Kavanagh Customs Custom Strat

I bought this last week through their website (www.kavanaghcustoms.co.uk) having seen one of their auctions on eBay.

Built: 2006
Neck: 22 frets, one-piece mahogany
Body: Mahogany strat body with burl walnut top finished in nitro
Controls: three-way selector switch, one tone, one volume, coil splitter
Pickups: Two custom-wound Kavanagh Customs blues humbuckers; they sound great!
Bridge: not totally sure on this one, some wort of floating Wilkinson
Tuners: locking Wilkinson

Also came with case and a coupon for a free set up within the first year.

I play blues and a bit of grungy jazz along the way, through my vintage (1966?) Marshall Bluesbreaker. I've come across some really crappy guitars in my time, and some that I can't put down, this is one of the latter! I don't even think I put it down when I go to bed, much to the missus' annoyance!

The mahogany and walnut combo seems to work really well, although it could just as easily be the pickups - eitherwa this guitar sounds great! There's a lot of grunt behind it when you turn the volume right the way up but otherwise it purs like a kitten.

The tone control is something of a mystery to me - it seems far more responsive than I'm used to on humbucker guitars - turned down you get a really thick, muddy Gator Rock type of sound to it with heavy lows and then you turn the tone right up and the pickups sing out like bells. They are splittable too so there isn't a sound I haven't been able to sqeese out of this thing yet. It sustains like there's no tomorrow.

Let me just say the top on this guitar is really somthin' else! I've not seen anything like it and it's hard to describe. Just trust me, it's beautiful. I believe there are photographs of it up on the website if you are interested.

When it came to me it was set up perfectly. I adjusted the height of the bridge pickup a little to get more bite out of it but other than that, it played right out of the box. The only real niggle is that there is a little mark on the underside of the neck where the frets have been smoothed down. Not really a prolem, just a niggle and besides its better than leaving razor sharp fret edges.

It seems to me that apart from the pickups, all the hardware is Wilkinson so I've no doubt that this guitar will last. The neck joint is tight (there have been a few F*nder guitars I've had where you can actaully wiggle the neck about in the pocket) and the finish, apart from being beautiful, also seems very robust and scratch-resistant. I've gigged this guitar to hell and back since I've had it and it still looks brand new.

I've had no need to contact them since the gutiar arrived apart from to say thank you but they were more than friendly and helpful when I have been in touch with them. As I mentioned before, the gutiar also came up with a free set up voucher so I'll be back in touch with them in a few months to claim that!

Quite simply, this guitar can't be beat. You could spend the same amount of money on a low-end US Fender, or a battered second-hand one but you would never get anything like you get right here. It has become my main gigging guitar and will remain so I reckon until I die!

If it was lost or stolen I'd be back onto them in a flash ordering another. I read on one of the other reviews that there is some problem with the finish after a while it sinks into the wood grain a little. I've yet to see this on mine but I'll post back if it does happen.