I have an old Navigator 335, which is a wonderful guitar and one I have toured and recorded with, so is sentimally important to me.
But I don't play it so much these days and want to do something different with it.
I like the 'Gretsch' sound and am thinking of doing the following changes to the 335:
- Adding HB-sized Filtetrons (Lollartrons, Mojo, TV Jones)
- Adding a Bigsby
- Adding a roller bridge
(All of which would be quite similar in spec to the Chris Cornell 335, although I'm not playing anything like Soundgarden).
My aim would be to capture a fair bit of that Gretsch sound, and create something unique and different from my other guitar.
Any thoughts/past experiences welcome!
Comments
you can buy a Gretsch Electromatic for £400 with all of that already on it, and keep the navigator as is. And, when you’re done, sell it back on for what you paid for it.
Love the neck on these.
https://youtu.be/3l9Zjn-n7zo?si=cbD6MYmCxtRj6_CO
Should you even be here?
I've got an Epiphone Sheraton with a Bigsby and a roller bridge, and the tuning stability still leaves something to be desired. A pickup swap and a Bigsby installation with a Vibramate kit is probably doable at your kitchen table if you're confident, but maybe factor in the cost of a proper setup if you go ahead with this.
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.
At the moment I'm playing so little that there doesn't seem to be much point getting it sorted.
Don't talk politics and don't throw stones. Your royal highnesses.
Conventional wisdom amongst Gretsch owners is that it is always the nut, which is likely true if you have a rocking bar bridge or similar on your guitar and not a Tuneomatic.
This can be further complicated by the fact that depending on how the Tuneomatic is mounted it might already have a small bit of tilt either on the posts or the bridge as it sits on the thumbwheels.