G&L CLF Research Doheny V12 Electric Guitar Alpine White

I'm so glad I tried this G&L Doheny V12. It instantly made an impression on me and I knew I had to buy one. Even though I liked it a lot straight away, I wanted to give it some time before I wrote a review. I'm happy to report that I love it even more now after several months of playing. It is now my "do it all" guitar for studio recording. First things first: The pickups that CLF Research designed for this guitar are amazingly versatile. They sound great in all 3 mini-toggle modes: UP is series humbucker, MIDDLE is single coil, and DOWN is parallel humbucker. I get the impression that a lot of work went into making these options sound the best that they can. It's the first guitar I've owned that can truly be a chameleon in the studio, being able to dial in a wide variety of well-known tones. The Passive Bass & Treble tone controls are another important feature. They have a huge impact on the tone and they are meant to be used. This is not a "set all knobs to 10" type of guitar. If you have the Treble control at 10, you are going to hear every tiny gesture your fingers make on the strings in high-fidelity. This could be a turn-off initially if you aren't aware of what the tone controls can do. For single coil sounds, I usually run my Treble around 5 or 6, then adjust the Bass depending on which position I'm in (8 for neck, 10 for bridge). To dial in a PAF humbucker tone, I'll roll the Treble way down to around 3 or 4 and it is perfect. This guitar originally caught my attention because of the offset shape (which I really like), but it has the more traditional Dual-Fulcrum style floating vibrato – which I also prefer. It's the best of both worlds for me. The looks drew me in, but the sound and flexibility sealed the deal. The G&L vibrato system stays in tune much better than a traditional Jazzmaster bridge. It's a comfortable guitar to play sitting or standing, and it is well balanced on a strap. I would describe the neck as a medium C shape, not thin and not fat. The fingerboard and frets are smooth and comfortable, being rolled off at the edges so there is nothing sharp to catch on. It arrived set up with excellent intonation, I can play all the way up and down the fretboard in tune. The action was a bit low for my taste and there was some slight string buzz, so I raised the tremolo just a bit. The crinkle-textured pick guard is the one thing I'm struggling to get used to. I actually like the way the pick guard looks, but the surface is a bit slippery when my right pinky finger needs to plant on it for stability. It's a very minor issue that could easily be fixed with a replacement guard if I wanted to do so.