So, School Me On Gretsch Guitars...

mburekenge

Oh yeah - 2 more things...

not sure if you are after a bigsby one, but big bends but sauce was key to getting mine to play nicely.

Gretsch sounds amazing through a Rambler, and also through my tweed Vicky, so should sound fantastic with your amp rig!

in relation to what @meltedbuzzbox said, I found lesser gretsches to feel cheap in comparison to the falcon I got. I had tried a fair few before getting mine.

SNAKEBITE

Having picked up a Gretsch last week, all be it a cheap one, I can but praise them wholeheartedly.

Coming from a Strat it does feel light, and the hollow body does give it a feeling of fragility that could be interpreted as feeling cheap.

I like it not only for the sound, but it is a totally different feel to my Strat.

TonyR

Corvus said:

The Anniversary I had, ex Marlin and now TonyR on here, had ML bracing which is really excellent

I have three Gretsches

1. The Anniversary that @Corvus mentions above
2. A G6120AM that I bought last year at auction as a 50th birthday present to myself
3. A G6120N New Nashville that I bought earlier this year

The Anniversary is buy far the best sounding of the three, even though the 6120AM has the same TV Jone pickups as the Annie, it sounds more mellow. 

The 6120N is a bit of an anomaly when it comes to Gretsch guitars as it has a very thin body  and a florentine cutaway. I really like it but it doesn't have the growl that the Annie does.



One thing you will notice about Grestches is the array of knobs and switches. If you look at mine above the Annie and the 6120AM have two toggle switches whereas the 6120N has one toggle switch and an extra knob (just visible under the tremolo arm). As you might expect one of the toggle switches is the pickup selector. the other is like a tone switch with presets - some call it the "mud" switch. It's a feature I like, but other prefer the tone knob as per the 6120N.

Other Grestch models have different switches and knobs too, but I'm not too familiar with those.

One thing I will say is don't discount the Anniversary models - whilst they don't have the "bling" of the 6120s they're wonderful guitars.

kjdowd

meltedbuzzbox said:

@Wazmeister i went to guitar guitar cash in hand with the intent of leaving with a white falcon. I was sooooooo disappointed it's untrue. I really didn't like it, I was heart broken. 
The necks never felt right on every model I tried. 
I think I played every single one in guitar guitar Birmingham and the best for me was the Chet Atkins. The problem was I wasn't willing to pay more than a grand for it. The pricing doesn't seem to match the feel of the guitars, dare I say it they feel cheap. 

I ended up leaving with a CS 345 which wiped the floor with the Gretschs

All my opinion of course. I'm still disappointed, I love the looks and sound of a Gretsch, I just wish I found one I liked playing

Seconded. I've tried a few and really wanted to love them, but didn't get on with any at all. 

RocknRollDave

Something with a pinned bridge.

Cabicular

I have a shedload of Gretches and my observations are as follows

The Duffy style 7953 White Falcon is a bit of a handful but it is a great sounding guitar... especially at volume
Here is mine, 

TheMarlin

meltedbuzzbox said:

@Wazmeister i went to guitar guitar cash in hand with the intent of leaving with a white falcon. I was sooooooo disappointed it's untrue. I really didn't like it, I was heart broken. 
The necks never felt right on every model I tried. 
I think I played every single one in guitar guitar Birmingham and the best for me was the Chet Atkins. The problem was I wasn't willing to pay more than a grand for it. The pricing doesn't seem to match the feel of the guitars, dare I say it they feel cheap. 

I ended up leaving with a CS 345 which wiped the floor with the Gretschs

All my opinion of course. I'm still disappointed, I love the looks and sound of a Gretsch, I just wish I found one I liked playing

Did you try a Black Phoenix, or an Anniversay?

I've played a lot of Gretsch guitars. They tend to follow Fender neck profiles, they can be on the skinny side.

I love a fat neck. I'm not into bling, my favourite Gretsches have always had good necks, great tones, and understated looks.  The humble Annie, and delightful Black Phoenix nail the Gretsch tone for me. 

Marlin

impmann

As @meltedbuzzbox says, I tried all the Gretsches with him in GG Brum... 

They all felt/sounded lacking in some way. They all felt a bit flat and generic, plus the sound was lacking too IMHO. I was disappointed.

