]

Hey Darrell I have a G&L Comanche with the MFD- Z coil pups. Very interesting tone. Single coils with zero hum, but nothing like a regular Strat or Tele sounds. Something closer to a humbucker, but not quite that either. Truly it’s own sound. I’m told this was the last thing Leo was working on before he died. This guitar is part of my salute to Leo collection. 1960 Tele. 1962 Strat. MM Cutlass and the Comanche. At home in the US I also have an original 65 twin reverb that belonged to my uncle before he passed away. The Tele was also his. He worked for fender from 1958-1986 when he retired. He originally started out working directly for Leo in the amp shop/R&D developing the amp boxes for different things Leo was working on. I used to love hanging out with uncle Jim, playing Teles and nursing glasses of scotch. I was able to get together with him one last time about a year before coming to Germany. It was very cool chatting about the almost adventure of the early fender days and how bad it got after CBS took it over. Cutting corners and lots of pressure on the employees. Stuff Leo would have never put up with. The scotch that day/night/ and into the next morning was aged 30 years in the barrel, but had to be sitting another 10-15 in the bottle. The cork was mostly rotted away. lol. We were spitting out pieces of cork the whole night. This is one of my fondest memories of us two. Bob in Germany

[TheOrchsrdParkBand]

Hey Darrel nice video. I finally have my ASAT where i want it and put all my pole pieces back to where they were originally. I've wrestled for years with how to set up the pickups and one thing for sure is you don't set them up like a tele. I finally called G & L and asked them how they are set up at the factory. They told me to set my neck at at the base side to 3/32 and high E string to 2/23 and put the pole pieces in the whole way and then go by your ear. You take the measurements with the top fret pressed down. the bridge is set at 3/23 and 2/32. I started from there and love it now. I did make the neck pickup 3+/32 on the bass side but left it to how G & L told me. I am now very happy with how it sounds.

[hearpalhere]

Wow, that is a drastic difference with each setting! It's certainly beyond what I was expecting. Thanks for another great demo Darrell!

[howardanderson]

These pickups are the bomb, my friend turned me onto these MFD's, Leo's last gift to the world.
These PU's in my opinion are the best. Great Vid, not many have covered them. Thanks!

[jamesdoctor]

I’ve been playing an Indonesian G&L ASAT tribute for 7 years now. Best guitar I’ve ever owned, and I’ve owned a lot. Up against a Made in Mexico Telecaster, it was no contest - the G&L absolutely DESTROYED the tele. The cool part about mfd’s is you can get a bridge pickup tele-ish country tone by just turning down the volume knob on the ASAT. I couldn’t imagine playing a different guitar at this point

[Mrcoconut]

I loved my tele an American 8502. One of the best guitars ever. I got an asat and after a few days my tele sounded like a joke. Also sold my 57 strat re issue for the same reason. I bought a USA Comanche after playing side by side for a few days the strat just didn't do it for me anymore. G and l are great guitars. Love your channel. Great stuff.👍👍👍

[andrewbutcher]

100 percent agree these are the know you could adjust them....!

[TelecasterLPGTop]

Leo was a genius. My 1991 G&L Commemorative Leo Fender 1909-1991 ASAT Classic. has become my go to and it has some stiff opposition i.e. Custom Shop Strat and a 2006 ex - Angus Gibson SG. Originally I was looking for a Tele sound with that spank but I was disappointed, until I learned how to adjust the pups that is. Mathew at The Salt Mine guitar repairs in Sydney Australia did an amazing job on her. I just fitted a set of Optima 24 carat strings as well and the guitar is awesome to play. It's hard to bite the bullet and admit that G&L leaves Fender behind but it's true Fender has stayed stuck in the mud.

[dangreving]

Super great that you showed how much of a difference that makes. I have been using carvin pickups since the late 80’s, they have 12 adjustments, sound killer. Now i’m gonna mess around with them. Love your channel!!

[danejurus]

The content on this channel is insanely good for us guitar heads.

[MrGavinspoppop]

every guitar I have has a loud B string ....now I can adjust it !!!! WOOOPPPEEE

[j_freed]

Silly! Guitar players never adjust pickup height or tone/volume controls, they just complain or buy new pickups.

[DBSG]

That's why this channel is great...I had no idea these pickups existed and it was very interesting video. Daphne Blue Teles need love too ;)

[SteveSteeleMusic]

I have an ‘80 or ‘81 L-2000. I’m the original owner, btw. The pickups and setup are genius, especially coming after the Stingray single pickup design that quickly became iconic, (while the Saber dual pickup design didn’t really catch on back then). It’s takes a little work to get comfortable with the system because it’s very aggressive, but after putting in the time you can easily dial in a P-Bass tone, a J-Bass tone, a Music Man tone and then there’s some tones unique to the L-2000. Definitely one of the most versatile stock basses ever made, and it makes an excellent session or live bass. Leo did great work at G&L, and they’re finally doing great work again. What a legacy.

[mikedesensi]

Iv hand wound hundreds of pickups when I worked at G&L in the early mid 90's the ASAT classic neck pickup is My all time favorite tele style neck pickup