Gordon Smith GS1 Double Cutaway

Made around '89 - '90 in Manchester U.k
One bridge Humbucker. I had a Dimarzio fitted (can't remember which type).
As I wasn't keen on the Gordon Smith humbucker.
One volume and one tone.
Black Satin finish.
Also had a stainless steel scratch plate made.
These guitars aren't loaded with features. Very simple, in a good way!

I play Rock through a Marshall TSL 60.
It sounds great! Very ballsy.
Nice sustain, sounds good unplugged!

Action is lovely and low!
The guitar is very simple, very understated looking which I think may put some people off.
Very slim neck.

Structure wise its bomb proof.
However, I have a fret marker missing, tone knob fell/snapped off and a few scratches here and there. But to be fair it's getting on for 20 years old and its had to put up with my shinanigins all that time.

You can depend on Gordon Smith guitars.

I only contacted them last week and that was about getting another one!

I've heard customer support is second to none.

It's was my first proper guitar, bought it because I couldn't afford a Gibson.
To be honest when I bought it I didn't appreciate what a superb guitar it really was, due to my inexperience.

I love this guitar, if the house was on fire and I could only save one thing.........................!
I'm a lefty so don't get to pick up and play that many guitars but played a mates Gibson SG and thought it was a big heavy lump, with a way to thick neck.

I think the only thing that possibly lets these things down is the look, they just seem too basic. I like guitars to look good. GS guitars do look good but in a very understated way.
You can of course have a say in the finish, pick ups and hardware if you order from them.

One pickup, one tone, one volume with coil tap, all mahogany. This is the most simple guitar ever made. Does everything that you would expect of it.

With original pickup it was great, now replaced with a Kent Armstrong someting or other and its great by possibly a really slight amount.

Superb from the start, but I replaced the wrapover stop bar with a Schaller 455 to allow for more accurate intonation, couldn't tell the difference.

Ultimate gig guitar, you'll never kill one.

Sent them an email about another Gordon Smith I have, no reply.

Fantastic.

Features ?? what features , it's the most featureless guitar in the world , but that's it's charm !!

If you class 3 pups or a Floyd Rose or a Sustainer as a feature then this has none , if you want build quality, playability and tone to die for then this is a perfect 10 !!

Gorgeous !! Whether in humbucker or coil tapped the sound is just gorgeous , with the help of the most useful tone knob I have ever used you can go from Tele quack to SG blues in a second.

It looks hand made , there's no getting away from it. You can buy a Chinses Les Paul copy that will look prettier than this thing if you want binding and fancy laminated tops ..... but if you want a players guitar then this is the one for you. In those terms this guitar has been finished perfectly as it is finished to play !!

Action is perfect, Godorn Smith guitars are all set up perfectly when they are made and so unless you wish to change string guages there is no reason that you would need to touch your guitar.

Reliability and durability is what Gordon Smith stands for.
The wood id quite soft and due to the lack (thank god) of heavy lacquering this guitar will pick up knocks. But this doesn't stop this guitar from doing what it is designed for and actually adds to the charm in my opinion , every ding tells a story !!

I've never had the pleasure but their reputation is second to none.

If you only have ??400 and you want a top quality guitar then this has to be the one you go for !!

I can't believe that more people don't own a GS1 or similar as they are simply outstanding guitars and you will not be abe to get better even if you have an extra ??500 or so to spend. Unless it's on another Gordon Smith that is !!

mine is a brand new 2005 model. i had it built with a thick body and supplied my own 'bucker (seymour duncan invader). other than that it is stock, just like all the other descriptions here. basically it's a natural finish, glued neck, mahogany body/neck with GS own wrapover bridge, tuners, wide fat frets and a rosewood board. it's just beautifully finished - completely flawless.

now, if features means number of pickups/whammy bar etc etc then it's a one. if features refers to quality of build, then it's a ten!! it's coil tapped, but even at that there's two sounds here - fat, and fatter. it's built to be a workhorse, and that's what it is whatever style you play.

