My new GG signature guitar

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Mark P
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun May 15, 2016 7:42 pm
Location: North Berwick

My new GG signature guitar

Postby Mark P » Mon May 16, 2016 10:49 pm

I am really enjoying the process of welcoming and getting to know a new Vintage VE2000GG Gordon Giltrap Signature. I'm optimistic that it will be a keeper and a worthy addition to the stable.

Given my preference for smaller parlour size steel string acoustics it does, with an initial look at the physical size of the GG, to be a strange choice. But it is the narrowness of that waist that makes the difference. Having it sitting on my right leg, as is my normal, the big lower bout doesn't really make itself physically felt.

My other steel string acoustics are 3 Tanglewood Parlours : a TW73, a TW JPE Java, and a TW133, plus an even smaller Gretsch Jim Dandy. I also have a half share with my wife in a Vintage Paul Brett Viator. So small is definitely order of the day in my guitars.

I did try a GG a couple of years back at a shop in Edinburgh but the strings were so god-damn awfully tacky and rust tinged it was impossible to judge the merits of the guitar. The idea of a GG then went on the back burner for a while in the hope I'd be able to try one locally again sometime. But that had not happened. So I thought, for my birthday, I'd take a chance - with an on line order with an option to return.

The guitar is pretty well done in terms of finish. Intonation is excellent. There is a slight sharp edge to two or three fret ends but only slight so that isn't really an issue for me. For a guitar that cost just £339 new that sounds as good as it does, that has Fishman Presys Blend / Sonicore electrics, and has a good hard case thrown in it's difficult to quibble about it being anything other than very, very good value for money.

I've tried the plugged in route through my Fishman Loudbox Mini and have found the blend facility in the Presys to bring in some of the microphone sound that makes the overall sound a much more pleasant option to me than the usual just under saddle piezo sound. Having said that my preference is always for pure acoustic playing, and if I record I'd prefer to use my Avantone CK-1 small diaphragm condensers ... one omni and one cardioid.

I received the guitar direct from the distributors and was pleased (and pleasantly surprised) that it was so nicely set up. The shop did include a free set up in it's on-line price and it appears that the distributors did what the shop would have done.

I was very pleased to find that there was no loss of tone and sound quality when I changed to my favourite lower tension Newtone Heritage strings. They are essential as I have arthritic finger joints - the pinkie on my left hand is almost unusable now. After a week of trying the guitar with the original strings on it, that extra tension was resulting in a good few extra twinges.

I was also very pleased that the guitar obviously likes altered and open tunings as much as I do. I've almost reached the stage of finding standard tuning to feel strange.

There is a very reassuring control to the sound - it is responsive enough to sing well even with my gentle style of playing, but it's not so responsive that it calls upon the player to exercise huge skills (that I don't have) in damping. I also have a feeling that the guitar is helping me to play - difficult to say exactly why, but some guitars just seem to be more encouraging than others. It is also letting the music flow whne I sit and just improvise - my #1 priority in a guitar if I try them in shops.

One thing in particular needs said by me. That is to thank Gordon for being involved in a design process that had as a goal the production of an affordable guitar. So many signature guitars just seem to be an excuse for tweaking an existing design in a minor way and then charging a lot extra. It is a very unselfish thing to have done.

Mark
I've had a wonderful day. Unfortunately today's not that day!

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