Interesting look at Gordon smith construction today

riffpowers

the guy who is fixing my Les Paul had a Gordon Smith in to fix .

he’d had to strip it down to the wood , and he wasn’t impressed with it ! It was an oldish one .

the maple top was a super thin veneer . Almost worn down to the body underneath in place , it was that thin ! The rosewood fretboard was also super thin . He also said tgevhesdstock veneer was plastic and had come off .
he was not impressed , and I was surprised too , I thought they were supposed to be decent !

Winny_Pooh

Aside from the fingerboard, none of those sound like problems as such. I've played the new models, quite impressive.

peteri

Honestly - I never understood the hype in them back in the day.

Guitarist magazine always used to call it the UK Gibson, I had a GS1 - and honestly it was very plain and unexciting.

Just a boring, boring instrument to play - no real resonance or anything.

Maybe I had a bad one (meaning there were the Gibson ) - but what you say doesn't surprise me

WezV

They did veneer fingerboards as a feature for a while, might suggest it was mid-90’s

Old GS vary more than a Gibson Friday afternoon special, that’s all there is to it.

i was looking at a new one last week and the finish was spot on.  The old issues are gone.


i remember a customer telling me they refused a white finish because they didn’t have a clean spraying environment.  Says it all 


i would still love a simple  GS1 and would accept some signs if the hand of the maker

Strat54

I checked some out late 90's in Sounds Great...dreadful fit and finish, they were cheap...but still not cheap enough. Have played better £99 Chenders.

Teyeplayer

The old ones were I gather whatever woods were available at the time for the least money, these weren’t tone woods or picked for tap qualities, just whatever crap was lying around.

The Auden guys have been putting a lot of work into turning that reputation for shoddiness  around and fair play to them. Even the pricing, considering these are instruments built by a very small team pretty much to order, they are really trying to be competitive. I seem to recall prices in the 90s being only a hundred or two less than they are now (though this may be the fog of memory).

I’m yet to play one and the proof will be in the pudding but I hear good things.

Moe_Zambeek

I was always bemused by the GS reputation in the 90s too, every one I tried right up into the early noughties was a poorly made plank of cheap wood and cheap components with below average build quality.

On the other hand I saw two of the new ones in Guitarguitar at the weekend and they looked great, excellent finishes at least. I still felt no urge to pick one up and play it right enough...

riffpowers

I'vce had some stinkers over the years, but the current ones look great.

Just thought it was interesting to see how they're constructed. 

impmann

I loved my old one - well made, sounded great etc.

A friend has a Les Paul alike (carved top etc) and that thing sounds epic, and looks fantastic.

Both 'old' ones.

Auden/GS are about four miles from my front door - I keep meaning to visit them (they have a showroom at their factory). The guitars I've seen have looked nice in the pics, if a little blingy - flamed maple (or similar) really doesn't do it for me.

DannyP

I remember (might have been when the Graf came out) that they had some tone theory about the benefits of a thin hard veneer on the top. May just have been rationalising the use of veneer I suppose.

guitarfishbay

WezV said:

They did veneer fingerboards as a feature for a while, might suggest it was mid-90’s

Old GS vary more than a Gibson Friday afternoon special, that’s all there is to it.

i was looking at a new one last week and the finish was spot on.  The old issues are gone.


i remember a customer telling me they refused a white finish because they didn’t have a clean spraying environment.  Says it all 


i would still love a simple  GS1 and would accept some signs if the hand of the maker

I had one made in the mid 00s that was still a veneer R/W board.  The flame top on mine (custom H/H strat type) was also a veneer, but this was discussed in advance and I was fine with it.

I met John a bunch of times and the impression I got was he was mostly interested in functionality.  IIRC he had his dogs in the workshop which may explain not wanting to do white.  It was a few rooms and 2 floors with the spraying done upstairs, he did the woodworking in the front room downstairs and his wife made the pickups in the back room, there was one other member of staff who did wiring and setups...  The dogs mostly stayed with his wife but I guess the hairs would potentially get everywhere.  I remember a conversation with him about expansion and he told me he had done in before but in the 90s recession wound up having to lay people off, he said he felt terrible having to do that to his friends so decided he'd just stick with his lot and not try to expand again.

The best GS I've ever played was the one that belonged to my guitar teacher.  It just sounded huge, and the build on that was really good.  The two that I bought had some cosmetic flaws but nothing functional, I sold one and still have one though I don't use it anymore.

FX_Munkee

I'm trying to remember whether it was here or somewhere else that I saw the pictures someone had taken of a GS that they'd stripped to refinish and the body was multiple pieces laminated together with joins that ran across the body at about a 60 degree angle.

Philly_Q

From interviews, I always got the impression John Smith thought he was building something purely functional - a tool, basically - and he genuinely didn't get why anyone would be bothered about it being aesthetically perfect.

(Edit:  I see @guitarfishbay's said something similar above, but based on personal experience)

springhead

^^ Exactly that.  Functionality above finish.  I bought a GS 60 in the early 90's.  I wanted something lightweight (it has the thin body) that I could carry easily in a gig bag.  Plays very well, sounds good (considering the thinness).  For the same money at the time I could have bought something from Far East with a gorgeous glossy finish but it wouldn't play as well.  I've always thought that his primary concern was for them to be decent playing tools

photek

I had a belter of a GS1 back in the early 90's. Sounded massive, sustain for days and apart from being a bit neck heavy and marking easier than a ripe peach it was top dollar build wise.

underdog

FX_Munkee said:

I'm trying to remember whether it was here or somewhere else that I saw the pictures someone had taken of a GS that they'd stripped to refinish and the body was multiple pieces laminated together with joins that ran across the body at about a 60 degree angle.

That is my lasting memory of them too, it was a thread on MR I think. It was even different woods that made up the pieces.

crunchman

I knew a guy who had an old one.  I remember using it in 92/93 or thereabouts.  That was a good guitar.

Sassafras

My two were brilliant. A GS-1 and a GS-1.5. I'd have the GS-1 back in a heartbeat.

Funkfingers

peteri said:

I had a GS1 - and honestly it was very plain and unexciting.

I had one for about a year. I agree that the guitar was unexciting until I replaced the stock pickup with a Kent Armstrong overwound P90.

ICBM

I've only ever played one I liked, which was a very early GS-1. Even that was only any good once the terrible stock pickup was taken out and a Duncan JB fitted. All the rest have been somewhere between dull and junk... I never have understood why they were so rated.

jpfamps

The current production GS guitars are MUCH better than the older guitars.

GS have changed hands and the new owners are making a real effort to improve the guitars.