Gadow Guitars Custom Single

Orange burst on highly flamed thick maple top, over two piece thick mahogany body. Bolt on maple neck with thick slab of rosewood. Frets seem to be medium size. Duncan split buckers. Truss rod adjust from base of neck -- easy access. Tone pros wrap around intonation adjustable two post bridge. Nice cutway access for upper frets. Features aren't really what this is about -- other than the feature of its super high boutique quality of manufacture. The pickups are position in the ideal places for sweet sounds.

This thing sounds transcendant. The resonance of it unplugged is the dead give away of its quality. Lots of sustain. Huge range from lows to highs. Very snappy and musical. I play it through a vintage blackface bandmaster with two tens -- and it kills!!!!!

Awesome. It is a perfect guitar in this dept. Frets, finish, balance, neck to body connection, intonation and initial set up, Gotoh tuners, its as good as I've ever seen -- compared to Don Grosh and Zion and certainly PRS it is every bit the fit and finish equal.

SOLID.

I've been playing for twenty five years. I've owned Hamer USA, Grosh, PRS, Gibson, Fender customs, G&L, Kramer 70's era, Spector, Carvin, Martin, Ernie Ball. I love this thing as much as any -- and more than most of the above. Of all the guitars that were magic: Grosh, Ernie Ball and Gadow are in the same dream league. And, it was a better deal in terms of price than the Grosh or the PRS. (PRS are basically a rip off, and only popular in my book because at Guitar Center/Sam Ash that's the best they've got.) It was either this or the anniversary Silhouette from Ernie Ball -- and this was nicer, a bit more hand-made boutique luthier charm, and LESS MONEY!

Mahogany back, Flame Maple top
Honey Burst finish
Coil tapped Seymor Duncan's
1 3/4" inch nut width
Chrome hardware

I'm probably one of a handful of players who think the Seymor Duncans are a bit fatter and warmer than the optional Lindy Fralin pick ups. Needless to say, with various combinations of the coil tapped Duncans, the guitar produces tones along the lines of Strats, Teles, and ES 335's. I play through a '63 Fender Super Amp, and don't miss my '76 Strat, or '65 Gibson Melody Maker (modified ala Pat Travers)! Fat or thin, the CS has the ability to produce some really cool sounds, nad has relit the fires for me to play electrics again.

Biggest plus for me is the 1 3/4" nut width, since I primarily play acoustics. So transition from one the other is seemless. "Stike" simply rocks when it comes to paint and finish work. When I saw his pic on Gadow's web site of him wearing a Big Daddy Ed Roth *Rat Fink* t-shirt, I knew I could expect some cool color options! Only thing I changed from the factory set-up was the pickup height, and this was minimal to suit my ears and amp. Action and neck relief have held up solid, and I see no need to change them as of now. Only other things I have found I need to change is the edges of the nut, which are a bit sharper than I'm use to. But a little emory cloth fixed that in a matter of minutes. After that, the volume and tone knobs are a bit hard for me to grip (push-pull) when selecting the coil tap positions. I turn wrenches as a day job, so my hands are pretty dry. Again, this is personal preference stuff.

Only had her for a few months, so can't comment much, except that the craftsmanship is there. And all the components are of good quality stuff, so I expect to own it for many years to come.

Ryan Gadow has been great to visit and discuss guitars with via e-mail. He's always very prompt to answer, and will be up front and honest. My guitar arrived at a local shop, and set the hooks, so I never got to the special order part of things. But Ryan was very open to working with my ideas, and has provided answers to all my questions.

After playing the Strat and Melody Maker I mentioned for the past 20 plus years, the Gadow is a refreshing change for me. I was able to play three different models from Gadow before choosing the Custom Single. I would add that if you're a fan of Tele's or Gibson SG's, Gadow's bolt on neck models may proove too wide a nut width. But their set neck line is the more usual 1 11/16" nut. I'm known to play blues and country, along with a little 60's and 70's rock stuff, and the coil tapped Duncans allow me to do it with one guitar.