Sadowsky Strat-Styled Vintage Model

I bought this guitar from Roger's shop in NYC back in 1988. I must say I have been extremely satisfied for the past 13 years! The guitar has a couple of EMG single coil pickups (neck and center) and a duncan custom wound humbucker in the bridge. It includes a Floyd Rose locking tremelo system. The body is a classic strat style in a white satin finish.

Sound is KILLER. I've had many compliments over the years on the tone of this guitar. Great for Jangly clean or funky/chunky rhythms as well as in your face heavy rhythms. I love soloing on this guitar. You can sound like Stevie Ray Vaughn if you use that pickup in the neck position for leads! Overall a very slick sound.

Great action and beautiful finish on the guitar.

In terms of durability I'll take one point off and give it a 9. I don't know if this is fair because I'm pretty hard on a guitar. I bend the hell out of strings and it's been used a lot over 13 years. It needs regular setups and I had one fret job. Recently I've had a few problems with the Floyd Rose locking system needing new parts. Other then that I haven't had any problems.

Roger is the BEST!

I'm playing guitar for 20 years and this is the best one I've ever owned. No regrets!

2000, made in NYC, 22 frets, 25-1/2" scale, alder body with maple neck and the most amazing birds eye maple I have ever seen in my life! floating Sadowsky tremelo with Sperzel locking tuners , Suhr single coil vintage pickups, volume, tone with two capacitor position pull-push, mid boost, and gain boost with preamp switch, five way blade switch. Superlative paintjob and finish: custom bowling ball swirl.

Sculpted neck joint like a Suhr is really sweet.

I play rock, blues, metal, funk, and a bit of jazz. This is an extremely versatile musical sounding guitar that I would take to any gig for any style. It souns beautiful from country and funk clean to SRV blues to molten metal ...convincingly and with authority.

I run a Soldano X99 preamp into an SLO-100. No effects.

The guitar has vintage John Suhr (not the DiMarzio virtual vintage) single coils so it does hum when you're aren't facing "the right way" but the in-between positions are dead quiet.

The sound is rich with great vintage strat tones but can be as thick and sweet as any humbucker guitar with the preamp engaged and the incredibly versatile push-pull tone rolled off. Sparkling cleans, smooth mids and punchy bass. I had this strat-style guitar sounding like a semi-hollow Gibson with the mid boost on, neck pickup engaged, and tone rolled off. Sounds hard to believe but it is true.

Dislikes? None. Sometimes I wish I had opted for the quieter DiMarzio wound-for-Sadowsky Virtual Vintage single coils but overall I love the harmonic and textural complexity and sensitivity of the Suhr pickups. The non-locking tremelo stays in tune! It's as faultless as the PRS tremelos I have used.

Guitar was set up to my specs perfectly. Action is medium-low.

Pickups adjusted perfectly. Bridge, neck pocket, all hardware, nut, fingerboard to neck lamination.....immaculate and seamless. Incredible. No flaws at all!

Upgrade birdseye maple fingerboard: better then I could have dreamed of! The finest I have ever seen. Custom paint job on body came out perfect.

The finish seems like it will last. My other Sadowsky is almost ten years old and the finish, hardware, and construction appear immune to time.

Strap buttons are installed with felt between them and the body. Talk about care!

A most dependable guitar. The preamp battery is easily accessable and has a very long life. I would use it without a backup guitar if the tremelo were set against the body and not floating. (I take a second guitar along because breaking a string with a floating tremelo...YEEE-OW! This hasn't happened yet but on my PRSs it is heinous.)

You will be hard pressed to find a more accessable, honest, sincere, personable individual in the industry. Roger Sadowsky is without peers. His shop is friendly and patient. They deal with folks like Marcus Miller, Jason Newsted, etc. When I call or e-mail, I am treated with respect and friendlines. You won't find any attitude or snobbery. Look in the dictionary under "Superb" and it will read "See Sadowsky."

