• Working class, rock and roll guitar.
• Vintage Feel - Modern playability.
• Simple, solid, timeless and aged to perfection.
ALL FRIEDMAN GUITARS are Custom Ordered and built by hand. The Neck wood, body wood, color, aging, hardware and pickups are all Customizable by YOU! Or, if you see something from the gallery you like, we'll just make that, if we don't already have it in stock. Custom orders take 8-10 weeks.
***NOTE: Aging and wear marks are all one of a kind...so expect variations, as no two are the same.
Premium body woods - Dave chose genuine Mahogany, Alder and Ash as the body woods of choice for their classic tonal character. Each piece of wood is hand-selected by Grover Jackson himself. In the last round of building 25 guitars, over 500 wood planks were inspected by Grover - 475 did not make the cut. Grain pattern and light weight are benchmarks for every Vintage-T.
Necks - Select eastern hard maple with your choice of Indian Rosewood, Maple, Birdseye Maple, Ebony and Pau Ferro fingerboard is available.
Frets – Jescar FW47095 nickel silver fret wire is used on Vintage-T guitars.
Compound Radius - Grover Jackson invented the compound radius fingerboard (CRF) 35 years ago. The fingerboard geometry is based on a conical shape rather than cylindrical. The significance is tangible and substantial – a 10”-14” compound radius fingerboard allows for maximum playability with no chance of your strings fretting out when bending. Compound radius is time-consuming and laborious to get exactly right, yet worth-it – and featured on every Friedman Vintage-T.
Tight Pocket and Exclusive Zero-Shift Neck Pins - Neck shifting results in incorrect string alignment and is a challenge for many guitars. A tight neck pocket helps, but in-and-of itself does not eliminate the problem. Vintage-T guitars raise the bar with the exclusive Zero-Shift Neck Pin design; whereby, two military grade precision steel dowel pins align the body and neck, eliminating shift all together. The tonal benefit of this connection is a virtual fusion of the body and neck whereby the transference of vibration is maximized.
Tuners – Vintage-style tuners.
Plek – Very few boutique builders and many of the giants do not use a PLEK. This German-made device provides the ultimate in fretboard analysis, fret-leveling and overall setup, and ensures maximum modern playability of all Friedman guitars.
Aged Nitrocellulose Finish - Grover Jackson is one of the few guitar manufacturers in Southern California permitted to spray nitrocellulose lacquer. Friedman guitars wear a thin nitro finish allowing the wood to breathe.
Custom Friedman Pickups – Dave and Grover worked for over a year on the Friedman Classic Humbucker and Classic 90 pickups to get the exact tone Dave envisioned. Both choices feature nickel silver base plates, high quality copper wire and alnico magnets.
• The Classic 90 delivers a smooth, warm tone with a very open top-end and touch-sensitive dynamics. The combination of slightly over-wound 42 awg wire coils and traditional Alnico V magnets give the Classic 90 a fat, yet extremely articulate tone with excellent response to pick attack.
• The Friedman Classic Humbucker produces vintage-style tone with an exceptionally balanced frequency response, outstanding clarity and extended dynamic range. These 42 awg pickups are reminiscent of late ‘59 PAFs in tone with a bit more Dave-infused attitude.
Case included – All Friedman guitars come in a custom G&G case.