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Guys...play a Gretsch Country Club, White Falcon, Country Gentleman, or Nashville through a tweed Fender Deluxe sometime. The tone is to die for.
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05-27-2015 06:39 PM
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One of my favourite musicians on the European scene, Jakob Bro, has been known to play a Gretsch on occasion.
See:
( ^ Chris Cheek's solo and tone - wow)
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Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
There is another aspect to Chet's being beloved by guitar players. He was "sneaky cool"....like some ballplayers are sneaky fast.
He was always tuneful and played clean...a Nashville cat who played "clean as country water"....but if you were growing up and lobbying your parents for an electric guitar, they'd say "What....so you can play that NOISE?!"...."Yeah, but Mom (Dad), Chet Atkins plays electric".....pause...."You know he's right, Mildred....I kind of like that Chet Atkins...oh, okay...we'll talk about it"....another 2 weeks of lobbying....a trip to the music store...and you were on your way....with the final parental admonition "But not too loud...."
So he did middle of the road stuff, but also played for the Everly Brothers and some of the Elvis stuff, as well, so you knew that he could do more....
Also, he showed what the guitar could do...as an almost one-piece band in its own right....this I think is inspirational for a lot of budding players....and got them thinking ...."I hear that...and kind of understand it....now how do I learn how to do it?!"....get that bass line moving etc.
George Harrison copped a lot of stuff from him, and a ton of others, as has been pointed out. And I think that syncopated bass accompaniment is just eternally cool.
I love jazz music, but boy there are some drop-dead bad-ass musicians in Nashville...guys who plays multiple instruments and can really blend their playing into a satisfying whole. (This is making me want to drive to Nashville, and catch The Time Jumpers or some other local talent.)
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Good post.
There are two issues emerging:
1. Chet Atkins could play guitar! I mean REALLY play.
2. These guitars could, should, and sometimes are played in a wider context than their image dictates.
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Speaking of George and Gretsches...
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You know, Harrison--who was a guy who favored Gretsches--was a woefully under-rated player. The man could PLAY.
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Not a Gibson bashing thread but funny that since Fender bought Gretsch the build quality is better than most vintage Gretschs.. The vintage ones have that "IT" that makes them worth 3X the price of a reissue but they also have shrinking binding and necks that need a reset every couple of decades. Originally Posted by Rob MacKillop
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As a former owner of a G6122-1959, the tone on this guitar is total Chet. The TV Jones pickups were built to re-create the pickups on Chet's main recording guitar. Great playing guitar with the 25.5" scale, 1.75" nut and I like the zero fret.
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Just a couple of points I'd add, apart from the 6120 CGP, (rosewood board,) the 6122-1959 is the only current quality Gretsch with 1 3/4" nut, + supertron at neck and ebony board. Kinda narrows it down a bit!
If you haven't heard it Rob, Chet Atkins Workshop released in the 60s shows his more 'jazzy' playing a little.
These 6122s are quite heavy, I don't play mine as much nowadays, as my neck/back/age and arthritis problems dictate.
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Early in my guitar playing days, I guess I was about 13 and a devoted Chet Atkins fan, there was a music store in Athens, Georgia, that had one of these in a deep wine-red transparent finish. I used to go into that store literally every day and play for an hour or so. The proprietor always let me plug it in, and seemed to enjoy hearing me play it. At the time the cost was simply a number I could not imagine ever paying, though likely it wasn't as high as I recall.
I learned then something important: any master can make any guitar sound great; but we lesser players profit enormously from playing a high-quality instrument that makes even our basic playing sound nice.
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Well, sad to say, I still don't have one. I just don't have that kind of money to spend these days. I'm lucky in that my wife bought me a Gibson 345 1963 reissue some four or five years ago, which I like, but I can't sell it or use it in part exchange - she would not be happy about that. But between you and me (and I'm whispering), I prefer the Gretsch. Don't tell her!
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I got mine Left Handed on Ebay through Rocky at Streetsounds for a very nice price way lower than a lefty 335 .I couldn,t have managed that much.
Last edited by LeftysBlues; 01-08-2017 at 10:53 AM. Reason: spelling again
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I think Gretsch are making the best guitars they've ever made currently. The old guitars weren't known for their build quality - some were ok , others not so much. I was completely blown away by my MIJ Gretsch G400 -- such a beautifully put together instrument. Would not hesitate to get another Gretsch. I actually have an old Greco ES-175 copy, but I don't use it much, might end up selling that and putting the funds towards a MIJ Gretsch Anniversary.
