ShortScale.org

I've got a lovely new guitar, that arrived on Wednesday this week. It's a singlecut Gordon Smith GS1.60 made to my specifiactions: I wanted it to have a thicker body, Gibson-style control layout (in a straight line, rather than diagonally down like GS usually do), side-mounted jack, wide nut and, most importantly, a huge fuckoff neck: I specced it to be 1" deep all the way down, and this is the thickest neck John at Gordon Smith has ever put on a guitar (by 1mm). Basically, what I was after was a proper LP jr., as opposed to those execrable things that Gibson are putting out at the moment: juniors are caveman guitars, and are meant to have huge necks, like the originals did, not weedy little things like the reissues: as you may have spotted, I'm something of a fan of big necks on guitars - in my opinion, it's where a lot of the resonance and sustain lives.

I was a little concerned when I first opened the box: when I first grabbed the neck, still wrapped in bubblewrap, it felt a bit on the narrow side. However (and bizarrely), once the bubblewrap was off, it felt reassuringly huge - don't know what was going on there... First impression was how ridiculously light it was: I like light guitars (and had asked John at GS to use a light body), but this one's ridiculous - it almost doesn't feel dense enough to be wood. It's really resonant and loud unplugged (again, this is very important to me). Plugged in though, it's just ridiculous: I supplied a Bareknuckle PK90 dogear, and it's one of those comical pickups that just sounds exactly like you want it to, almost a clichéd guitar sound. It really barks at you, and has a crazy amount of sustain and sizzle. Backing down on the volume a touch makes it far more refined, and it reacts nicely to the tone control too.

It feels nice on, and to play: it is a small guitar (same size as my old SGs, but feels smaller somehow), but that's never worried me since all guitars look smallish on me anyhow: it's got that great utilitarian feel that I love about tele's - you can just rest your hand on the stopbar bridge and chug along. Tuning stability is ridiculously good (no snagging issues with the brass nut, either): I changed the strings out the night I got it - it came with 9s (or maybe even 8s) on it as standard, and the action was ridiculously low: it played great, but the largish fretwire and tiddly strings meant I was bending the fuck out of every note: a set of 11s had stiffened things up nicely, and the action remains a dream.

It smells all nice and painty, too.

The ordering process was a piece of piss, and John and Linda at GS were great to deal with: there are various options listed on the site for each model above the basic spec (different bridges, finishes, body thickness etc), so I specced mine up, then asked about the other custom touches. If they can't do something, they'll say so. What was particularly good was any hardware I supplied (in my case, P90 and tuners) they struck from the price of the guitar, no quibbles. The whole process took just under two months, but with a break for Xmas and snowy conditions in the middle. I'd really encourage anyone who's considering it to go for it: I had a guitar handmade in the UK to my specifications for less than the list price of a MIM Fender or a Gibson faded.

In the background, you can just see the by now legendary laundry basket full of pedals.



See that neck taper? Me neither.



Arcane, infernal geometry.



That white glow is the power of THE LORD.











Plectrum to give an idea of scale.






I've overdone this, haven't I?

Never fear - I've broken out the kitchen scales and my dressmaker's tape. Dimensions taken from this handy little page here...

Junior dimensions (original, then mine in bold):

BODY DIMENSIONS
Length: 17.25 inches (17.375) - 17.2"
Upper Bout: 9.25 inches - 9"
Lower Bout: 13 inches - 12 7/8"
Body Depth: 1.75 inches - 1 11/16+"

Scale Length: 24.5 inches - mine too
Nut Width: 1 11/16 inches - 1 6/8"
String Spacing: 2 inches - ditto
Fretboard Radius: 12 inches - ditto

Headstock Pitch: 17 degrees - fuck knows
Neck Angle: 3.5 degrees - quoi?

Couldn't find my protractor. Later this weekend I'll float it in a bath of mercury to determine its terminal velocity, then burn it and use it to heat 100ml of water to calculate how many calories it contains.