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Despite having 1959 in the title, it is a new guitar, a close copy of Chet's favourite guitar which he tinkered with over the years.
I have to say this is a magnificent guitar. I played it first unplugged, and was really perplexed as to where the big warm sound was coming from. Those f-holes are painted on - there are no sound holes, yet the sound was really present. The neck is slightly wider than normal for these guitars, suitable for fingerpickers. The fretting is beautifully done; the whole neck/fingerboard is a dream to play. The Bigsby is the best I've tried - just a beautiful, natural feel to it. I'm really impressed with this guitar!
Then I plugged it in - they put it through an Orange stack, clean channel. Really impressed with the fat, warm sound. This would do for jazz, especially if you don't insist on a heavy doze of thunk. It's a more glassy and sustained sound.
But then I encountered something which had me scratching my head...
The switch on the upper treble bout is a pickup selector - OK.
The switch on the lower treble bout is a Master volume - OK.
One of the switches on the lower bass bout is a tone control - OK, although there is only one control for both pickups.
The other switch on the lower bout is a volume control for the bridge pickup. Eh? The neck pickup must use the master volume control, while the bridge pickup uses both the Master volume and the dedicated volume control. It took me a while to figure out that this volume control is for the blend between the two pickups when the pickup selector switch is set to both pickups on.
Maybe I should have understood that sooner, but it did throw me for a while. I imagine one could get used to it after having the guitar home for a while.
It's not a cheap guitar, but no more than the cost of my Gibson 345 1963 Reissue, or most 335s. The quality is, I have to say, higher. Gibson have something to (re)learn there. If I'd had the choice of both, I might have walked out with the Gretsch (and I love my 345).
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05-26-2015 10:44 AM
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I'm sure Chet had his reasons for it being this way. My guess is he figured if he had the neck only on, then the master volume would serve the purpose of a neck volume just fine. Off.. and it doesn't matter. I guess he looked at having both pickups in such a way that he wanted the neck pickup to be full on and the bridge mixed into suit.
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I always thought Chet A. had a great electric guitar sound...big, and fat, but clear and balanced without pronounced highs or lows.
I think he also played a lot of the time with both pu's on....think I remember reading this in an interview he did, which also mentioned that he liked a good clean sound with pu's that were not too hot.
Several good jazzers played Gretsch--Sal Salvador, George Van Eps, and probably others as well. The world is a big place: It would be much less rich if all jazz played on guitar sounded the same.
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The quality of the newer Japanese-made Gretsches really is up there with the best. Flawless workmanship, great feel and tone. Like you, I found the controls to be somewhat perplexing. Certainly useable, but not intuitive for those of us who are used to Gibsons and Fenders.
In my experience, the newer ones are, on average, much better instruments than their vintage counterparts.
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While I am just not old enough to have played one of the older ones when they were new... the new ones are really, really nice and well built.
...but I do like my old ones! I gotta tell you... if I have a few grand laying about looking for a guitar to buy and a Country Club came up... I'd have a very difficult time resisting.
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I have read many comments from people who have both an original and this new version, and I can't remember one of them saying they preferred the original. The one I played looks and feels so perfect, I can't imagine how the originals could have been better. Though, Barry, I see from your signature that you are a Gretsch nut (in a good way, of course!) so I'm sure you absolutely know what you are talking about. But if anyone else out there is thinking of buying one, now seems a good time.
I suppose, in the spirit of Chet, one could tinker with the electronics, but making it more traditional. Maybe even change the pickups to a more traditional jazz pickup in the neck. But it seems so complete in itself as is.
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I wonder about the association with Chet Atkins. I have to say I find much of what I see on youtube is just plain corny, certainly dated: a lot of show biz stuff for mom and pop audiences. He could certainly play guitar, though. But I wouldn't buy one to recreate Chet's repertoire and sound, though apparently thousands do just that. Living in the UK, his name just doesn't resonate much. I guess it's different in the States?
Sal Salvador and George Van Eps, on the other hand...
Any new-generation jazz and/or blues players using Country Gents?
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I have a G6196T CC. Terada made. It is such a nice instrument. Very, very well put together. Get a really nice tone out of it. Stock PU. The only thing is that it doesnt have a tone pot. Just the Mud switch. Easily fixed with eq so not really a problem. The only thing I will have made is removing the Bigsby with a "G" tp. Got it last week. It was on its way to Swaziland, not Switzerland.
I was about to sell it as I wasnt connecting with, but decided to to give it another go. Glad I did. This one and my Super Eagle will stay with me.
Ted
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I do like a good Gretsch. I also like a good Guild. haha. Don't have one of those... yet!
Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
The pickups I put in my 6120 Electrotone are the TV Jones Power'trons. They have some of the fatness of the Gibson style humbucker but a lot of the clarity that the filtertrons are known for. I tend to leave that neck pickup on and even have the ever so hated mud switch on. haha. You can definitely mess with the electronics. Luckily, the old Gretsch New Yorker I have simply never had electronics so I can do what I want with that! Looking at adding a floating single coil in a way that won't modify the guitar as it sits any.
I did have to ream out the peg hole at the lower bout. Not by much though.
On the list of wants, other than a Gretsch Country Club, is a Guild archtop (not too picky on the model), Heritage Super Eagle, vintage Epiphone Emperor, and a Gibson archtop. Probably an old L50 or something.
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Would you say that the guitar was heavy Rob? I love the sound of Gretsch guitars, I have two of them myself in fact but I do find that some of them are very weighty. I actually sold a Gretsch a few years back which had a lovely neck and a really outstanding tone but the weight was just way too much to cope with.
