Grosh Guitars Hollow Custom T

This Hollow Custom T was custom ordered through Mass Street Music in Lawrence, KS. According to the people at Grosh, it is a fairly unique guitar. It is a semi hollow Tele style guitar with a Walnut body, newer non-vintage style bridge, locking vintage Kluson tuners, 6105 frets, and Lindy Fralin P-92 pickups. Standard tele controls and a gorgeous birdseye maple neck and fretboard. This guitar was not made for the "flashy" market-the finish is not flamed and is a vintage style sunburst with a white pickguard. The birdseye neck in an amber tint does set it off, but the overall look is very classic and somewhat understated. I am not going to rate the features because although they are minimal, they are exactly as they should be.

I own about 20 guitars including 3 Grosh strat styles. This is a totally unique guitar. I play clean a lot with some overdriven, bluesy stuff thrown in. Occasionally I use a fair amount of overdrive, but am not much into hard distortion. The complexity of the sound of this guy is amazing. Warm and yet tons of upper harmonics and complexity. Hit the amp hard and it will give you an almost Les Paulish sort of weight but with lots more overtones and a little less "chunk". The P-92's are completely quiet and yet have the uppper end you associate with a single coil and the warmth of a humbucker but with more articulation. I am using it in stereo with a 67 Fender Deluxe Reverb (completely original) and a Savage Rohr 15. Incredible dynamics and complexity. Obviously, I like it a lot.

Don Grosh guitars are beautifully made and set up. They are not as flashy as some guitars - my Anderson Cobra is stunningly beautiful and well built - but they have a sound quality that is visceral and kind of organic compared to an Anderson. No finish flaws that I could see. The guitar was delivered with no relief and fairly high action, which took all of 15 minutes to adjust to my preferences.

I have owned this guitar for a few months. My expectiation is for excellent reliability and durability, based on my other Grosh guitars. However I cannot, in good faith, give a rating based on such a short time frame.

The Grosh people are extremely helpful and supportive. I had a minor question about the guitar and when I started to describe it, they recognized the guitar I was talking about and knew the dealer it was sold through. I have talked to them 3 or 4 times about different guitars and the level of support and interest has always been first rate.

I own a number of guitars as mentioned earlier. I don't really need a do everything sort of instrument, however this is quite versatile. I play a lot of clean, jazzish sorts of things these days and it works surprising well for that with the tone rolled off. Somehow, even with the tone rolled back, the complexity of the sound still comes through. Having said that, I have hollow body archtops for that sort of thing. It is also a great blues guitar. I already had a high degree of confidence in the company, so that was not an issue. The only criticism I could make of Grosh is that their necks tend to be a bit beefy. This is a medium/large, their smallest profile. They do vary from guitar to guitar, and this is about the largest that I am comfortable with, which is about in the medium range of this neck profile, at least in my experience. However, I love the tone and Don believes that beefy necks contribute substantially to the tone, so who am I to argue. Yes, I would replace it with another, although the wait would be difficult. I can't afford 40 year old Fenders and don't have the patience to wait a couple of years for a Callaham. In fairness, I have never played a Suhr, but I feel this is a very special guitar and I am glad there are people like Don out there willing to stay small and build a product they are proud of.

The Hollow Custom T is a tele-shaped mahogany-bodied guitar with hollow sound chambers. This particular guitar was ordered with a beautiful flamed maple top in transparent cherry, binding, pearl pickguard and V-shaped birdseye maple neck with rosewood fretboard.
The hardware consisted of locking tuners and a vintage flat mount bridge in gold finish.
Lindy Fralin single pickups occupied the neck and middle positions while a Lindy Fralin "Tele" was stationed at the bridge.
Visually, the best way to describe the guitar is tele-shaped with strat features. Grosh Guitars are essentially a custom builder. I have therefore not rated them in terms of the number of features found on the guitar since this is determined by the individual buyer but rather in terms of how the various features have been incorporated in the guitar. Believe me, it is an absolute stunning instrument.

I have used the guitar with a Fender Twin and a Mesa Boogie Stereo 90/triaxis setup with T C Electronics' G-Force. I have also compared the guitar with a PRS, a couple of Fenders, a Zion and a Gibson. All these other guitars have their strengths and, to some extent, it is a matter of taste. However, if you are looking for the clean vintage sound, this guitar is hard to beat. It just sings and responds to every nuance of your playing.

The neck is smoothed at the edges to give that well-played feeling. I cannot fault the action, setup and finish.

Again, I cannot fault the quality of materials used and the general fit and finish of the instrument.

Fortunately, I have not had to revert to the manufacturer since I acquired it.

Everyhing about this guitar is a 10.