Tweet
I’d always liked the look of many of their guitars, but as many of you know, the ‘original’ GMP went out of business around 10 years ago, when their parent company folded. Many of you will already know that Dan Lawrence is now the owner of GMP Guitars and he has a small team around him, building on the reputation of the earlier company and keeping pretty true to the same vibe. A year or so ago, I started to seriously consider ordering one, but wasn’t quite sure what shape I wanted (Firebird or V) and then what specifics I was going to need. I kicked around a few different ideas, and decided to go with a V, and with pretty traditional specs – mahogany body, maple neck, quilt maple top. But as usual I wanted to put my spin on the specs, and went for an oiled 3 piece maple neck, non recessed Floyd, direct mount EMGs and a push pull on the volume for pickup selection. I also wanted the output to be on the underside of the top wing as on a Rhoads, not on the inside of the lower wing as on a star. Sorry, but that positioning just makes zero sense to me. The colour was something I kicked around for a while – trans green, trans honey, trans black etc, but I decided to go for purple. I like purple 
Anyway, the guitar arrived yesterday and it’s bloody fantastic! It’s always a bit of a ‘leap of faith’ when you deal with a company that is new to you, not necessarily in terms of quality, but in terms of ‘mutual understanding’, notably with guitars in terms of neck profile. I specified a “C-slim” and Dan told me that they’d shaped it slightly towards a D, I guess given their knowledge of my usual tastes. But it feels great – super smooth and totally raw feeling. Sound wise, it’s really really full sounding, but still with clarity. I guess that’s where the mahogany maple combo comes into play, but the maple neck and the size of the V body I’m sure accentuate that normal characteristic. The finishing is immaculate, the fret work is perfect and after playing fairly aggressively for an hour it was still in tune, even with the clamps un-locked at the nut (I forgot to tighten them LOL).
Anyway, on to the pics. It’s not the easiest guitar to photograph because it’s really difficult to capture the purple. Even in real life, it looks pretty dark when there’s not much light on it, to really ‘popping’ when it’s in bright light. But these are pretty representative...
Anyway, the guitar arrived yesterday and it’s bloody fantastic! It’s always a bit of a ‘leap of faith’ when you deal with a company that is new to you, not necessarily in terms of quality, but in terms of ‘mutual understanding’, notably with guitars in terms of neck profile. I specified a “C-slim” and Dan told me that they’d shaped it slightly towards a D, I guess given their knowledge of my usual tastes. But it feels great – super smooth and totally raw feeling. Sound wise, it’s really really full sounding, but still with clarity. I guess that’s where the mahogany maple combo comes into play, but the maple neck and the size of the V body I’m sure accentuate that normal characteristic. The finishing is immaculate, the fret work is perfect and after playing fairly aggressively for an hour it was still in tune, even with the clamps un-locked at the nut (I forgot to tighten them LOL).
Anyway, on to the pics. It’s not the easiest guitar to photograph because it’s really difficult to capture the purple. Even in real life, it looks pretty dark when there’s not much light on it, to really ‘popping’ when it’s in bright light. But these are pretty representative...
Jaw-droppingly cool. Congrats!
Comment