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Good interview with Cal Collins attached. He talks about his musical roots growing up in the Cincinnati tri-state area which may explain his using the Gretsch. Herb Ellis' nickname for him was "hillbilly."
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04-03-2016 02:18 PM
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This one with standard humbuckers maybe lost the Gretsch sound.
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Billy Bean on a Gretsch Electro II (the precursor to the Country Club):
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Guitar solo at 1:23.
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A few weeks ago I decided to learn to play jazz guitar, and while I am new to "Jazz", I'm not new to guitar. For the past few years I had played nylon string guitars exclusively. When I decided to learn jazz guitar, I ordered a new electric guitar. The guitar that I bought was the Korean made Gretsch G5420T. The sound of one's guitar or a sound that they like is a personal preference, just like anything else. For myself the G5420T fit the bill for my "jazz" guitar. It may not be the jazz sound that everyone talks about, but I find it to be a beautiful sound and I'm certainly enjoying it and enjoying learning jazz. I have shared this video in another thread. This is my Gretsch G5420T plugged directly into my Focusrite interface with no FX except some reverb. I personally love these black top Filtertrons and the sound I get. I'm still learning the piece that I recorded, but I played a couple of verses of the song just to show the sound that I get from the G5420T. I also have a set of flatwound strings on order. Never played with flatwound, so I'm looking forward to see what results I get.
Last edited by KennyC; 04-05-2016 at 08:57 AM.
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An update to my last statement in my post above. After paying $25 plus $5 for shipping, my flatwound strings came in and I installed them on my Gretsch. The first thing I noticed was the difference in feel. The flatwound felt more like the way my nylon string guitars feel. Next came the sound test. Gone away was my beautiful Gretsch tone. The sound was dull, lifeless, no sustain, lows and mids just sounded like mud. Paul Yandell posted once that Chet Atkins had this to say about flatround strings: "They are as dead as a doorknob." That was my experience too. I did give them one day just to see if I could adjust after spending $30 for a set of strings. I could not. I removed them and installed a new set of D'Addario EXL115W's on my Gretsch. It then sounded like a Gretsch again. Lesson learned for myself, I don't like flatwound.
Last edited by KennyC; 04-13-2016 at 08:47 AM.
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[QUOTE=MaxTwang;633947]Gretsch was a major player in the 50's and 60's with country, rock, rockabilly and jazz players:
....
Another factor was cultural shift: In the 60's we were becoming a more 'cosmopolitan' culture and turning our back on all things rural, country and cowboy. As part of TV's "Rural Purge" of the late 60's and early 70's Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, Lassie, Petticoat Junction, and others were cancelled while most of these shows had high ratings.
Definitely true. One beneficiary was "HeeHaw" a countrified version of "Laugh In". Ran for 20 yrs. and was VERY profitable. They would shoot a year's worth of episodes in one week long shooting. Buck Owens and Roy Clark--quality musicians, and pretty much every country act wanted to do HeeHaw. Also lots of hip, self-satirizing comedy (The "new traditionalist" band BR549 took their name from a long-running skit involving a shady used car dealer with that telephone number. They've disbanded now which is a pity.) Randy Scruggs is really good, IMO.
At the same time Chet Atkins, one of Nashville's top producers, 'saved' country music with the "Nashville Sound" or "Countrypolitan" - he eliminated honky tonk and twang and introduced strings and smooth backing vocals. When asked what the "Nashville Sound" was, Chet would shake the change in his pocket and say "It's the sound of money".
I would say this started even earlier, say mid-1950's. Part of the marketing push was to recapture adult listeners who were left behind by rock n' roll, and the demise of Great American Songbook songwriting, and the death of the Big Bands. So acts like Eddie Arnold sold 80 or 90 million records, and singers like Patsy Cline were definitely pitched as cross-over semi-pop acts by Owen Bradley. Female hair styles got even more elaborate...the idea was to show that country was not hillbilly stuff sung by people missing half their teeth, and to upscale it. The Bakersfield Sound people (Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, and others) is a conscious "stick to the basics" movement in country, and kind of a reaction to CountryPolitan....Bakersfield stuff is twangy, honky-tonkish, w/ often blunt lyrics--not prettified. The Beatles loved Buck Owens and recorded his "Act Naturally" with Ringo singing lead, in 1965 or so.
Hank Thompson and his Brazos Valley Boys are interesting...he dropped out of Princeton to be a Western Swing bandleader/singer...sometimes these guys sound smooth and sweet, other times they are just rollicking kick-ass honky tonkers...they kind of covered both ends of the spectrum. Very underrated performer and band, IMO. They were there before and after this all happened--40's to the 70's, at least and maybe longer.Last edited by goldenwave77; 04-13-2016 at 10:51 AM.