Warranty length? I didn't check but Roger has been great with any questions and adjustments.

Playing for 20 years. I own a '90 Sadwosky HSH; old PRS Customs, Custom 22, McCarty Rosewood; ESP '52 Tele copy, and ESP George Lynch sunburst tiger. I use Soldano amplification; no effects.

I looked at Pensa, Tom Anderson, James Tyler, Suhr, Fender, PRS, you name it. I thought the best bolt-on Strat style instrument with the richest tone, most versatility, superlative construction with attention to detail, and best customer support would be with Sadowsky. I have not been proven wrong.

If it were lost I would replace in a heartbeat. My favorite feature is the tone control and preamp. I don't use the preamp that much on my HSH guitar but on this SSS guitar these knobs are the key to versatility and tonal nirvana.

This guitar costs a reasonable amount of money. It is worth every penny. I have no regrests.

The basic stats are... Strat-style undersized body; Year: 1997; Made in NYC; 22 frets; Alder body; 5 way switch with volume, tone (two different passive tone profiles, one for the neck pickup and one for the rest of the guitar. you actuate the neck pickup tone arrangement by pulling up on the tone knob), midrange boost control, preamp switch (off, on [no boost], boost [adjustable from the back panel]). The neck is hard rock maple with a bolivian rosewood board (very, very smooth in feel). The pickups are specially made Dimarzio Virtual Vintage single coil style humcancelling pickups. Roger's are slightly less bright, from what i'm told. The bridge is a gotoh vintage style bridge with specially made saddles. The neck is a roundback with a very consistent feel as it goes toward the body. It is NOT so much like some early strats which start very narrow and shallow and get progressively thicker and wider. Very, very comfortable. The Sadowsky Ultralite case is ridiculously useful. They weigh nothing, and yet you can feel confident you've got at least as much if not more protection than a serious hard shell case. T

This is a killer strat. More versatile than most strats. I have an amazing 66 strat, and while that has a certain mojo, this guitar can do anything the 66 does. The sound is clear, full, and articulate. Something about Roger's work (i think it's partly the fret work) seems to give a more detailed and yet dynamic sound (even with preamp off) compared to the groshes and tylers and such that i've had and played. The preamp system, which i mostly leave off, gives me some interesting options while playing, and it's very neutral sounding, so i use it when i go straight into my Roland VS880 hard disk recorder, which i use for a scratch pad. Very convenient! Also, the truss rod (spokewheel) adjustment can be done without removing anything. Even in NYC where there are big swings in humidity, i rarely adjust it.

Roger's setups are world class. However, don't expect a guitar with Ibanez-shredder action. They don't typically come set up that way. They come set up for tone, which means they play great, but they don't play themselves. The fit and finish is the best i've ever seen, and i've had them all. The finish is flawless. The fret dressing is flawless. Everything is flawless. The neck has a light satin finish that doesn't have the polyester feel of the Suhrs or the Tylers (I don't know for sure that Tyler uses polyester, but it feels like it). It feels killer, like it's already broken in. Everything on this guitar works.

After having a bunch of high-end guitars, what i've come to understand about Sadowsky guitars, whether they're the basses or the guitars, is that they are meant to be played and played hard. They are the kind of guitars that are workhorses and are designed in every detail to suit a working musician. I frequently do two hour rehearsals and it is very, very rare that i have to tune the guitar _at all_. It gives me the confidence that I could take this one guitar and this one only to a gig. P.S. the finish is incredibly durable.

It's hard to find a guitar maker whose work is this good and who answers the phone. Enough said.

I have about 20 guitars. I have a few other sadowskys. The review would be the same for every guitar and bass I own. They are expensive, but if you need a guitar that really works and works hard, then this is the very best. My 66 strat sounds better, but not enough to offset the sense of confidence I have using the Sadowsky strat. It's a "bug free" instrument that allows me to concentrate on the music instead of the gear.