my rig is an old marshall non-master volume head (1959 superlead), a marshall 1960 cab and just a couple of pedals - a boss tuner, various fuzzes (mayer/DAM/pro co) and sometimes a bit of delay. this guitar is my back up for my gibson sg, but if the sg was nicked i'd be perfectly happy for this one to be my main guitar. i play loud (i know how lame and macho that sounds, but my drummer really hits them!!) and this guitar is perfect for what i do, namely heavy fuzzrock. it's loud, has really meaty thick tone and sustains for ever. in fact, it sustains more than any other guitar i have used, which is just great for slloooowww solos. there's nothing i dislike about this guitar, it feels great, sounds great and even better, looks the business.

absolutely the best finished guitar i have owned. for a wrapover bridge the tuning is very accurate up the neck, the joins in the wood are spotless, the nut is great, the finish is great, the frets are super neat . nothing at all to fault.

it's my third gordon smith, and if it takes a beating like the other two it'll last forever. very, very roadworthy guitars.

custom built, from scratch in two months. great!!

for a hard rockin, quality handbuilt guitar there is none better. makes a total mockery of epiphone etc. can't afford a gibson??? get a gordon smith.
i love the simplicity of this guitar, it's the business!!

I just wanted to amend an earlier review I did for my guitar as I put a GS vibrato bridge on it. The bridge is a Fender-ish affair that sits on a leaf-spring that attaches to the body with 3 screws. After adding a shim to compensate for the Gibson-like neck angle the tesion and adjust ment is made by tightening the 3 screws. Tweaking the action and intonation is done by grub screws in the saddles like on a Tele, and the arm screws into the bridge body, no tesion adjuster on the arm.

In replacing the original bridge, a Schaller fine-tuning unit, the sound has become very slightly airier with a little more bite in the treble and mids.

The bridge attaches between the studs on the original bridge. The stud holes are left open and I had to run a wire from the treble stud to the leaf spring to earth it, so it looks a mess. But my 20 years old GS1 looks as beaten and worn as Rory Gallagher's Strat so I really don't care. Form follows function here.

I'm handy with tools but I'm no luthier, so I'm thrilled with the result because it works a lot better than I'd hoped. Return to pitch is OK for a non-locking vibrato but not like a Floyd. Another way it's unlike a Floyd is that it's stiffer than a dead snake! I like this as I'm very heavy handed and Floyds, good though they are, are too light for me. In fact it's so stiff that I can drop my bottem E a tone and the relative pitch of the other strings is unaffected. Try that on a Floyd without a D-Tuna! It'll divebomb if you push it really hard, and although there's only about a tone of upbend its OK for wiggles and stuff. The arm has a little kink at the end and it fits in my hand very well indeed.
In short, its not much cop if you're into Vai, Van Halen or 80s metal, but as an alternative for a classic Strat trem it's fine. If you're thinking of ordering a GS guitar then this bridge is viable option to go for.

I've been in contact with GS over this as I ordered the bridge direct from them, and they very good indeed.

I said in previous review that I'd enter a burning building to retrieve this guitar. Well there wasn't actually a fire but the alarms were going and yes, I did go back and get it!

Mine is a 1995 natural finish. Made in Britain. Solid one peace mahagony body, glued in neck. Mine was made from a beautiful peace of wood. Very comfortable thin neck profile but a bit wider than Les Paul. Original coil tap GS neck pickup. Push pull volume does the coil tapping. Very effective tone control.
Wraparound bridge. Brass nut. Perfect intonation. Stays in tune well. No neeed for tune-a-matic. Lightweight and a perfect workhorse guitar. No frills no thrills, straightforward no nonsens design. Few features but a perfect ten.

