Friedman Vintage-S HSS Guitar, Rosewood Fretboard, Light-Aged Black

PLAYER’S PERSPECTIVE

Friedman guitars are back! Here’s a gorgeous Vintage-S HSS with a maple neck and rosewood fretboard, finished in a classic light-aged Black finish with a tasteful tortoiseshell pickguard.

Throughout the years, we’ve been consistently impressed with the offerings from the Friedman guitar-building department, and this new batch is no different – these guitars are absolutely killer! This one takes a traditional S-style design, tried and true, and rockets to new heights with a versatile pickup configuration, modern sensibilities like a simple 2-knob control layout, and a bridge pickup tone out of the Classic Plus humbucker that sears, cuts, and smokes nicely while maintaining true-vintage neck and middle pickup sounds that are rich, warm, and twangy. The 2-point bridge gives you some of the flexibility and response of a locking tremolo, along with the simplicity and ease of use of a vintage bridge.

The neck feels amazing. It’s instantly familiar, and the compound radius fretboard feels natural and perfectly intuitive to navigate. The fretwork is superb – you’re easily able to dial in some nice, low action without having to worry about fret buzzing. Right out of the box, these play incredibly smoothly, and thanks to the nitro finish on the guitar, it’ll only feel better and better the more you play it!

As also seen with his renowned series of amps, Dave Friedman is a man who really seems to turn anything he touches to gold. His guitar-building endeavor is no different. These are some real-deal guitars that sound phenomenal and feel amazing to play!

MANUFACTURER’S DESCRIPTION

Timeless Classic.

Vintage Feel – Modern Playability.

Versatile Proven Design.

Premium body woods: Dave chose genuine Alder and Ash as the body woods of choice for their classic tonal character. Grain pattern and lightweight are benchmarks for every VINTAGE-S. 

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-S 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. The compound radius is time-consuming and laborious to get exactly right, yet worth-it – and featured on every Friedman VINTAGE-S.

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-S 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 altogether. The tonal benefit of this connection is a virtual fusion of the body and neck whereby the transference of vibration is maximized.

Tuners and Bridge: The VINTAGE-S bridge features vintage style bent metal saddles combined with a 2 point Fulcrum and Steel block paired with locking vintage inspired 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: Friedman guitars wear a thin nitro finish allowing the wood to breathe.

Custom Friedman Pickups: In addition to the Friedman Classic pickup line. The Friedman Classic Single pickups were designed to produce that well-known vintage single coil chime with the ability to cut through the mix. This is combined with a Classic Plus Humbucker in the bridge position to provide every player with a beautiful and full vintage-voiced tonal palette. Inspired by both modern and vintage guitar tones, Dave wanted to make sure that the pickups used in all Friedman guitars delivered the exact tone he envisioned. With Dave’s clear vision, the Friedman Classic Pickup line was born!

Case included: All Friedman guitars come in a custom G&G case.

Certificate of Authenticity: Friedman carefully inspects each guitar prior to shipping. A serial numbered Certificate of Authenticity is included.

SPECIFICATIONS

Body

• Model: Vintage-S HSS
• Color: Black
• Relic Level: Light Age
• Body: Alder

Neck

• Construction: Bolt-On
• Fretboard: Rosewood
• Neck Wood: Maple – Satin
• Scale Length: 25.5″
• Fretboard Radius: 10″ – 14″ Compound
• Frets: 22, Jescar FW47095, PLEK 

Electronics

• Pickups: Classic Single-Coil (neck), Classic Single-Coil RW/RP (middle), Classic Plus Humbucker (bridge)
• Controls: Volume, Tone
• Pickup Selector: 5-Way Blade

Hardware

• Bridge: Vintage-Style 2-Point Fulcrum Tremolo w/ Bent Metal Saddles
• Tuners: Locking, Vintage Inspired
• Finish: Aged Nickel

Misc.

• Case: G&G Black Tolex Hardshell
• Instrument Weight: 7.7 lbs
• Serial #: 1022-2228

OVERALL CONDITION

Music Store Live is proud to be an authorized dealer for Friedman. This Vintage-S is 100% brand new and is being sold with a full manufacturer’s warranty. Photos are of the exact guitar you’ll receive.

Our in-house guitar tech will inspect, test, set up, and clean all of our instruments on site prior to shipping. All of our instruments are guaranteed to be fully functional upon arrival.