Gadow Guitars Custom 4 Bass

2006 Gadow Custom 4-String Bass. Mine has the "Soule-burst" finish. Swamp ash body with bolt on neck, Highly Figured quilted maple top. Seymour Duncan Basslines??? pickups & Tone Circuit with slap contour. Controls are vol/blend/bass/mid/treble. 9 volts; 35 inch scale length, bird's eye maple neck, 12 inch radius rosewood fretboard, Ebony veneer applied to front and rosewood to the back of headstock to improve strength of headstock, Hipshot tuners and bridge. TKL hard case and limited lifetime warranty included. What more do you need?

I play this through a Fender 59 Bassman; style is like Paul Denman (Sade) though I am probably flattering mysef here. This bass plays fast; when I'm in the zone, I can nail some Jaco runs on this bass that sound pretty convincing. This bass has a great variety of tones thanks to the SD pickups and the 3-band preamp; this bass can sound like a J, a P, or a Stingray. Tremendous tonal clarity, brilliant highs, thunderous lows and rich mids. No muddiness, very clear; no noise or hum and my studio is filled with fluorescent lights.

Perfectly set up and intonated right out of the case. All I had to do was lower the strings a bit to suit my tastes. As far as the the workmanship goes, the bass was flawless. This is my only 4-string bass with a 35" scale, and it takes a little getting used to, but once you're there there's no going back. The E string is tight and not floppy at all. My bass, according to the store I purchased it from, has a AAAAA (5A) Top, but I have no idea how they define that. It's a pretty bass; there's always that moment when you first take it out of the case that you just admire it. Then you plug in and bang out the low end with it.

All of the components of this bass are top shelf, so the bass is built well. I've had this bass for two years now, play it all the time, and it still looks new. This is one tough bass; meant to be played and not babied (though it is pretty). I use this routinely without backup.

I've never had a problem with the bass, so I've never needed to contact the company for that reason. But I did once have a question about adjusting the truss rod (to lower the action), and the company answered my email very quickly.

This is an extremely versatile bass, capable of producing a wide variety of tones. This is the once bass to bring when you're only bringing one bass. A true workhorse. I also own a Sadowsky J (with VTC), a Suhr fretless, a Pensa Suhr J, a Stingray, A Fender P, and a Fender Custom Shop J (plus I've owned an Alembic and an Aria Pro SB-1000 and a zillion others), and this bass holds its own against all of these and is probably half the price. If I lost the bass I'd replace it immediately. I am looking to buy a Gadow Custom 5.