Don't be fooled by its simplicity. It goes anywhere from biting edgy single coil to fat humbucker sound. I'm not too crazy about the clean sound, will never sound crisp like a strat or fat like a Les Paul. This guitar is recommended for anything from crunchy blues to SG-like distortion. The pickups are great, relatively low noise single coil, hum free humbucking.
The GS-1 surpasses my GS-2/60 in sound by far. I recon that is because it is made from one piece of wood unlike the two pu version.

Bought it used. Great setup and action. The finish is still good. Some frets a bit edgy on the bottom.

I heva already owned one G-60 for more than 10 years. Gordon Smith guitars are built to last.
I gigged and gig the GS-1 without backup. It has quickly become my favourite workhorse. The finish can take the usual beating and yes it will wear off, just like you'd expect to on a guitar that is played. Strap buttons and hardware are solid.
From a friend's experience comes a warning. The headstock breaks easily!

Extremely helpful staff. They always return mails instantly.

This is exactly how a Gibson Les Paul Junior Double Cutaway should be. It is a lot better than what you can buy from Gibson today (faded T.V. yellow give me a break crap, tested that in a music store a while ago...).
If you look for that kind of guitar, stop looking at Gibson.
Lost or stolen? I'd get nuts and buy a new one.
This guitar has balls and a personality. It is comfortable to play and has a nice light weight. Best thing I ever bought on ebay.
And woth around 400 guitars made every year at Gordon Smith, you can also beat the crowds.

Solid double cut cidar body with a mahogany glue set neck and rose wood slab fret board with a great grain. Features a single coil tapped H/B in bridge position, originally GS issue but soon after purchace replaced with a S/D Trem bucker tapped. The coil tap is via a push pull volume pot which keeps it all tidy. The tone control also cuts off at ten to give an extra boost. Bridge is a fully adjustabe con fig not the wrap around so intonatio is easy. Tuners are Dutch-made Van Gent tuners and the nut is brass (height adjustable for slide set up).

Unplugged it sound full of mid,,, if that makes sense. I'ts wiered, different. This is probably due to the cidar constuction which is quite light weight and less dense than that of say a mahogany S/G. That said it aint an SG is it. Plugged it into a Marshall valve state 100W and things get really good. Clean it's very bright in both H/B and S/C but that tone control comes into play. The pot pulled out to S/C gives a fantastic (dare I say it) strat sound bridge position, whilst in H/B it sound great too. Dirty it up a bit and it just rocks, sustains and screams with great artificial harmonics. Although I changed the pick up the original was good although a little too bright for my taste.

As with all my guitars the first thing I do is tweak the set up. But I recon its back to its's original factory set up. I prefer 10's and and minimal neck relief so a little turn of the truss rod under the scratch plate and all was well. Frets were well dressed and had a played in feel. The body is made from two peices and they don't match at all but that brings out the hand made natural look. Finnish was spot on for a no frills machine.

Although the finish seems just short of the sanding stage and someone has spent a few hours with a bottle of bees wax and a duster it's good clean and again natural. Which means no great dramas if you knock it. You get the feeling this guitar doesn't need a case that's probably why it doesn't come with one.

Great. I had some bridge bolts replaced and sent though the post (not due to defect I was just too idle to use a proper screw driver and ended up damaging the chrome finish) at a price of #3 or so. The shop gave me a 12 month warranty but I can't see me using it.

When I tried it in the shop I thought oh yes! (I only went to buy strings) came out #300 less (got the strings for free) but had something a bit special. Got home and the novelty wore off gutted. Then I took it for what it was and realised this was one hell of a guitar that makes you think more about the important things involved. Ok a good paint job and fancy edging and flame top does look the bizz and help form the instrument but it aint always needed and not at such a low price.
If the SG1 got stolen I would buy it again, the only thing is each one is slightly different and there is a waiting list to get one to order. For #300 It's the cheapst guitar I owne that I would gig but a one to be proud of.

