I would be interested in theFB's collected wisdom concerning what might be good upgrades for my Gordon Smith GS2/60.
I bought it new about 4 years ago and it's still completely stock - but none of the hardware is branded, so I have no idea whether it's really much good or not - and I can't really tell from just looking, I'm not experienced enough.
I like the guitar and am basically happy with it but am inevitably wondering if a tweak here or there might just add that little something extra. The usual question is "what do you want" and the short answer is, more of the same I guess - just better!
Yes, I know this is all a bit vague - I'm basically after information about the current components and what knowledge people have about how they compare to known good quality alternatives.
The biggest and most obvious change would be to the pickups. The current pickups are GS humbuckers, medium-high output I would say (about 9K according to their old web site iirc?), and have coil taps. They have plastic covers rather than metal ones - John Smith advised me that as well as costing extra, the metal covers would "dull and diminish the output", so I didn't go for that.
If I was to replace them I'd be going for a UK maker like Bare Knuckle, Creamery, Oil City, Mojo etc. From an aesthetic point of view I would prefer metal covers. Does anyone know how these kind of alternatives compare with the stock GS pickups?
The bridge is a tunamatic and stop tail, tuners are unbranded chrome and the electrics ... dunno, although the pots look very small which somehow doesn't say "quality" to me. Does anyone know what any of these components are (or probably are) and is there benefit in replacing them?
Thanks in advance for your thoughts, opinions and experience!
Comments
IMO they let an otherwise great guitar down
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The tuners are made by Van Gent and are very good units IMO. I seriously doubt it's worth changing them. I had the all in one bridge/stop tail unit on mine and it was a very well made lump of metal. Again I wouldn't see much value in any change to the standard units.
The pickups are definitely the weak spot, sort of a thinner sounding version of regular humbuckers, almost a P90 tone, but they still have a certain charm and they cut through well. Mine sounded more like an SG than the LP that it looked like.
Ultimately, GS's are quite crudely made guitars and they never sell s/h for anything like decent money. Certainly not worth pouring a load of money into it. Personally I'd leave it all stock and just make sure it's had a decent set-up.
All I meant is that you could pour a load of money into it, but you won't ever see it back as GS's just don't attract that much attention used. Mine took ages to shift, even though I dropped the price ridiculously low compared to what it had cost me. Eventually I ended up trading it against another guitar. If it's going to be a definite keeper, you could do worse than change out the pickups but I honestly wouldn't do much else. Or just leave it stock and enjoy it for what it is.
Edit. Mojo pickups would be my choice if you do decide to change. Marc does some awesome work.
I got a GS1 recently, alls I did was replace the front mounted socket with a varitone and put a side jack on it.
I love them for their utility
I swapped my pups for a JB and a 59 but they sounded terrible with their electronics. I fitted the original pups back amd then later replaced the pots with fancy CTS 500k ones.
The tone is "ok" perhaps a bit bright now but I'm stuck for what to do next. I like the guitar but i don't love it.
That said, yesterday I played a very nice Les Paul Junior and now I've got a fancy for some P90s ...