 | |
| Industry | Musical instrument |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1974 in Partington, Greater Manchester |
| Founder | Gordon Whitham and John Smith |
| Headquarters | , |
| Products | Electric guitars |
| Parent | Auden Guitars |
| Website | gordonsmithguitars.com |
Gordon Smith Guitars is a manufacturer of hand-crafted electric guitars. They are the UK's longest-established electric guitar manufacturer [1] and have been called the English equivalent to Gibson on that basis. [2]
The company was founded in 1974 and is named after its founders, Gordon Whitham and John Smith. In April 2015 Gordon Smith Guitars was acquired by British-based Auden Guitars and production moved from Partington near Manchester, England to Audens Guitars' workshop in Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire. [3] [4]
The company aims to produce quality guitars for working musicians and say that they make "guitars, not furniture". [5]
Gordon Smith Guitars are among the highest-rated manufacturers for use of sustainable woods in guitar construction, according to the Ethical Consumer. [6]
The Gordon Smith range includes original designs, such as the Galaxy, as well as S-style, T-style and LP-style models. [7] All models currently use a brass nut.
The company offers many options for customising guitars, including a choice of hardware and finishes, single- or double-cutaway and left- or right-handed guitars. Twelve-string and double-necked versions of the range are also available.
Gordon Smith produce their own pickups in-house. [8] [9]
Their humbucker pickups are coil-tapped as standard to give players access to a broader palette of sounds.
Guitarist magazine reviewed the Gordon Smith GS1000 and gave it their Gold award. [10]
The company does not offer celebrity endorsements. Guitarists known to have used Gordon Smith guitars include:
The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and scale length, and typically four to six strings or courses. Since the mid-1950s, the bass guitar has largely come to replace the double bass in popular music due to its lighter weight, the use of frets and, most importantly, its design for electric amplification.
An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickups to convert the vibration of its strings into electrical signals, which ultimately are reproduced as sound by loudspeakers. The sound is sometimes shaped or electronically altered to achieve different timbres or tonal qualities from that of an acoustic guitar via amplifier settings or knobs on the guitar. Often, this is done through the use of effects such as reverb, distortion and "overdrive"; the latter is considered to be a key element of electric blues guitar music and jazz, rock and heavy- metal guitar playing. Designs also exist combining attributes of the electric and acoustic guitars: the semi-acoustic and acoustic-electric guitars.
Jeffrey Ross Hyman, known professionally as Joey Ramone, was an American singer, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of the punk rock band Ramones. His image, voice, and his tenure with the Ramones made him a countercultural icon. He, along with the guitarist Johnny Ramone, are the only two original members who stayed in the band until the disbandment in 1996.
John William Cummings, better known by his stage name Johnny Ramone, was an American musician who was the guitarist and a founding member of the Ramones, a band that helped pioneer the punk movement. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. Until the band's disbandment in 1996, Johnny, along with the lead vocalist Joey Ramone, were the only two original members who stayed since its inception.
A semi-acoustic guitar, also known as a hollow-body electric guitar, is a type of electric guitar designed to be played with a guitar amplifier featuring a fully or partly hollow body and at least one electromagnetic pickup. First created in the 1930s, they became popular in jazz and blues, where they remain widely used, and the early period of rock & roll, though they were later largely supplanted by solid-body electric guitars in rock.
Thomas Erdelyi, known professionally as Tommy Ramone, was a Hungarian-American musician. He was the drummer for the influential punk rock band the Ramones from its debut in 1974 to 1978, later serving as its producer, and was the longest-surviving original member of the Ramones.
Paul Reed Smith Guitars, also known as PRS Guitars or simply PRS, is an American guitar and amplifier manufacturer located in Stevensville, Maryland. The company was founded in 1985 in Annapolis, Maryland by Paul Reed Smith. Products manufactured by PRS include electric and acoustic guitars, basses, and amplifiers.