Mine is a 1985 or 1986 GS1 with the thin body and small feeling neck . It has a mahogany body which due to the thin profile feels light and has a rosewood fretboard.
It has the stock GS humbucking pick-up but the paint job has been changed from the cherry red i suspect it was to a a design done by the previous owner whi was in a manchester 80's punk band.
I bought it on E-Bay for #220.00 inc. delivery. The bridge is the original GS one but the tuners I think have been replaced.
I've rated it a 5 becuase it is a simple guitar and mine is 2nd hand and quite well used.

Unplugged it has a surprisingly peasant sound that is louder and more trebly than I had imagined. I had not heard one before buying (not normally wise!) and was guided by opinion both here and from knowledgable friends one of whom has a GS1 single cutaway with a SD jeff Beck installed which he much prefers. I found the stock p/up to be ok but not much more than that. It was quite high in output and did offer considerable tonal variety with the coil tap but did not blow my socks off. I would imagine that with a jb installed it would be even better and seems to suit ska, punk, funk etc which suits me. I don't have the fx pedals and variety of amps to perhaps check out all it's possibilities sound wise so i've given a cautious mark. If i get round to fitting another p/up i'll report back and update my score.

Being 2nd hand i cannot gauge the factory set-up as this is an 80's guitar after all. It has some very minor digs and an 'unusual' paint job which i don;t much care for but that's just cosmetics.
It has some intonation problems which i put down to the bridge, strings that i must get round to changing and maybe also the tuners. It was recently pointed out to me that the p'up holes do not line up well/evenly with the strings though i am unsure if this makes too much practical difference.
playing wise i do find the neck pleasant and a change from my tele and danelectro. the 1st string chokes in some areas and i cannpt gauge which problems are factory based and which are age realted except of course the lining up thing.

the finish is naff in my eyes so i hope it doesn't last, but i am just referrng to the paint job which has been yacht varnished over.
it's neck heavy which might be a weak area and is perhaps too light and thin to be considered 'heavy duty'.
i don't currently gig but would not consider doings so with this until the tuning and intonation had been dealt with appropriately.
there is certainly less togo wrong here than the average guitar with no tremelo etc so after sorting it should prove a reliable workhorse.

emailed them a few of times to get info.
first time very helpful, thereafter didn't bother to reply. i guess that you get a better response if you are purchasing new direct from them, but for this to be the case they would need to price more realistically. an a acquaintnace who builds bass guitars professionally had stated thhat they use nice wod but crap components. he's the professional and his work is selling well and is well recieved so i guesss he knows.

this is my second attempt at getting to grips with the guitar as i guess the last time round when i was younger it just wasn't the right time for me. i have played for 2 years or less and lets just say i write good songs but as yet cannot entirely do them justice.
i do wish i had tried the one i saw for sale in colchester (it's purple! and that's less offensive than my ones paint job).
if it were stolen i would be hacked off and it would need serious thinking as to whether i got the same again or looked elsewhere.
i love the simplicity and light weight. mine is in eed of some work and i've had an estimate of #300.00 which makes the cost too high. at the end of that i would have a guitar i can live with for a very long time if not for ever and one that would suit my tastes. perhaps though i would look at other left field options like a jazzmaster with humbuckers or sg clone etc etc.
once sorted i will no doubt feel much mire positive about all aspects of this guitar as long as i ignore the cost. (ouch)
basically i want a guitar for punk,ska,funk and rock (not metal as such) that can sound good distored and clean, is light and stays in tune and intonated as well as one can reasonably expect. will this be it? who knows, any suggestions? oh and cheap too!!

This is a GS1 Natural made in 1993. It has the wrap around bar bridge which seems to have little if any adjustability except height. Yet this hand made guitar seems to have excellent intonation. How do they do that? It has the original GS single humbucker pickup at the bridge with the coil tap on the volume pot. This thinline guitar is made of solid mahogony with a set mahogony neck and a rosewood finger board. The frets are medium and the neck profile is wide (bordering on the classical) but very shallow. It's not Van Halen but it's bloody accurate. The tuners are extremely high quality GS originals. Absolutely no need to change them.

