Gadow Guitars Double Cutaway Custom

2002 DC Custom made at High Strung Music in Durham, NC
22 frets
highly figured carved maple top
mahogany back
maple neck w/ rosewood fret board
two Lindy Fralin humbuckers ( 8.5 & 9.5 ohms ) w/ tapped coils
master tone and volume
outrageously beautiful flame top, brownish, blackish, orangish burst
Gotoh tuners
one piece ABM bridge
case by Modern Case Co.

This puppy has all I need and more. My guitar can be seen on Ryan's website, www.rrgadowguitars.com; click on DC custom, mine is on the right. What a beauty !!

I play mostly classic rock and blues. I'm not a working musician, but sort of a drink a 6-pak and wail by myself type. Currently, I'm running my guitar straight through a Peavy Classic 30 on the clean channel with the "boost" button in the on position. I'll sometimes use a digital delay and/or an Ibinez tube screamer. I keep the volume on about 4 - 5 and use the volume on the guitar as much as possible. I know that tone is a very subjective topic, but to my ear, my guitar simply sounds like a guitar ought to sound. The Fralins are off the chart amazing. Hate to use a cliche, but crystal clear with huge balls seems to work. The sustain is, well the notes seem to ring until I stop them ! The distortion is not in the least muddy, just BIG, WARM, SMOOTH that growls in direct proportion to how much you lean on it. I've never held a guitar so responsive. The split coils allow me to get great Fender like clear tones and the humbuckers are, well, I don't have the words to express it. Just absolutely rightous. I'm just starting to mess with the single coil/humbucker combinations. It is worth mentioning that with the guitar volume rolled down, there is no corresponding loss of harmonics. As I mentioned, I'm basically a hacker that has a few divine moments. With this guitar as a tool, I expect these moments will occur with increasing frequency.

This guitar is flawless. Everything adjusted fine. If I have an issue, Ryan will gladly adjust to my requirements. All components are top of the line and the craftmanship is sublime.

This guitar is rock solid. I've only had it for about a month, but it is built like a man hole cover. I anticipate many, many years of dependable performance.

Ryan Gadow IS the company right now. He is a class act that cares about his customers and the quality of his work to the nth degree. This guitar has a limited lifetime warranty

I've owned guitars for most of my life but have just in the last few years applied myself. I've owned a '52 reissue Tele and a Strat Plus. I currently own a Taylor 410, a Baby Taylor, an old Alvarez acoustic, and an Epi 335 Dot. The RRGadow DC Custom is by far the best electric guitar I've owned. I will always have this guitar ! I was searching for a Les Paul/PRS type guitar a few months back and walked into High Strung. The first work Ryan did for me was to upgrade my Epi with new electronics, tuners, bone nut and the Fralin pickups. The finished product blew me away. While in his store, I kept picking up the DC Custom and just kept strumming it acoustically. The damn thing was alive! I eventually took it home for a spin and the rest, so they say, is history. It is heavy but very well balanced and ergonomically correct.The neck fits my hand perfectly. I know I'm supposed to write this review with a critical eye, but honest to God, if this guitar is not a 10 across the board, then one does not exist. Mark my works, Ryan Gadow will go as far as he wishes as a guitar maker. It's just a matter of a critical mass of real players getting their hands on these guitars. Best of luck Ryan and THANKS.

2001 RR Gadow, handmade in Durham, NC, shop.
Green flame maple "ten top."
Ryan Gadow knows how to pick his components. The ones on my guitar are all absolutely top-of-the-line.

Two Lindy Fralin humbuckers with coil-taps.
ABM bridge.
Schaller locking tuners.
TKL hard case.
You can see this guitar on the RR Gadow Web site (http://www.rrgadowguitars.com/guitars.html#GuitarFeatures). I think it looks better in real life than in this photograph: the green is lighter and the wood flame even more apparent.

I'm a jazz player, influenced by Bill Frisell and John Abercrombie in the way I approach a solid body. This guitar is wonderful for that. It has a very rich tone, especially in the midrange. You can really hear the wood, if that makes sense. For me, this is a characteristic of all fine guitars; I don't think I've ever heard a solid body whose wood comes out more. The tonal palette is also quite extensive. I've had this guitar for three months and I'm still learning all its tone colors. I mostly play it through a Polytone MiniBrute IV (15" speaker), sometimes with an Alesis Nanoverb for reverb or slight delay. I'm experimenting too with a Boss 02 Turbo OverDrive stomp box, but my favorite sounds are just the guitar with some reverb. The Fralin pickups and the mahogany/maple really don't need anything else.

Right now, the set-up of the guitar feels perfect. The finish is beautiful. The buyer should know that each guitar is made individually by Ryan Gadow and his apprentices at Ryan's Durham, NC, shop. When Ryan first let me take the guitar home, it wasn't quite ready. The set-up still needed some work and there were some imperfections in the finish. This was a little frustrating: the guitar was so beautiful and sounded so good that I wanted to play it, but it wasn't ready. But Ryan was planning on my bringing it back to him with specific instructions for how I wanted the instrument set up (height of action, etc.) for my style of playing. This was part of his process of matching the instrument to me. He took care of everything and now I have no complaints.

This guitar feels very solid and dependable. I would not hesitate to use it on a gig without a backup.

Ryan is one of the nicest people I've ever worked with. As I said above, when I took the guitar back to him initially, he refined it to my specifications. He obviously cares deeply about his craft and about working with customers individually to produce an instrument that will help them bring out the music within them.

I've been playing for 15 years. I also play a Heritage SuperEagle archtop. I had a U.S.-made 1989 Telecaster before this and there is absolutely no comparison.