After the sale of Fender to CBS in 1965, and after the end of their relationship with Music Man, in 1980, Leo Fender and George Fullerton formed a new instrument company named G&L. G&L, naturally stands for George and Leo.

The L-1000 basses were among the first instruments that G&L produced in 1980. This L-1000 bass was manufactured in 1981. It has a beautiful two-tone sunburst finish and a wonderful Macassar ebony fingerboard.

This example is all original. It has one passive MFD design pickup with a 3-way toggle to switch between series/split/and parallel configurations.

Here is G&L’s explanation of the pickup:

The patented G&L Magnetic Field Design® pickups use a ceramic bar magnet installed underneath each coil, with soft iron adjustable pole pieces to transfer the magnetic field to the top of the pickup. By contrast, traditional Alnico type pickups, such as used in the Legacy and George Fullerton models, use non-adjustable Alnico pole pieces leaving the only adjustment being pickup height. The Magnetic Field Design has this adjustment, but further offers individual adjustment of each pole piece, letting the player effectively adjust the output of each string on each pickup. Magnetic Field Design yield about twice the output per wind, making the pickup quieter while allowing a greater overall output. The sound of Magnetic Field pickups is slightly warmer with a broader frequency response.

To boil this down to the nitty-gritty…this bass THUMPS like an active pickup bass, but by using a passive MFD pickup, this bass has much more warmth to its sound.

Tuners, truss rod, and all electronics work as intended. The potentiometer codes we can read are the 22nd week of 1980 and the 44th week of 1980…the third pot has its code obscured by solder. The single pickup reads 8.46 k ohms when measured at the output jack.

The frets are original and have plenty of meat left on them. She weighs in at a very reasonable 9lbs 4oz. This bass also comes with its original black exterior- brown interior case. As always, it will be professionally packed with care.