Gordon Smith Graf Deluxe

One piece 22 fret maple neck, mahogany body, GS coil tapped humbucker at bridge position and GS single coil at neck, GS tremelo unit.

Bought this as a back up for my Gordon Smith Graduate 60 when gigging.
I must have had it at home for about an hour before I decided that it would have to become my main guitar! The tapped humbucker provides such a great tone and the guitar itself produces a really rich resonant chords even when played acoustically.
I play in a covers band playing everything from The Police, REM, The Damned, The Stanglers, Zutons, Frankie GTH and The Killers and it can cope with all these styles with ease. The single coil and the middle setting between both pickups produces some great sounds on clean from nice strat tones to Smiths style jangles. The humbucker produces a beautiful overdriven/distorted sound with plenty of lush harmonics. A good old dirty rock/blues solo sounds fantastic when played with this guitar.

The action was set up low and plays like a dream. There are a couple of tiny oil smudges under the lacquer but that only adds to the hand crafted charm and mystique. The maple neck is a thing of beauty and feels very comfortable to play.
I was a little wary about the vibrato when I first got it as it didn't look like it could stand much punishment but after bashing out a few whammy intensive tunes, including that nasty dive in the Harvester of Sorrow solo by Metallica, it has proved me totally wrong. It also stays perfectly in tune!

It's a lot lighter that my Graduate 60 (which would survive a direct hit with smart bomb) so it feels a little more fragile, but it is built well with good quality wood and materials. The machine heads are robust and stay in tune (see above)and the hardware is just that - hard and functional. This fella was made to be played and gigged with minimum of fuss.

It was on sale on the Gordon Smith website as it had a vibrato installed when the original customer wanted it without so I got over ??100 off the original price.
The GS sales rep Dave went above and beyond the call of duty and met me in a motorway services car park (sounds dodgy I know!!) near my home as he was passing by on his weekend off on his way to Liverpool. I thought this was a very nice gesture and meant I got to inspect the guitar before I bought it. He also kept in touch by email and phone and answered any questions I had. He also knocked a few quid off the hard case I bought off them as well. Top bloke!

I have been playing for 17 years now and as well as the Graf I own a GS Graduate 60 and play through a Boss ME-50 into a Peavey 50w Valveking.
I would be gutted if I lost it and would definitely replace it and would love to own some more Gordon Smith guitars, a Galaxy, Classic T and Classic S would be nice.
I used to work in a guitar shop a few years ago which is where I first discovered GS guitars. Having played many other guitars I can definitely vouch for GS. Where some guitars that cost 3 times as much might have a certain quality and sound you can't find elsewhere the GS Graf wins out in my opinion for sheer versatility and range of sounds at a great price.

Made in Manchester, UK, 1994, 22 wide flat dutch steel frets, one piece wide flat highly flamed maple neck (similar to Ibanez but deeper) with black dot markers and brass nut. Tele-style slab body in Les Paul shape (???) which nicely matches the reduced Strat style headstock - body core is Obeche wood (a type of tough balsa) with highly figured flame maple cap and fake edge binding. Finished in a stunning Kingfisher Blue/Green, high gloss front and thin satin lacquered back and sides. HSH alnico pickups (GS own), 5-way slider, one volume, one tone, both tappable to select SC options on neck (vol) and bridge (tone) pickups. GS own design fixed bridge. Weight, a little over 6.5 pounds. Stock Van Gent tuners which have since been changed to Schaller lockers. A real mix of styles but utterly unique and totally beautiful.

Oh my god... first time I picked this up I HAD to have it! Can do the full range of Tele/Strat sounds but MORE so, even verging on Rickenbacker/Gretsch clang... extremely resonant and loud played acoustically, seems to breathe in for a second when played electrically though Boogie MkIII and Tech21 Trademark60. Usual noise on the s/c pickup settings, and the tapped settings are more s/c like than many other tapped humbuckers. Its bright, more lower mid than true bass response due to the body woods, but very balanced with a touch of amp eq. Light weight is a dream to play. If this had "Gibson" or "Fender" on the headstock, it'd retail at over #,1000.

Some minor cosmetic flaws in the fake edge binding, dye overruns, and some of the dot edge markers had smudged... took an age to set up to my liking (low and snappy), over months in fact, but I put this down to the unusual (and maybe slightly unstable) choice of body wood... hell, I could live with that for the SOUND that Obeche produces! One major whine... the brass nut... awful things, but remains unchanged for fear of killing "that" sound.

The soft body wood and thin lacquer on the rear and sides mean it doesn't handle knocks too well and picks up fairly major dings with little apparent force. I've had this axe nearly 10 years and there is absolutely no fretwear at all, and believe me I play HARD! Only problem has been loose strap buttons which don't seem to "bite" correctly in the soft body wood (cured with a match shaft and a spot of superglue). Never had any problems electrically or constructionally, and never had to use a backup.

Superb. Wrote to John Smith with constructive criticism and received a long personal letter in return - these people love what they do, and it shows, and even better they have no aura of mystique or over inflated ego (yes, YOU, PRS...)... also they'll make anything you want. Now, I want one with two P90's...

If it were stolen, I'd find and murder the thief - this is a one off, totally unique design and sound. I've owned Fender, PRS, Yamaha, Levinson in alt.rock/indie/punk bands, and they've all moved on to eBay or other sales, but this is sticking with me. Character, tone, looks, god I love it.

My Graf Deluxe was made this year (2002), I ordered it at the start of May and got it today (13th September). It has been more than well worth the wait. 22 frets, gloss/laminated finish in dark blue/metallic colour (my choice).
Controls: Volume, Tone, 3-way selector for the S/H pickups (Gordon SMith ones!)
It has a thin maple neck (they do it to your spec - this was my choice).
I justify the 10 mark because it can have as many features as you want really.

It's spot on for me and the variety of sounds I play, e.g. ska, punk, rock, funk, blues, salsa, etc
I plug it straight in to my Marshall MG50RCD, no noise, i use the amps distortion, and the pickup selctor is quite suitable for changing to suit the song rather than twiddling knobs.
C'mon, lets face it, I love this guitar...

Perfect straight from the workshop, the action is really low and just right for me, it is really smooth to play and emphasises the fact ive been playing crap electric guitars for 5 years.
Pickups - spot on, there are no flaws that ive noticed so far.

The guitar feels like its built to last which is good because I plan to gig it lots. Strap buttons are solid as a rock.
I'm going to depend on it, I will gig without a backup (for now) until i save up for another guitar for a back up.
i cant really rate this as this is its first day in my hands.

I've been playing guitar about 8 years, electric 5 years.
If it were stolen or lost I would cry because it took 4 months to get it, i'd definiltly get another, heck, i'd get get another anyway.
I chose this guitar, because it's British, handmade, really local, only one person i know has one (everyone else is all "ooh strat, gibson" sell outs...)
The price is fantastic for the amount of guitar and quality you get.