Gordon Smith Flying V

Did you know they made a Flying V Bass, well I have one serial no.125.
It was made for me in 1978. It is Mahogany with a maple through neck.
It has a Fender Jazz pickup and a GS custom pickup. It also features tortoise shell type binding down the neck which is very slim and tortoise shell style inlays. The neck itself is high gloss similar to a Rickenbacker. It has 20 frets and a brass nut, and 2 truss rods.

I play fast powerpop, and the guitar not only looks great it sounds great too !!

With the Fender pick up you can get the usual sounds and the Smithy gives it power.

The action is excellent, there are no flaws in the finish and after 25 years of use it is still in great condition.

The guitar was made to last, and hopfully it will last another 25 years with ease. If you want to see a photo check out my website the-fast-cars.com there's plenty of photos of it.

I got mine diretly from Gordon - Smith's and have been fortunte to be able to take it back occasionally to be checked, and it has never had a problem.

I've been playing for about 26 years on and off, if it was stolen I don't think I could replace it and I don't intend to sell it !!!

Have you heard about Gordon Smith Guitars ? Great ! But did you know, that they once produced a handful of Flying V's ? Don't worry if you didn't, but I will tell you about one. The guitar was made in Great Britain in the early eighties . It has a 22 rosewood fingerboard, dot inlays and a solig mahogany body. 2 Humbuckers, 1 Volume and 2 Tone controls and coilsplit for the two pickups ( with a push/pull pot). Creme white finish. It used to have a Shift tremolo which has been replaced by a Badass bridge by a previous owner. I give it a 9 because it has everything you might need, not a lot of features but the right.

I mostly play blues based rock n'roll and hardrock. Johnny Winter / Rory Gallagher. It perfectly suits my style - you get full sounds in the Humucker mode and sounds very Strat like in the singlecoil mode. The pickups are perfect for me - no monster buckers but just the right mix. I mostly play it through my POD into the direct in of my Peavey Deuce or directly into my 100 Watts Marshall combo. Great sounds in both cases definitely a ten

Well let's start with the positive things here. The best fretboard I have ever played, super low and nicely wide. But that's a matter of taste. But the finish - right it was already about twenty years old when I bought i used... great fretboard, tuners still in perfect condition, perfectly set up saddle. But Gordon - how could you ? The finish on the body is ok, although the colour is faded. But the neck body joint was carelessly made - a bit of filler would have helped to make it look nicer - and the headstock ! looks as it had been painted with a brush in my garage. I have a Gordon Smith Gipsy too and when I bought this new in 1981 when I was on holidays in England, back in Germany I realized that the hole for the bridge pickup was to small ! I hope they care more about the finish and setup on other guitars. Only a 6 here

There are only the necessary things on the guitar, but all there is is solid and good and the bad finish seems to last !! You can definitely depend on it.

I don't know how to contact them.

I have been playing it for half a year now, but very soon it started to become my favourite guitar and outrated my Hofner Venture V and my Hoyer 5069 S Flying V ( see my comments on these). Despite the negative points it simply plays incredibly well - super fast, super sound and incredibly handy. I would definitely buy it again if I lost it, despite the rather high used price.