Best Of British

Long-running Brit brand Gordon Smith, now in the hands of Auden Guitars and with proper distribution, looks set to become a major player.

- Dave Burrluck

Few long-time Guitarist readers will be unaware of Gordon-Smith Guitars: founded in the mid-70s, it is the UK’s longest-running production guitar company. Made primarily by the husband/wife team of John and Linda Smith – with the considerable help of Chris Smith (no relation) – it never advertised its instruments, never had a bank loan and just kept at it. After 40 years and around 13,000 instruments later, John and Linda retired and GSG was sold, in 2015, to the Auden Musical Instrument Company, which now makes the guitars in its workshop in Higham Ferrers, Northamptonshire.

So what’s changed? Well, not an awful lot, if we’re honest. We’ve lost the hyphen in the name (which immediately differentiates the new from the previous) and there’s a visible wheel-style truss rod adjuster, but outwardly our GS-1 embodies GSG’s straightforward, no-nonsense approach.