This guitar has balls! I play it through an Award-Session Sessionette-75. To my ears I'm getting a strong Rickenbacker 60's vibe through the clean channel and a very characterful raunchy blues, R 'n' B drive sound on the crunch channel. I've never tried it but I'm sure that this instrument would sound amazing through an AC 30. Other reviewers have mentioned that they changed the pickup. This is totally unnecessary and will take away from the original tonality of this guitar. This pickup is giving me superb cutting edge through a solid state amp which compares favourably with the other guitarists Marshall rig in our band. (My strat cannot do this and needs some valves really).
I would describe the clean sound as chiming and the overdrive as soulful and bluesy. When you are in a band your sound can be overwhelmed yet this axe shouts your feelings out with clarity and passion.
Then you apply the coil tap and your into telecastor territory......

I play this with 10's. The 10 year old frets now need a bit of attention which will enable a slightly lower action. The neck profile makes this comfortable to play anyway, without worrying too much about the action. The guitar has been put together by a proper luthier and I would order another model with confidence. The beauty have having the action set low are those fabulous Ricky sounding chord strums which don't happen with a high action that produces too much sustain.

It would be a sin not to play this guitar live. Here are some of the songs I've used it for:
Let's Work Together (Canned Heat).
Get Back (The Beatles).
Sunny Afternoon (The Kinks - near perfect Dave Davies tones)
Sweet Home Chicago (Blues Brothers Version).
Beautiful Stranger (Madonna - capoed at the 4th fret A7 shape etc)
2468

It goes with your strat to every gig and is totally dependable.

I have contacted Gordon Smith several times via their web sight. Each time I have received a quick and friendly email reply. They seem only too happy to help with any enquiry. They will supply you with parts such as bridges etc and their sight has a comprehensive price list. This is so much better than the 'no man's land' situation experienced when you buy a mass-produced 'off the peg' guitar. Very good.

Gordon Smith have been making excellent guitars for a long time. They know what they're doing. The GS1 is the cheapest guitar in their range but that doesn't matter. It's simple but it really works very well indeed. The simplicity gives you the confidence that there aint much to go wrong! If you want to play Van Halen then go ahead and get a Steinberger or something, but do people really want to listen to that any more?

Well ive just bought myself a rather sexay Gs1 thick body in satin black. Its just the single pickup jobby but she rocks.
I went for the wrap-around tail piece so its pretty much the most simple guitar ever invented. serial number 9017

I play mostly progressive emo/ hardcore punk rock, i put this little badboy straight into my trace elliot supertramp head and the sound is pure dangerous, perhaps a little ill defined during heavier riff work, perhaps a change of pick-up will help that though. The sound quite wide, bass heavy with a quite defined midrange, the treble can be quite harsh but the tone control seems to roll off the brashness quite easily. The clean sounds are a bit bland i thought, the coil tapped selection gives a more "tele" style vibe to the clean sound but its still a bit bland. I'm planning to fit a seymour duncan JB into this guitar just to give it a bit more life and charactor

Obviously this guitar is hand made so the build quality is fabulous, the finish is nicely flat and the fingerboard is nice and tidy, the quality of build far surpasses its #400 price tag, i sold a US strat to buy this and i'm not dissapointed at all. Perhaps the machine heads are a bit sub-standard, i'd prefer to see the grover units but the standards are adequate.

I play about 80 shows a year and ive every confidence that this guitar will be fine for touring, its built like a tank. Its simplicity is a god-send for live use too, theres so little to go wrong, no switches or multiple pickups to go wrong!!

Gordon smith sent me a leaflet with all the prices and some pictures, they were more than helpful when i came to ordering it through "music ground" in leeds.

Its a lovely guitar, and with the pick-up upgrade i'm planning it should be an absolute killer of a guitar.