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Old 07-13-2020, 10:10 AM
boombox boombox is offline
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Default NGD: Vintage VE3000MGG Gordon Giltrap Budget All Mahogany Goodness

I tried one of the first Rob Armstrong-designed Gordon Giltrap signature acoustics a few years ago. I thought it was pretty nice for the money, but it had an action so high you could drive a bus under the strings at the twelfth fret, so I passed. (Since then, I've learned that adjusting action is actually not a big deal.) I saw Gordon in concert last year and was impressed with his own use of his signature guitars in the show, so this week, when I saw a new one on ebay for a substantial discount on the usual price, I had a closer look. Turns out what was being offered was a special tribute guitar for his son, Jamie, who died in 2018, a variant on his usual cedar/mahogany or cedar/rosewood models.

So what do you get? It's quite a unique shape, falling somewhere approaching a 000, but with a very pinched waist. (I discovered immediately it's much more comfortable to play with a strap.) Neck, back and sides are all solid mahogany, with a well-executed satin finish all over. It has an ebony faced peghead, rosewood fingerboard with abalone 'JG' inlay at the 12th fret, a simple abalone rosette and some very neat wood binding. Tuners are gold Grovers and it has a Fishman NeoD humbucking pick-up installed. Nut width is 1 13/16", with a 25" scale. It comes in a fairly basic padded gigbag with a truss rod tool and a seven track CD of songs recorded by Gordon on the guitar.

First impressions? It came nicely double-boxed and detuned by about a tone all round. Strings (D'Addarios) were wrapped in wax paper, which was a nice touch. Once tuned up, the action was about 4.5mm with a very noticeable bow in the neck, so it was off with the cover and I tightened up the truss road by almost a complete(!) turn and then took just under 1 mm off the saddle. An hour later and restrung, the guitar was transformed with a comfy 2 mm action. Neck profile fits my hand nicely, chunkier than my Taylor but still quite a shallow C. The extra spacing at both nut and bridge makes fingerpicking blues a breeze and I'm looking forward to seeing how the tone develops as the guitar breaks in: it has oodles of bass, takes a capo very well and it really likes drop D tuning too, it seems. Finishing overall is excellent - the only very minor gripes I have are that the mahogany isn't necessarily the prettiest and the back has a pair of knots visible, which spoil the aesthetic a tiny bit. Also, while the frets are well-finished and the standard of workmanship inside and outside is very high, the edge of the nut on the treble side was like a razor, so I had to take the sandpaper to it. However, these are really only minor complaints and overall, I'm frankly stunned that that even for the £400-£500 these are usually advertised at, you can pick up such a nice instrument, even if you had to pay someone to do a setup. It won't make me play like Mr Giltrap, but it's a very nice guitar and well worth checking out if you can find one.

Anyway, pics or it didn't happen...





And here's Mr Giltrap playing the same model:

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Old 07-13-2020, 10:41 AM
jansch jansch is offline
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I had a Gordon Giltrap V2000MGG, which was a very nice guitar. Yours looks really good. Happy playing.
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Old 07-13-2020, 11:41 AM
marty bradbury marty bradbury is offline
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Very pretty guitar! Enjoy!
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Old 07-13-2020, 11:58 AM
MBee MBee is offline
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beautiful guitar! what a bargain!
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Old 07-13-2020, 03:26 PM
boombox boombox is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MBee View Post
beautiful guitar! what a bargain!
Especially when you consider the pickup alone is £80 without fitting!
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