Ngd: Gretsch Rat Rod

skunkwerx

Its a Gretsch G5410T Rat Rod. 

Totally not my bag but after seeing one in the flesh and having a fettle with one.. well you know how it goes! 

Peach did a good job, set up well and plays nicely! Sounds good too.

Certainly a keeper! 

My only gripes are (from what I can see) fairly common on Gretsch’s with bigsbys.. Tuning stability is a little over the place. 

I hear graphtech saddles and a proper bone nut are good upgrades, though tbh maybe a little tweak on what is stock might help. Seems to go sharp? 

Handles gain, even high gain (at home volumes) exceptionally well for a full hollow body without feeding back. At volume that would change though. Not that I bought this to play my usual hard rock/metal on.. nopes, this one was to try and play different things on, fingery picky, clean genres.. maybe I’ll even improve if I break away from power chords lol. 

Sounds as filthy as its name implies with dirt, yet quite bell like with cleans. 

Its nice. Very well made, in fact dare I say it so far the best made sub £750 Korean made guitar I have bought so far. But I have had a lot of lemons lately so thats probably not much to go by. 

Apart from seeing how I go with the tuning stability, I don’t think I’ll change anything.. the pickups are cool, I like the rat rod inspired red top (even though theyre the same blacktops as found in the rest of the line), though I might remove the condom from the trem arm.. is that supposed to stay on there?! Lol.. 

Made a mock up of something just to get an idea.. but I kind of like the pin stripes..  

Revolting1

Congretschulations

Jalapeno

Very White Falcon-esque !  Good Swag !

skullfunkerry

Loving that! The red pickup tops look  

dazzajl

Very nice. Black tops, even in red, are awesome pickups and love to get down and dirty. 

skunkwerx

Cheers all  

Just had a lil jam with it. Its certainly got a thing! 

I was worried the body would take some getting used to but its not so bad at 2.25” thick. 

Love the acousticness of it too. 

Dominic

Compton bridge will sort your tuning stability issues
I was expecting a load of pin striping when you said Ratrod

duotone

Very cool! The condom is probably for grip?

skunkwerx

Dominic said:

Compton bridge will sort your tuning stability issues
I was expecting a load of pin striping when you said Ratrod

Yeah I’ve seen the pinstriping on the higher end models, some of it looks pretty cool. Not sure I’d go for the full coverage though myself!

ThePrettyDamned

If you drop pitch on the bar, the tuning returns sharp, it's the nut causing most of the problem, not the bridge - save some money and have someone properly give the nut a once over, and lubricate it with some pencil lead.

If you drop the pitch and it returns flat, it's the bridge causing most of the issue. The string is not passing back over the saddles when returning to pitch.

I'd argue Peach did not set the guitar up correctly, but people seem to be content with bigsby trems having poor stability for some reason. Nut cutting seems to be a dark art these days!

Lovely guitar, I really want to try one of these out but don't have any nearby. Hngd! 

steer

Nice.

The condom is supposed to come off - I think it is just there as part of the protective packaging during shipping. 

You might find that a bit of lube or graphite on the nut will help with the tuning - certainly it is worth trying that before going to the hassle of installing a new one. 

downbytheriver

I saw this on Gretsch talk - probably as nice a job of pinstriping as I’ve ever seen - if I knew someone who could do it I would definitely have mine done... 

skullfunkerry

downbytheriver said:

I saw this on Gretsch talk - probably as nice a job of pinstriping as I’ve ever seen - if I knew someone who could do it I would definitely have mine done... 

There's a hot rod builder near me, I bet they'd know someone who could do it

skunkwerx

Its worse working from home... I can sense it upstairs... yet I cannot play it til later.. so close.. yet so far..

TheOtherDennis

That's all very well, but is your quiff up to the same standard?

AlexO

I keep having a look at these. Saw that pin striped one on the Gretsch forum stunning!
Might nip to PMT tomorrow and have a blast one one.

skunkwerx

TheOtherDennis said:

That's all very well, but is your quiff up to the same standard?

Im having to wear a trendy hat to cover my bald head! Lol

ragingben

@skunkwerx what an awesome guitar. Really really tempted with one of these, either this or a G5655T - have you played it at high volume or much gain? I'm a bit worried about feedback being an issue, have you had any problems? Edit: just re-read your first post, covered there!

skunkwerx

ragingben said:

@skunkwerx what an awesome guitar. Really really tempted with one of these, either this or a G5655T - have you played it at high volume or much gain? I'm a bit worried about feedback being an issue, have you had any problems? Edit: just re-read your first post, covered there!

Hiya mate, well.. 

I only play at home volumes, bedroom etc. 

I have run it very high gain (not that its hugely suited for metal) and at those volumes there is no feedback. Thats through a katana 100 2x12 however that does have a gate built in, and a blackstar tube 10 watt jobbie. As an idea, it was on the brown channel almost max distortion but on 0.5watt mode and set just above tv level (though my idea of getting loud might be another persons normal jamming volume at home haha).

For home volumes I would say it wouldnt be an issue. I have pushed it to sort of louder than I’d usually play at home and it does start to ‘go’

For anything over that though I imagine it would feedback when the gain is on. 

Its a neat guitar, deffo a looker, the necks satin/more matte really finish feels great, smoother than the rest of the body, though probably through playing its smoothed it out. 

All matte finishes are like that though in my experience,  not rough, but not as smooth to the touch as gloss, but slicker. If that makes sense? 

Nature of matte/satin finishes though, has to be rough or else it would be gloss lol! 

There are some (i believe these to be inherent to Gretsches) rattly buzzes. I’ve narrowed it to the pickguard. So I may see if I can tighten it or if not place a bit of foam underneath or something. 

And the length of strings behind the bridge to the bigsby can vibrate adding something extra. 

I’m not fussed by it but some others may be.
Though there are always ways around it. 

Overall over a week later. I’ve picked it up most days. I bought it with a view to it being a guitar I would just have there to pick up and play at any time of day amped or unamped, anywhere in the house. Being hollow it sounds nice unamped obviously. 

As I’m leaning toward storing my others in cases now between playing as they end up collecting dust and feeling grimy if I dont play them for a week lol, but its all a bit of a faff! 

I like it though, I was surprised, its not my style of guitar at all usually but its done its job perfectly! 

I’ve actually just returned from PMT.. bought a strap for it... I’ll post a pic later but I reckon it’ll suit it nicely.. 

skunkwerx

Here it is.. 

Think it looks quite good! 

ragingben

That looks sweet! Thanks for the advice, food for thought. Appreciated!