New Gordon Smith model: Griffin

Creed_Clicks

In firebird and reverse firebird style, they do look pretty cool.

StefB

They do look nice. 

Odd that they've re-used the name of a model from their distant past, although I understand the play on words given the bird association.

I know ESP did similarly with the Eclipse, and Fender with various amps, but you don't see it very often.

Rabs

BlueStrat

That blue is nice!

Kittyfrisk

P-90 or humbucker only, no mini hum or Firebird types.
https://www.gordonsmithguitars.com/shop/guitars/griffin/

TrentGuitars

Looks great but the extras pricing always confuses me, +£150 for a custom radius? Must be batching all their boards. +£120 for CTS wiring? Hmmmm

earwighoney

TrentGuitars said:

Looks great but the extras pricing always confuses me, +£150 for a custom radius? Must be batching all their boards. +£120 for CTS wiring? Hmmmm

No extra charge for stainless steel frets though. The charge for CTS pots is a bit too much though!

Funkfingers

My favourite 'Bird is the transitional Gibson one, produced in very limited quantities, in the mid Sixties.

Reverse body, non-reverse headstock.

chrisj1602

Bodies look too small to me.

TrentGuitars

earwighoney said:

TrentGuitars said:

Looks great but the extras pricing always confuses me, +£150 for a custom radius? Must be batching all their boards. +£120 for CTS wiring? Hmmmm

No extra charge for stainless steel frets though. The charge for CTS pots is a bit too much though!

True - or evo gold!

ElectricXII

These look cool, but I'd want to try before ordering, and at that price I'd expect CTS/Switchcraft as standard.The upcharge is very steep.

bertie

not for me 

(politespeak for fucking horrid)

guitars4you

BlueStrat said:

That blue is nice!

agree and the surf green - Natural a no no for me

WezV

chrisj1602 said:

Bodies look too small to me.

Same here.  It looks like an attempt to fit a firebird body within smaller dimensions fir some reason

jca74

I've ranted about the cost of their CTS upgrades before. A CTS pot is in the £6-9 range depending on spec, at consumer prices. El cheapo pots are £1.50-£5 retail. They should get better bulk pricing than us mere consumers, which means for at worst around a £30-40 increase in component costs (probably an overestimate), they are charging >£100 to wire them up in exactly the same way as the cheap options.

It would be more cost effective for me to buy it without the CTS gubbins and pay my local tech to replace everything.

As it is I do my own wiring, so even cheaper!

Apart from that, I think they look really rather good...

Bigsby

TrentGuitars said:

Looks great but the extras pricing always confuses me, +£150 for a custom radius? Must be batching all their boards. +£120 for CTS wiring? Hmmmm

My own experience of ordering two guitars from Gordon Smith is that they're not very 'strict' about the up-charges for specs. My 2018 order came in only slightly more than RRP despite having an ebony 'board, locking tuners, and a custom colour - which should've added a fair bit more according to the web site. My 2022 order seemed to include no extra charge for a unique scratch plate design, and when locking tuners were missed off the quote, they added them to the specs without adding anything to the quote.

I do love the look of the 'flip' version in blue - but I'd probably want an 'unflipped' headstock on it - and I expect that would be no issue for them to do. That's the beauty of buying from smaller volume builders, you can really get what you want
And I'm sure this applies to many other UK builders. 

Bigsby

jca74 said:

I've ranted about the cost of their CTS upgrades before. A CTS pot is in the £6-9 range depending on spec, at consumer prices. El cheapo pots are £1.50-£5 retail. They should get better bulk pricing than us mere consumers, which means for at worst around a £30-40 increase in component costs (probably an overestimate), they are charging >£100 to wire them up in exactly the same way as the cheap options.

It would be more cost effective for me to buy it without the CTS gubbins and pay my local tech to replace everything.

Worth having a conversation with them - I know they've been happy to use customer supplied parts like pickups and tuners in the past, simply deducting the cost of their own parts from the build price. Not sure if that would apply here, but in my experience they've always been very friendly to chat to, and not at all 'penny pinching' (see comment above).

Philly_Q

WezV said:

chrisj1602 said:

Bodies look too small to me.

Same here.  It looks like an attempt to fit a firebird body within smaller dimensions fir some reason

Funnily enough I was thinking the opposite, that they've made them smaller but managed to keep the Firebird character.

They look great.  I really like them.

impmann

TBH, Doug mentions the smaller body in his spiel. For the record, I prefer the smaller size as they don't look quite so much like a 1970s Coffee table with a neck glued on...

The prices, actually, look pretty keen for a hand made UK built guitar - and a shed load cheaper than the equivalent from the big G. I want to give one a try before I say anything more - especially on a strap, as F'birds tend to be a bit neck-divey even with that bulk of a body, so I want to know how they balance. 

Good luck to them - clearly from the grumpy, dismissive comments above, they may need it.

Neil

I've no idea about the guitars but I wish they'd do something about that awful greetings card style head stock logo.

DefaultM

They look really nice and I've never liked Gordon Bennett guitars or Firebirds.