A good friend has a Jap Gretsch Duo Jet with Filtertrons - straight out the box it was a very disappointing guitar. It wouldn't stay in tune, the neck felt awkward and the original pickups were really lacking in all departments. He spent a fortune on a pair of TV Jones pickups, a refret (the original wire was IMHO too thin for the radius of the board) and a set up etc. Its a WONDERFUL guitar now - I love it, but would never have spent that much on it (to buy and the fix).

Like @TheMarlin I rather like the Corvette solid bodies but the hollow bodies I tried were... not what I was after, IMHO.

As said above, try them for yourself - don't be swayed by other people's opinion. 

ennspek

@Wazmeister Yeah, it's time you finally got a special guitar!
I have nothing to offer as I've never even picked one up. Billy Duffy did look cool though.

musicman100

Wazmeister said:

Got a big birthday whizzing towards me (50th... I know, I know) and would like to acquire a 'special' guitar for a special birthday.... any excuse....

So, Im interested maybe in a Gretsch... a proper one, not a £400 job....

Are the new ones any good ? Dan on That Pedal Show has a nice video on one, and Guitar Guitar have got plenty in, such as these;

http://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/electric_guitars.asp?brandname=Gretsch&order=2

Are the Players models the ones to go for ? What are the differences etc ?

Also, must be stable tuning.

Cheers in advance,

Warren


if fancy a ride out go to old guitars in Horncastle they have a genuine shit load of Gretsch guitars from old to new.
it's worth going somewhere like that to give you an insight to whats out there.

musicman100

Wazmeister said:

Got a big birthday whizzing towards me (50th... I know, I know) and would like to acquire a 'special' guitar for a special birthday.... any excuse....

So, Im interested maybe in a Gretsch... a proper one, not a £400 job....

Are the new ones any good ? Dan on That Pedal Show has a nice video on one, and Guitar Guitar have got plenty in, such as these;

http://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/electric_guitars.asp?brandname=Gretsch&order=2

Are the Players models the ones to go for ? What are the differences etc ?

Also, must be stable tuning.

Cheers in advance,

Warren

if ur passing Wakefield/Huddersfield ur welcome to call in to try the few I have. 

Guitar_Slinger

The wife bought me a Falcon for a wedding present, as we've both been fans of The Cult since we were teenagers.  I got a 6136TBK with TV Jones pickups and after politely strummig it at home, took it to my rehearsal with the rock covers band, to see how it sounded at volume. Fucking hell!   I played it hard for the whole time and loved it.

A week later I took it to an old pro's house who lives near me and used to give lessons. He had a Country Gentleman in the 60s (until it got nicked) and spend half an hour playing Scotty More type stuff through his Twin. His verdict IIRC "they make them so well these days".

I also took it to manicguitarist's jam in 2011, in case any of you were there. Amazing how it can play beautiful clean stuff (not by me!) and noisy rock.

Moss

Gretsch is probably my favourite guitar brand - I've played a load and now have a Electromatic Center Block (surprisingly wiped the floor with everything else in store, including a couple of vintage models).

Some observations:
-The Electromatics are great value for money, the HiLoTrons in the Center Blocks are particularly lush sounding
-The Japanese line left me entirely cold - plasticy finishes in particular
-The Custom Shops are brilliant, but not worth the money (IMHO) compared with the price of the equivalent vintage models
-I've never played a vintage Gretsch that I haven't fallen in love with to some extent - the Anniversaries in particular

musicman100

the electromatics are over priced now.
 the streamliners are great guitars and cheap enough if want to do mods.  much better  value than the electromatics. 

DrCornelius

Cough, ahem, there's a particularly nice vintage Country Gent in the classifieds at the moment for £1500 !  (OK , hands up its mine)

Wazmeister

Brilliant input and info folks - superb

Im wondering what the various outputs of the TV Jones pick ups are ?

Some great knowledge on here...

If you were to buy today, which model would you go for ?

musicman100

Wazmeister said:

Brilliant input and info folks - superb

Im wondering what the various outputs of the TV Jones pick ups are ?

Some great knowledge on here...

If you were to buy today, which model would you go for ?

you really need to get out there n play some because at the end of the day it's all very subjective and your talking about a guitar that could cost you a decent amount of money. 
Sorry but I can't answer the question of which model they are all nice in their own way but as I've already said they are like marmite.
There seems to be a decent following of them on here tho. 

stickyfiddle

Wazmeister said:

Brilliant input and info folks - superb

Im wondering what the various outputs of the TV Jones pick ups are ?

