LUXE LUTHIER ROGER SADOWSKY, GUITAR MAKER

hen the hieroglyphic formerly known as Prince needed custom guitars for his Purple Rain tour in 1984, he contacted luthier Roger Sadowsky. The Wcommission called for two electric guitars that could simulate ejaculation to be delivered to his royal badness. It was like asking Baryshnikov to do the Macarena. Still, Sadowsky took the job. ■ The New York native cringes at the recollection: “I made a guitar with tubes running inside the neck that shot Ivory Liquid in the air when it was hooked up to a compressor. A lot of work went into making sure the guitar sounded good. But Prince didn’t care how it sounded. He only cared that the soap went 100 feet in the air. After that, I prom- To understand the true essence ised myself I wouldn’t do any of a Sadowsky, you must look more silly custom work.” beyond the exquisitely grained Such outlandish requests are AAA rare-maple finish. “Roger becoming increasingly rare. The crafts one of the best sounding word is out: Roger Sadowsky custom guitars in the country,” makes only serious custom gui- says Lou Reed. “Sometimes tars for serious musicians. His when I’m playing, I think to my- client list reads like a Grammy self, This sounds too good to be roll call: Sting, Bruce Spring- true.” Sadowsky frets about quality. steen, Adam Clayton, David In a nondescript building ten guitars than cracking textbooks. So Byrne, Lee Ritenour, Paul Simon, floors above Times Square, Roger he dropped out and apprenticed with Earl Klugh, Marcus Miller, Sadowsky is inspecting a stack of the luthier Augie LoPrinzi from 1972 figuration are chosen, Sadowsky Walter Becker, John Patitucci, maple boards. Dressed in jeans, to 1974. For the next five years, Sa- determines the appropriate neck Gilberto Gil, Pat Metheny. Even a T-shirt, and an open flannel dowsky ran the service department shape, fret size, and electronic com- headbangers have discovered the shirt, the 47-year-old could pass at Medley Music Corp., a large mu- ponents (Sadowsky’s custom pick- subtle pleasures of bespoke: Ja- for an NYU grad student going sic retailer in the Philadelphia area. ups and preamps are known son Newsted, the bassist for through a Nirvana phase. He But fed up with the shoddy quality throughout the industry for their Metallica, ordered eight Sadow- holds each board up to the light, of many mass-produced guitars, Sa- performance). Custom paint jobs skys for a recent tour. checking the grain and tapping it, dowsky moved back to his home- are also available, including sun- These endorsements are all the listening to the wood resonate. He town in 1980 and landed in Times burst patterns, classic vintage col- more impressive when one real- rejects as many as three out of Square. ors, and clear and transparent fin- izes that unlike megamanufac- every ten. When it comes to “I remember the first time I did a ishes. turers such as Fender and Gibson, building the guitar: he insists not fret job for Roger,” recalls Mike Sadowsky’s early custom gui- Sadowsky doesn’t hand out free- only on the right wood but the Dilalla, a guitarist and former em- tars (which bear the slightly cheesy bies or have artists under contract. right combination of woods. Af- ployee of Sadowsky’s. “I sanded the nameplate DR. FRETS and are Business has gotten so brisk that ter years of experimentation, Sa- same body twenty times before he nearly impossible to buy second- he had the luxury of turning down dowsky concluded that solid- accepted it. He would see imperfec- hand) have doubled in price. But for Billy Idol’s request for a guitar body guitars made of alder or tions and microscopic scratches that musicians, the potential capital shaped like the Starship Enter- southern swamp ash with maple nobody else could.” Kevin Augunas, gains are beside the point. “You prise. Musicians pay up to $3,500 tops produce a superior tone. On a session bassist and Sadowsky shouldn’t buy a Sadowsky because for the privilege of owning one a fretless bass, an ebony finger- devotee, concurs. “Roger will throw you think it’s going to be worth a of these stringed sculptures. In board matched with a maple neck out five necks to get the right one,” million bucks someday,” says Will Japan, authorized dealers can makes for “a nice growl.” says Augunas. “He makes maybe Lee, who plays a Sadowsky bass command prices nearly twice as Roger Sadowsky was once 250 a year. Fender churns out hun- every night on David Letterman. high. To put this into perspective, enrolled at the Institute of Animal dreds a day.” “You should buy it because you a factory Stratocaster or Tele- Behavior at Rutgers University, Every Sadowsky custom guitar enjoy playing it.” And what’s it like caster—the two classic stock where he studied psychobiology. begins with a consultation. Then the to play a custom Sadowsky? “Are Fender guitars whose silhouettes But halfway through his doctor- client is taken to a soundproof room you kidding?” says Lee. “My ax Sadowsky has appropriated—re- ate program, he realized he was where he samples various models. rocks!” tail for as little as $650. spending more time dismantling After the body type and wood con-

FEBRUARY 3, 1997 NEW YORK