1970s Gower G7 Dreadnought Guitar (7-String Mod)

Grammer guitars were built by a small, family-style shop in Nashville, TN that involved three business partners, one of whom was J.W. Gower. Their instruments were popular with various country stars of the time and you can sometimes see them gracing the stage in rescued video and stills from the time.

After a few years in business, Gower left the Grammer business and began his own guitar firm. This is why Gower-branded guitars are so close in aesthetic to the Grammer-branded instruments (because Gower had a hand in those, of course) but also firmly small-shop in mentality. These are hard instruments to come by as there were only so many of them made and the last ones seem to have been made in the '70s.

There are a few resources online for info, but check this one, this one, and this one to read up on the brand's history a bit more.

It's a well-built instrument, though its bracing is on the rather light side -- meaning it sounds good but it's not the most stable entity, I'd imagine. A previous repairman actually fit an extra-large bridge plate/cap to alleviate some of the doming/warping in the top around the bridge area but it's still got a curvy top from tension/sag over time.

Its current owner uses it as a "Roger McGuinn"-style, 7-string guitar. This 7th string just means the G-string is paired with an octave-above string just like on a 12-string so there's a little more chime and jangle when you're strumming chords. The install was not exactly, erm -- pro! -- but I did salvage it by fitting a same-style tuner from my parts bins and making a better nut and saddle and adjusting the bridge pin hole to make the conversion more practical and in-tune up the neck.

The pickguard on this guitar was removed a long time ago and the bridge looks like it's perhaps a replacement, maybe, too, as it's not in the same style as many Gower bridges were. I know other work was done on the guitar in the past, but over here it just got the nut, saddle, and bridge adjustment work plus a level/dress of the frets and setup.