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You know, I never actually noticed the weight. Never crossed my mind. I wasn't expecting a light guitar. The weight doesn't feature in their Specs on the Gretsch website. Maybe someone else knows. Seemed the same as my 345. Not too heavy, not too light. But I'm assuming that, because I never noticed the weight at all.
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So I gather then that you CAN'T have JUST the bridge pickup on? Because you have to use the master to turn off the neck pickup, which in turn turns off both(?) Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
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I purchased a new Gretsch last year - a G6120DSW '55 Chet Atkins. This is one of a limited run of twelve pieces for the U.S. dealer Cream City Music. I did a lot of research before taking the plunge and the modern Gretsch models built in Japan are highly-regarded - build quality and consistency seems to be better than the vintage production years.
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To address your question about contemporary Gretsch users Rob, NYC guitarist Brad Shepik has played a '60s Chet Atkins Tennessean model for much of his career.
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Nice one. And with nice I mean BEAUTIFUL. The pickups, what model?
Btw, my 6196 weighs in at 3.48 kg, 8 pounds 7.45 ounces.
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Although I don't have a CG, I have the 16" version in the 6120 "Nashville" Electrotone. Mine weighs similar to my Heritage H575 and Epiphone E'Reg. It might weigh just a bit more. I'm sure if I had the CG, it'd be the heaviest of the lot. Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
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Yes. The toggle can set it to bridge only. Then the signal goes through the V and T controls to the MV then to output. Originally Posted by Woody Sound
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Oh... a CC! Originally Posted by Teddyfm
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Brad Shepik is a new name to me, but a very good player. Guitar takes over at 5'45"
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Very interested to read the above as I've been a huge fan of Chets sound and his playing since 1959 when I was young! I remember seeing the first Country Gent in the UK in a shop in Charing Cross Road in 1961, £360 was a huge amount of money then ( a Gibson LP Standard was £125 and they were 3 year old stock - unsold. A friend bought a LP Junior with a Gibson amp for £68 new from Selmers.
Anyway, when Paul Yandell, Chets longtime sideman helped Gretsch to design a CG based as closely as possible on Chets CG, I had to have one. The first six in the country were part of the initial batch of 32 made, and I got one of them. Still the best guitar I have. At the time Gibson had the CG name so they were called the 1959Nashville Classic.
Re the controls, Chet apparently hated the mud switches, and changed one of the volume controls to a tone control leaving the vol for the bridge alone and controlling the neck with the master vol.
Paul said he never used the bridge pickup on its own always with the neck pickup, but mainly used the neck supertron alone which Ray Butts built for him back in the 50s, and which wasn't available to the rest of us till the mid 60s. He felt the supertron had clarity but also fatness and more fundamentals. TV Jones built the pickups exactly like Chets originals with the bridge pickup wound to 8K, as Chet had his rewound to equal the neck pickup output by Shot Jackson. IMO the supertron is a wonderful pickup and good for jazz. Not so keen on the bridge pup, but together they sound good too. My guitar has the fixed arm Bigsby, which is very much more sensitive than the swing arm, although it takes some getting used to. I actually prefer the Gretsch pickups to any Gibson humbuckers, although I have a soft spot for P90s, and the staple P90s. Nowadays I play more acoustic, with some tele beating thrown in. The quality is better than old Gretschs I've played, including my old 1959 Anniversary single pickup, (which plays beautifully,with a 1 3/4" neck,) even though the name inlay looks like it was done with a knife and fork.
Before he died Paul worked with TV Jones on a pickup which had half supertron rails and half adjustable screws, which TV now sells and which apparently combine the best of both types of pickup.
When I retired I treated myself to the 6120 CGP limited edition, a reissue of the first of Chets stereo 6120s, but I couldn't bond with the rosewood board and so it found a new home.
The Tennessean has single coil Hi Lo tron pickups, not powerful, but clean.Last edited by bananafist; 05-26-2015 at 02:08 PM.
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On most of the post 58 Gretschs, there are two switches on the top left bout, one pickup selection, one tone selection. The tone selector was useless, two of the three positions giving a 'mud' sound, hence........
The cap values on these switches were changed after 2003 and they now work much better. Just another Gretsch quirk!Last edited by bananafist; 05-26-2015 at 03:36 PM.
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Would the 1959 or 1962 be better for jazz and blues? And are they of a similar quality? The guitar store I was in just sold the 1962 an hour before I got there.
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1962 reissue, with the mutes and the back cover (what was the point of that?).
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Copy pasted this from Gretsch-talk.com
"The "Mud Switch" is a substitution for a tone knob. It is the second switch next to the pickup selector switch on the upper bass bout on Pro-Line Gretsch guitars equipped with Filter'Tron pickups. In the "middle" position the tone circuit is bypassed completely allowing 100% of the pickups actual tone to hit the preamp in your amplifier. The switch in the "down" position rolls off a little bit of the high end offering a mildly darker, softer tone. In the "up" position, the highs are rolled off even more giving an even darker, smoother, more jazz-like tone. The theory behind the "Mud Switch" is to allow guitarists to make a very fast, very predictable tone change that a normal tone knob can't do. I like the "Mud Switch"."
I play with the switch in the middle. Also The mud switch is not exclusive to Filtertrons.Last edited by Teddyfm; 05-26-2015 at 02:20 PM.
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Wth the right caps and a sympathetic amp, the mud switch seems like a useful idea.
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