Gadow Guitars G-Jazz

I don't know where to start but this guitar exceeded my expectations. First of all the size is so comfortable. It's a full hollow so it is relatively thick but it has a strat type body.... it's perfect. The neck is also perfect. 12'' radius. Perfect. Great straight grain on the fretboard which is silky. This is a late 2004 model. It was completely hand-built in Durham NC. It is a full hollow-body guitar with 2 f-holes and is now discontinued unfortunately (for the rest of you:). It has a beautiful bookmatched flamed maple top and quilted maple back with abalone strips running through the middle on both sides. It is painted in a nice dark vintage burst that brings out the tiger flames and quilts beautifully. It has mahogany sides, birds eye maple neck with indian rosewood fretboard and abalone dot inlays. Finally it has an ebony veneer on the front of the headstock with abalone or MOP logo and a rosewood veneer on the back of the headstock. Hardware includes 2 Lindy Fralin Unbucker pickups, tonepros wraparound locking bridge, genuine bone nut and gotoh tuners. 3-way toggle switch, master volume and tone. Each 'unbucker' can be tapped by pulling up on the volume or tone knob (for the respective pickup). The tapped coil is the one that is overwound giving a much truer single coil sound and hardly a volume drop. Ryan Gadow used the best woods and best hardware for this guitar, expect nothing less from a Gadow.

Best woods, best hardware, along with the attention to detail that Gadow put into this guitar made it shine where it counts... the sound. I play jazz and fusion. Mahavishnu and scofield type covers but mostly originals. I also am in a bebop jazz band with a sax. Fralin makes some great pickups and the unbuckers are a big brighter than regular humbuckers (one of the coils is wrapped more than the other) making the sound crisp and clear and the tapped single coil sound true. I don't have a reference because I don't know what it would sound like without fralins but jesus god it is sweet sounding with my polytone. I couldn't believe it. Crystal clear. A joy. Then I plugged it into a Cornford Roadhouse and dirtied it up and this is really where this guitar shines. It retains that crystal clear presence as you turn the gain up. I plugged straight in and it sounded like I was playing with 5 ts8 tube screamers I was completely blown away. We played a rendition of 'Vital Transformation' and it made me question whether I ever needed to play another guitar. Solid bodies have their place I suppose and so do semi-hollows but I've never heard a guitar sound this full and crisp at the same time and I don't think it could happen any other way than the way this guitar was built. The feedback is never present but adds a great element because it is so easy to control with this guitar.

The guitar came to me from Elderly instruments with the action a little high and it had 10's... pshh.. hollow bodies need minimum 11's! I adjusted it, changed strings, checked for intonation and made a few tweaks on the truss rod before I started playing. The allen wrench for the tonepros wasn't included so I ended up using a pair of scissors very very carefully and it worked out fine though. The action was perfect since I set it up. The neck on this guitar is a bit beefy and super sturdy. I don't know what it is about it but it is so so stiff you really get to dig into this guitar it's fantastic. It has a silky feel to it, but it makes you want to work at getting those notes to sing. It was beautifully finished and like any handbuilt instrument there are minor traces of human touch. For example looking inside one of the f-holes you can see tracing marks, dried glue and pencil marks. I love that kind of thing.. other people might not want reminders that someone was putting their hard work into your instrument but I do.

Gadow builds guitars for players not for show. While this guitar looks like it was built for show with it's figured maple top and back, abalone up the wazoo and ebony/rosewood veneers, it is not a fragile show guitar at all, it wants to be played and gigged. The veneers strengthen the headstock where a lot of guitars usually break and while it is a hollow body, there are plenty of reinforcing mahogany blocks inside the body to add strength.

I've been using the Gadow forums (www.gadowguitars.com/smf-forums/) and Ryan Gadow himself is constantly answering questions daily. I was impressed with that. I can only imagine if I ever had a problem with this guitar he would be happy to fix it for me.

I haven't played any other Gadow but I can tell you from this guitar and from doing research that Gadow is a name you should keep in mind when purchasing your next guitar. It seems like American luthiers are a dime-a-dozen nowadays and finding the right ones can be tricky. I have been fortunate enough to play boutique instruments from Suhr and Anderson to big company custom shops and I have now settled on two makers who stand out for their attention to detail, philosophy, and most of all their authenticity as luthiers who care about making music: Gadow guitars and Melancon guitars. Check them out!