Badass was first trademarked by Leo Quan, a manufacturer of bridges for guitars and basses. Badass bridges feature individually adjustable saddles, which allows for "extremely accurate intonation adjustments." The Badass came on the market in the 1970s, and was made by entrepreneur and guitar repairman Glen Quan, of Marin County music store Bananas At Large and Leo Malliaris of Oakland's Leo's Music. The first Badass bridges were built from diecast zinc and were considered somewhat rough; later models were made from a high-density zinc alloy and more finely milled. Badass is currently owned and distributed by Allparts Music, a subsidiary of Morse Group. In late 2022 and early 2023 Allparts Music relaunched the entire Badass bridge line including the Badass II bass bridge, Badass III bass bridge, Badass V bass bridge, Badass Wraparound Guitar Bridge, and Badass Fine Tuner Guitar Tailpiece.
Reverend Musical Instruments, commonly known as Reverend Guitars, is an American manufacturer of electric guitars and basses. The company was established in 1997 in Detroit, Michigan by noted guitar and amplifier technician Joe Naylor, a graduate of the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery. Reverend guitars are known for their combination of unorthodox construction methods, retro design, playability and affordable price.
Michael Timothy Abrahams is an English guitarist and band leader, best known for being the original guitarist for Jethro Tull from 1967 to 1968 and the frontman for Blodwyn Pig.
The Fender Musicmaster Bass is a model of electric bass guitar, produced by Fender between 1971 and 1981.
The Vox Phantom is an electric guitar, originally released in 1962 by the Jennings company. It is unique for its distinctive, pentagonal shape, which became part of the iconic representation of the British Invasion. Originally made in England, manufacturing was later relocated to Italy.
Christian Martucci is an Italian American guitarist, vocalist, songwriter, and audio engineer. He is a dual citizen of Italy and the United States. He is the lead guitar player for the American hard rock band Stone Sour, Corey Taylor, and former member of Black Star Riders. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was a founding member of Thousand Watt Stare, Black President, the Strychnine Babies and the Chelsea Smiles. Martucci was Dee Dee Ramone's guitarist from late 1999 to 2002 and appeared as "Chris the Creep" in Ramones's last book, Legend of a Rock Star, A Memoir: The Last Testament of Dee Dee Ramone. In 2014, he became the permanent replacement for Stone Sour's guitarist Jim Root. On 17 September 2018, it was announced he would replace Damon Johnson as lead guitarist in Black Star Riders from January 1, 2019.
Tom Anderson Guitarworks is an American manufacturer of electric guitars and guitar pickups, based in Newbury Park, California. The company was started in 1984 by Tom Anderson, who is regarded as "one of the most respected names in the […] custom guitar market." They manufacture about 750 instruments per year and have a reputation for "consistently high build quality, superb playability and innovative tones." Their Atom model was featured in Guitarist magazine's "50 guitars to play before you die".
James Tyler Guitars is a manufacturer of electric guitars. The company was located near Van Nuys, California and established in 1972. consequently reaching the public eye through studio musicians like Dann Huff, Michael Landau, and Neil Stubenhaus. The company is known for creating custom high end guitars, with an unusual headstock, and guitar body finishes with names like "psychedelic vomit", "burning water", and "caramel cappuccino shmear".
The Gibson ES-5 is a hollow-body electric guitar produced by the Gibson Guitar Corporation as part of the ES, or "Electric Spanish" series of guitars.
The Ramones were an American punk rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first true punk rock group. Despite only achieving limited commercial success during their time together, the band is today seen as highly influential.
Fret-King is a UK manufacturer of stringed instruments and musical accessories, originally conceived by guitar designer Trevor Wilkinson in the early 1990s. The company has manufactured a number of electric and bass guitars noted for their distinct appearance and non-traditional aesthetic.
ES-Les Paul is a Memphis Gibson branded semi-hollow guitar produced in Memphis Tennessee from 2014 to 2016. It was produced with several different variations including a model with no f holes.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)