GORDON SMITH GATSBY

You don’t need us to tell you the ‘offset’ – loosely based on Fender’s Jazzmaster and Jaguar – has been in vogue in recent years. And there have been some excellent designs, as well as downsized iterations, such as this stylish Gatsby from the UK longestrunning electric guitar maker, Gordon Smith. Based around a Fender scale, the Gatsby uses a very good offset-style vibrato with a roller-saddle tune-o-matic, and – for once with this style – tuning stability isn’t a problem. There are cracking sounds from the ‘Homewound’ soapbar single coils in chromed covers, too. And while this Launch Edition model came in a choice of seven colours, there’s now a custom option to create your own Gatsby.