G&L USA Doheny Offset Guitar, Black, Block Inlays, Carribean Rosewood Fretboard, Saddle-Lock Bridge

This is a smooth, versatile, American-crafted offset JM style guitar, but with enough twists to really set it apart and at a price tag way below what it should be.

Tonally, you've got a wealth of tonal options at your fingertips. With the characteristic single coil top-end shimmer but a beefier midrange and bigger, but tighter bottom end than you might be used to, the Doheny has a unique and fully realized tonal identity that will enhance a whole range of styles. The neck is sublime! It's round and extremely comfortable everywhere, with easy access to the upper frets. The pickups sound simply divine and G&L's PBT system really adds a wealth of versatility to this traditional design with passive bass and treble roll-off controls.

Leo's MFD pickup designs have always had a lot of power to them and have always been on the aggressive and high-output end of the spectrum (while easily being able to be tamed with the onboard passive bass and treble tone controls as well as playing technique). The Carribean Rosewood (also known as Chechen) wood on the fingerboard looks beautiful with streaks of red through it. Tonally, it's similar to east indian rosewood in its warmth, but with a bit more snappiness to it.

We plugged this bad boy into an amp and listened in amazement as everything from bright, clean, and twangy, to dark, grungy, and heavy, to warm, mellow, and jazzy, to funky treble and bluesy distortion effortlessly translated from the guitar, through the amp, and every note was crystal clear, articulate, and defined.

Is this G&L's greatest invention in the last 25 years or so? Well... It definitely needs to be up there for serious consideration. But we'll let you make that call for yourself.

Inspired by the classic surf sound born in Southern California, the new G&L Doheny takes its name from the iconic beach in the heart of Orange County where '60s surf pioneers became legends. Since those halcyon days, both music and surfing have evolved far beyond their roots, and so has the performance of the gear.

Doheny takes the bolt-on offset-body into new sonic territory with newly developed Magnetic Field Design jazz pickups, the first on any production G&L. Naturally, these new pickups will invite comparison to Leo’s jumbo MFD ASAT Special pickups, given they employ a narrow bobbin aperture and broad coil splay. But Doheny's MFD pickups are more about jangle than twang, just as they should be for a guitar like this. With a classic jazz bobbin aperture wrapped with traditional Formvar wire, these pickups just might be the approach Leo would have taken had he been with us a few years longer.

So what’s it like? The sound is rich in harmonics yet surprisingly full, the result of carefully researching and applying Leo’s creative work across the decades. The Doheny pickups deliver the experience fans have hoped for, with their flexibility maximized by the PTB tone system that allows echoes of yesteryear while delivering more output and range for today’s music. Add in Leo’s finest vibrato for enhanced tuning stability and improved sustain, and the results are astounding.

Founded by Leo Fender in 1980, G&L USA instruments continue to be made in the historic G&L facility on Fender Avenue in Fullerton, California, the Birthplace of Bolt-on.