Product: Northwood Custom Electric
Price Paid: 1100 (Canadian)
Submitted
02/01/2002
at
03:00pm
by
Snowy
Email: Sunsetsblaze at hotmail<dot>com
Features
:
10
Mr. John McQuarie apprenticed under the famous Jean Larivee and produces some of the most fantastic guitars i have ever seen and played! My Guitar is a custom electric / solid Northern Swampash body / tounge-oil finish, Nice "grippable" Maple neck w/Rosewood fretboard & custom dot inlay. Reverse Fender style headstock, Tun-o-matic Grover hardware, single volume, single toggle, and a pair (rhythm/lead) of high-output Gibson Humbuckers....i designed everything myself and then he went to town!
Sound
:
10
I had this made for me totally from scratch & John NAILED it! Even the shape of the body, which isnt spectacularly strange but a little out of the norm was picture perfect to my sketch! I play through a '76 HIWATT Custom 50 (DR504) and i wanted a guitar that would BANG out chords till no tomorrow & still be able to deliver the more subtle passages i throw in for flavour...i told him my playing style and that i wanted the neck feel "a bit fat" in my hand so i could really Squeeze & Dig into some chords...it sounds AWESOME. With my HIWATT and a simple volume control i can dial in just about any tone i want, from soft, fat, thick, glassy mellow passages, to a WAY over the top BLOW UP IN YOUR FACE POWER CHORD ASSAULT! I cant imagine it sounding better*
Action, Fit, & Finish
:
10
Action is set low, but not buzzing...its perfect for me & John went through it all with me. The whole thing from top to bottom is perfect & i'll never buy a mass produced guitar again! You can see my guitar here: http://www.picturelist.com/images/klyniss/My Guitar.JPG
(or email me for a pic:)
Reliability/Durability
:
10
I designed this guitar to be a No-Bullshit setup & it delivers. All the hardware is solid, and with just a single toggle/volume, so i dont anticipate any problems with it gigging or not. The Tongue Oil finish needs to be re-applied every once in a long while if you wannna keep it fresh but the reason i chose it was BECAUSE it'll show wear after some use! Look at Stevie Ray's guitars...all beat up and weathered...you cant beat that!
Customer Support
:
10
John is the best, he's local up here in BC Canada so its not but a 30 minute drive to see him and thats never a problem:)
Check out the site at www.northwoodguitars.com
Overall Rating
:
10
Been playing for about 15 years. If it were stolen i'd have him make one identical to it. I love that it allows me to produce MY OWN SOUND, and i dont need to mantion how important THAT is....my HIWATT also helps in this respect...if youre looking seriously to find YOUR sound, look into an old HIWATT, they really allow you to find it:) See my DR504 review here as well under "snowy" Its perfect the way it is....IT ROCKS*