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Hi, Originally Posted by FrankLearns
I'm a Gretsch lover and I have a G5420T, it's a great guitar for the money. Apart from Jazz and Country I play a lot of Chet and Travis picking "boom-chick" stuff and recently I spent some time looking for a good upgrade and hopefully my definitive guitar for that kind of application.
Last week I bought an used 6122II Chet Atkins Country Gentleman and I absolutely love it. Construction quality is outstanding, playability is perfect and both pickups sounds great.
The neck pickup sounds rich, warm, fat, definitely usable for Jazz, even if I gotta say that the tone (aka "mud") switch seems to take some life away from those Filtertrons on both up and down positions. I'm not saying that it sounds bad, but In the middle (bypassed) position you get the most from those pickups, in my opinion. After making some adjustments in my amp I was able to get a decent Jazz sound from the neck pickup, but it's definitely brighter compared to other guitars.
Bridge pickup is twang city all day. It's bright, punchy, sharp, pretty aggressive to be honest.
In the middle position (both pickups) you can get very interesting tones mixing the pickups and using the tone switch.
I have also a 335 incoming so I have a lot to do in the next weeks.
Last edited by emicad; 01-12-2017 at 09:11 AM.
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Sorry for another "what strings......" post, but this a little different due to the guitar and what I'm hoping for.
I picked up a 1959 Gretsch Country Gentleman last week used from Guitar Center and it came with some standard electric strings that I couldn't ID. Sounded pretty good, but they were little slinky. I swapped them out for TI BeBop .12s, which I didnt realize have an unwound G (read the package, Dum-dum). Anyway, I'm not thrilled with them due to the unwound G and a sound that seems to have less sparkle or something.
The guitar has a unique sound and is obviously different from a traditional archtop. I want to keep it that way by not just slapping some .13 flatwounds on it which I think (please correct me if I'm wrong) would kill some of its sparkle and shine. At the same time I'd like to warm it a hair.
Maybe my brain is fried and I dont know what the hell I'm looking for. Too much yard work today.
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I have a '53 pre-Streamliner. It still sparkles with flats.
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I like D'Addario XL Nickel Wound, which are nickel-coated steel, bog-standard strings, cheap, available everywhere, and sound good to me. I've quit buying pure nickel strings for anything, and putting these on pretty much everything. I like the .013 set on my carved tops, and .012 on laminates. The heavier strings seem to drive the top better for acoustic playing, but I think that's guitar-dependent, and some may sound better with heavier or lighter strings. The guitar will tell you what strings it likes, and it may require some experimentation. Every guitar and ear is different.
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Just curious as to why you gave up on the pure Nickel? Aren't the they a bit warmer?
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They're a bit deader, and the steel strings give a more even response and volume. My taste has changed over the years, and I moved from flats to round pure nickels, and now I'm using steel. But that might change again, I don't know. It's not a major investment requiring a bank loan to buy a different set of strings.
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G6122-1959 with the Supertron neck and Filtertron bridge pickups? I had one of those in my Chet-picking days and loved it dearly for that purpose. I used run of the mill D'Addario roundwound 11 or 12s, I think.
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the heaviest and most badass you can find
i've liked the 12-60 gauges on my gretches but i tune down, and generally play shorter scales. used to use everly x rockers, now i use rotosounds. because they are cheap, available, and you get an extra high string. my thinking is to always extract the most amount of volume and tone from a guitar since i never really change my strings, anyway; they'll eventually mellow out a bit, not that they are extremely bright to begin with. i run into that problem more with acoustic strings.
i'd also double check for that wound 3rd you're after, or consider buying some wound singles in your preferred gauge for that purpose.
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early (like 1953 ^) gretsch guitars used dearmond dynasoncs...much brighter pickup than the later filtertron...chet atkins was "instrumental" in getting gretsch to make a humbucking pickup to replace the dynas on his guitar...he also wanted them to use roundwound strings instead of flats
for filtertrons, which are a clean low output humbucker, for a vintage sound try some pure nickel rounds...and adjust the pup height to taste...different material strings require some pup adjusting..big difference in magnetics between a pure nickel string and say, stainless steel or cobalt
cheers
ps- btw to me, less sparkle means warm..hah!
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