G&L Comanche: The Most Underrated Electric Guitar?

Leo Fender was a great innovator. With the Telecaster, Stratocaster and then the Precision and Jazz Bass, he defined some the standards for the industry of electric guitar & bass, even though he did not play guitar at all(!). But some of his innovations are not as famous, and that’s a pity!

After selling Fender to CBS and then quitting Music Man, Leo Fender created G&L with George Fullerton in 1979, to keep working on new ideas. I believe it was not a great commercial success (compared to the Fender brand), but…

I must admit that I was initially a bit skeptical about the brand and claimed innovations. But while at first sight the G&L models look like copies of the good old Fender standards (and some are), that’s not entirely true. I recently stumbled upon a G&L Comanche model (USA) and was surprised by the smart innovations built into this electric guitar, which make it one of my favorite instruments!

All in all it is a great guitar (similar to the Stratocaster in its basic design), but there are a couple of new things that truly make a difference for me!

Z-Coil Pickups

The MFD Z-coil pickups is the first thing you notice on this guitar, with their odd Z-shape. You may like the shape or not (I must admit it took me some time to get used to it, like the shape of the headstock), but what make them great is how they sound. They are designed to sound like single coils, but without the noise (which can be very annoying with single coils).

Just like P-bass pickups, they are indeed made out of two coils. It is a like a split humbucker, or two single coils wired in reverse order (one for the lower strings, and the other one for the upper strings). That’s a great idea, because it catches the hum, but does not alter the sound as much as a humbucker would do. And that’s really efficient!

So does it sound like a single coil? Not really: they are actually a bit fatter, similar to P90s, with a bit more low end than usual single coils that you would find on a Stratocaster. But on the Comanche, that’s actually a very good thing, thanks to the next innovation built into this guitar.

The Tone Knobs Pair

Like the Stratocaster, the Comanche has 2 passive tone knobs. However they are not the same: the first one acts like a standard tone knob (removing treble), but the other one actually does the exact opposite: it removes bass!

So with these two tone knobs you can adjust both the amount of high and low end at the output of the guitar. Paired with  the richness of the Z-coil pickups, this makes this guitar extremely versatile:  it can sound like a sparkling Strat, a bright telecaster or give you rounder tones like a guitar equipped with P90s. It will not sound exactly like humbuckers though, but in some positions with the tone rolled off, you can get close to it.

The great thing is that you can adapt the tone of the guitar anytime. Too much treble? Roll of the treble tone. Too much low end? Roll of the bass tone. It is really useful on stage or when you need a large palette of tones with a single instrument.

The Magic Switch

As you can see on the pictures, there is an additional switch on the Comanche.

When on, it adds both the neck and bridge pickup to all positions (except the middle position). Thanks to this system, you can get both the bridge and neck pickups together (like on a Telecaster or a les Paul), and also all three pickups together (for scooped funky tones).

That’s a great addition that gives you many more options. It is typically a modification that I would do on most of my 3 pickups guitars when possible, but it’s great to have it out of the factory!

How Does It Sound?

If you want to hear it, I have used it for a guitar solo at the end of the EleMental Bazaar Tune (bridge pickup). It does not reflect the versatility of the guitar, but you can definitely hear that it can sound pretty different from a Stratocaster (and with no hum!).

Direct link to the G&L Comanche guitar solo on YouTube

There is also a funky part on the neck pickup during the organ solo (on the left).

If you have the opportunity to try one of these guitars, don’t miss it, it could be the instrument of your dreams! :-).