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Because I can't stand Bigsby pieces... Same problem with Duesenbergs
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Originally Posted by ES125er
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I would so like to get my hands on a country club with dynasonics. Guessing that could be a really nice jazz sound.
MD
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Originally Posted by David B
There were more than a few jazz guitarists that played Gretsches back in the day, proving that Gretsches can do jazz - it's just doesn't always sound tonewise, like the sounds that are in vogue today. Remember, not all jazz tones have to be of the muffled, blanket over the amp variety. Still, I don't like bright sounding guitar either. Things are also not helped by the twang banger image that Gretsches have, helped along by many of today's Gretsch players, with a "I need to sound like my favorite rockabilly artist or Chet Atkins" mindset. I've grumbled about it more than a few times on the GDP. Gretsches, and hollowbodies in general, are capable of being much more than one-trick ponies.
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Originally Posted by EllenGtrGrl
A Gretsch with a tone knob makes a great jazz guitar, Gretsch pickups have a really nice clarity.Last edited by MaxTwang; 05-07-2016 at 09:32 PM.
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I tend to look at a guitar as the starting point and go from there. Soooo, add a tone control, switch pickups etc... If you get worried about keeping things stock for a trade in you can always make a new harness with pickups and pots and put the factory one in when it's time to sell.
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Originally Posted by MaxTwang
In short, I don't necessarily think you need to Gibsonify every guitar, to get good jazz tones (besides, due to an electronics background, I spent years modifying my guitars, and the guitars of other players I knew, and I got sick of spending the time doing that to chase some oftentimes elusive sound, that I ended up not being satified with in the long run). Also, just like jazz isn't exclusively chord melody, it should not have to always require a muffled guitar tone - to me good jazz guitar tone sounds warm, and not overly bright, nor overly dull souding.
Just My Opinion,
EllenLast edited by EllenGtrGrl; 05-07-2016 at 10:46 PM.
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Funnily I don't have Gibson pickups in my Gibsons or use blankets on the amps but I know what you mean. Different tones work in different situations, a warm woolly sound might be good for solo or small ensemble work but take up too much room in a larger group or with a instrument in the same frequency range so versatility helps.
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Anton Goudsmit plays with a Gretsch.
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Originally Posted by EllenGtrGrl
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Originally Posted by Valdez
Beat me to the punch! I was just going to post the vid, after I found out a short time ago, on the Gretsch forum about this vid via a member who lent Anton one of the amps he made, for the gig this this vid is for. The gig occurred last week. Those are some great licks, and that is some killer sounding tone!
F.Y.I. - the guitar is a 70s Country Club, and the pickups are Baldwin era FilterTrons.
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I don't know...this looks pretty "jazzy" to me and only $449!!
Gretsch G2420 Streamliner Hollowbody - Aged Brooklyn Burst | Sweetwater.com
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Originally Posted by OldGuitarPlayer
i'd change the knobs tho..haha
cheersLast edited by neatomic; 06-03-2016 at 04:06 PM.
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I routinely play an 18" Gretsch Eldorado. It sounds great. Then again, it was ghost built by Heritage Guitars. That's why I grabbed it.
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My main archtop is a Gretsch G400 Synchromatic. I've got a floating CC pickup on it made by Pete Biltoft. It has a very sweet 40s/50s tone, and the playability is superb. It's also one of the prettiest archtops I've seen. I'm surprised they didn't have more success with this model.
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Originally Posted by entresz
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Originally Posted by Headshot
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For me, I'd really like to gig sounding like Grant Green--lots of dry punch. I absolutely know that I could have gotten a great Grant Green sound from either of my Gretsch CA 6120 Nashville guitars on the neck pickup, feeding into one of my MiniBrutes with the 15" speaker.
Funny thing is, I almost never use a Grant Green tone any more. In fact, since I have been gigging much more in a chord melody, solo setting or duo setting, I have moved away from most of the habits I acquired over many years of play when I had small groups. It's just a very different beast when you are playing in a three-to-six piece band, versus playing solo or with another guitarist. Tonally, I take up more bandwidth when I am playing solo. I use a big archtop, rather than a thinline, and I use more of a "Wes" sound--still pretty bright, but with more "hump" on the low end, too.
To go back to the Grant Green thing I would need somebody playing keys, and maybe a bassist. Then, I would be very happy to go back to lots of single string work, using a pick, and with a more insistent tone. Hey, what happened to my rhythm section?
New Campellone Standard on Reverb
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