Some great knowledge on here...

If you were to buy today, which model would you go for ?

On pickups, you can't look at ohm readings and compare with hum buckers because they\re built differently so don't give equivalent readings.

the TV Classics and Supertrons are both similar in output as a PAF, maybe a smidge hotter. Then the Classic+ is a little overwound to balance as a bridge pickup with the regular classic in the neck. As I understand it the Duo Trons are about the same in output and the Powertrons are a bit hotter and voiced more like a PAF, which is a nice option, but defeats the point for me.

I have a mid-2000s Electromatic G5122DC (full hollow double-cut, closest to a Country Gent), with bigsby and I added a set of TV Classic+/Supertron and a solid Compton bridge.

If I were buying in a money-no-object situation I'd go a single cut Player's Edition as all those mods really are sensible. I love the idea of the White Falcon but the standard ones are pretty huge - the PE ones are a little thinner which should hep that without losing too much "gretschness".

At the end of the day you really have to get them on your lap to know what works for you.

TheMarlin

Moss said:

Gretsch is probably my favourite guitar brand - I've played a load and now have a Electromatic Center Block (surprisingly wiped the floor with everything else in store, including a couple of vintage models).

Some observations:
-The Electromatics are great value for money, the HiLoTrons in the Center Blocks are particularly lush sounding
-The Japanese line left me entirely cold - plasticy finishes in particular
-The Custom Shops are brilliant, but not worth the money (IMHO) compared with the price of the equivalent vintage models
-I've never played a vintage Gretsch that I haven't fallen in love with to some extent - the Anniversaries in particular

Gretsch Custom shop models are amazing. The pretty look and feel like the Japanese prolines (without the laminated plastic feel), but boy do the sound different.  They sound bigger, beefier, louder, and way more aggressive. I'm lucky enough to have one 

Luckily (for me), Gretsch Masterbuilt guitars don't do so well on the used market.  I got my lightly used masterbuilt Annie for not much more than a regular used one.   Earlier this week, two were on eBay.  One failed to sell at £2500, the other sold for £2550.  

If you're patient, and keep an eye on eBay, there are deals to be had on these guitars.   I won't buy another pro line, but instead wait it out on eBay for another masterbuilt bargain to come my way.  

On the cheap side, I like the G2620T.  Nice guitar, and chunkist neck I've played on a Gretsch for years.  The Pro Jet is a great guitar, as is the Corvette (CVT).  I have two Corvettes, love those guitars.

The biggest problem with the Gretsch Electromatics is badly cut nuts, rattly bridges (improved on recent models) and the terrible Bigsby B50.  The B50 can be modded quite cheaply to make it a way better unit, and solve all related tuning woes....read here: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/29433/how-to-improve-a-bigsby-b50-b70-and-make-it-feel-more-like-a-b6

Get the nut properly cut, mod the B50, they're killer guitars!

M

TheMarlin

Moe_Zambeek said:

Penguins and Jets can feel a bit clunky to play thanks to the neck joint (high off the body) and bridge height. The necks can be too small for some too. Falcons are BIG, and longer scale too, so can be a bit of a fight to play. Melita bridges are a pain (literally) and the space control bridges are a bit...weird...to play. The rocking bars are OK and there are lots of replacement options now. For some reason everyone in Gretsch (internet) land seems to get upset that the bar radius as stock doesn't match the fretboard radius, but I've never had an issue with that.

There are occasional runs of nitro finished guitars - I had a White Penguin and a White Falcon both with nitro, though to be honest there wasn't a big difference in feel. Those were both special editions - the Penguin had a Bigsby & nitro, the Falcon was a Dave Lee model with black binding & Logo, locking tuners, a nickel bigsby and TV Jones Powertrons in black P90 style soapbar covers. Maybe should have kept that one...The penguin I don't really miss. You can get the Setzers in nitro and I think the Rev Horton Heat model is also nitro finished. 

I would recommend having the bridge and also possibly the Bigsby pinned to the top. It can be done invisibly by a good tech and will help enormously with tuning stability. 

I'd keep an eye out for a used CS version as they hold their value pretty poorly (as indeed do the Japanese versions).

I've been after a Dave Lee model for years.  I've got auto eBay searches going, never had a hit. 

I love the look of it, cool as hell, but without all the excess bling that can come White Falcons.