Decisions , Blade Delta or G&L Asat Tribute

spev11

I'm hankering after a tele to go with my Epiphone Les Paul, I've been offered a Levinson Blade Delta Standard for £265 plus post and a G&L Asat Tribute for £290 plus. They are both black single coil and simple (the Blade doesn't have the VSC thing). I prefer a slimmer neck, something akin to a modern C. I have a tele that I built from a Gear4Music kit which is fun but the neck is half a baseball bat and, whilst I have big palms my fingers are a tad short so I'm struggling to wrap my thumb over (something I don't have a problem with on the Les Paul or my Taylor Big Baby). So does anyone have an opinion on either? Please keep in mind that I don't want to spend more than £300ish on it (as much as i'd like a MIA unless i drop the Euro Lottery this week, its not happening). Also feel free to offer me something telecaster shaped

Funkfingers

Levinson. Thank me later.

gazrichards

The G&L will probably have better value retention should you try and upgrade at a later date but maybe throw in a classic vibe into the mix? You’ll probably sell that for more than you pay for it at current escalations.
all 3 are very well respected guitars and you won’t be dealt a turkey. Some g&l have USA parts and pickups I think high makes them a real bargain. 

I’ve owned USA G&L and squire clsssic vibes. I’d happily have a classic vibe again and the g&l was an immense guitar. 

Gassage

Blade all day long and twice on a sunday.

Rich210

I've got three g&l guitars,  a legacy special with the cool rails and a doheny v12 with the mfd  humbuckers and a tribute l2000. They're all great guitars. I've not had experience with an asat though! There's at least three configurations with the pickups. If you want a t style guitar that's more like a tele then be sure to get one with alnico pickups and not mfd. Build quality is always good and excellent components on tributes

prowla

I have a Levinson Blade Strat and it is probably the best-made guitar I have; the tolerance on the neck pocket must be less than a millimetre.

Sassafras

Much as I like G&L, I'd still go with the Levinson.

bluenile

Either should be a decent tele type on a budget, pretty sure both have necks on the slim side. With the Tribute you get the same MFD pickups as used in the G&L American made model, slightly different take on the t sound but still very teleish

Gassage

prowla said:

I have a Levinson Blade Strat and it is probably the best-made guitar I have; the tolerance on the neck pocket must be less than a millimetre.

Mine is the same one as yours. Identical serials and colour. Bought off a Mick Mason....yours too?

prowla

Gassage said:

prowla said:

I have a Levinson Blade Strat and it is probably the best-made guitar I have; the tolerance on the neck pocket must be less than a millimetre.

Mine is the same one as yours. Identical serials and colour. Bought off a Mick Mason....yours too?

Haha - that got a loud chuckle!

I collected the Blade in person in February from an ex-mining town in Nottinghamshire and handed over cash; this is what it was, with the non-infringing neck.

But I already had an older neck, so I swapped them over.

The seller also included the original middle pickup, so that went back onto it.

This "Texas" is not their top-of-the-range model, so they must be darned awesome!

spev11

Done it, pulled the trigger on the Blade Delta, fingers crossed it arrives in one piece now
ta for all the advice, it swung it towards the blade but it was a close thing

Jetfire

Where is the Blade made? I played a couple of Blades and they ranged from really good to not great but I cant really remember what difference there was in the models etc...

HAL9000

I've got a Tribute ASAT and have to say that I'm not overly impressed with the build quality. Sounds great but I reckon a Mexican Fender is a better instrument. No experience of Levison but I've only heard good things.

Dannic

prowla said:

This "Texas" is not their top-of-the-range model, so they must be darned awesome!

I’ve had the flagship Blade R4 (in my avatar) since ‘91 and yes, they are very special. 

Dannic

Jetfire said:

Where is the Blade made? I played a couple of Blades and they ranged from really good to not great but I cant really remember what difference there was in the models etc...

https://www.bladeguitars.com/