Talk talk talk.
Talking about how a guitar sounds is like (as Steve Martin may have said about music) "dancing about architecture."What do Filtertrons sound like? Dynasonics? Hilotrons? Fat bodies, thin bodies, real f-holes, closed bodies? In hopes of helping you find the Gretsch tone that floats your particular boat, how about we give an actual listen?
What you will find in this thread is 4-5 minute (or longer) recordings of six different current Gretsch models, representing 4 model families. All were played by the same hack (being me), all within an hour early one Sunday morning, all through the same amp at the same settings. All have D'Addario strings, either 11s or 12s. (Details listed with guitars.)
I don't pretend the tones are definitive, and every time I hear myself play I'm disgusted at my slop, inconsistency, and timing. But it's one guy in a room, anyway, no tricks or post-processing. I tried to do representative kinds of things that prospective Gretsch players might want to hear, but of course I did them my own way, and there's no question that other players will get different tones.
I also tried to run through most of the pickup and switch settings on the various guitars, and cover most of the same material in the samples. They do vary some, based on the inspiration or disability of the moment with each guitar. Each guitar seems to want certain kinds of playing, and that comes out as well. I think.
I'm aware that the samples are quite long; the purpose is to demonstrate the tonal spectrum of the guitars, and not my playing - but at the same time, I didn't want to chop up halfway acceptable segments that might make musical sense. It's my hope that every section reveals more about the guitars than about my ragged toothless old man shredding.
So enough excuses. Either the exercise will demonstrate what I hear as significant differences in the voices of these Gretsch instruments, or they'll all sound the same. Enlightenment (entonement?) is in the ear of the beholder.
Production Details.
• all guitars played through 1966 Ampeg Reverberocket amp, no compression or other effects. Reverb is from the amp. Amp settings were not changed through the session, nor was the mic moved.
• mic'ed with small Sony stereo mic and recorded into Powerbook using Audacity. Pieces were edited for tuning interludes, false starts, etc - but no eq or volume adjustments were made. Tracks were NOT normalized. Volume differences reflect actual output and response of guitars.
• overdrive/distortion comes from Barber Tone Pump dirt pedal. I don't pretend this is ideal natural amp overdrive. In fact, it ISn't. It does not shade effectively between clean and dirty. But again, settings were not changed through the session, so at least the comparison is straight. (Yes, you'd adjust your pedals and amp for best tone with each guitar, but that wasn't the purpose here.)
• distortion sections of all samples were boosted by 4dB (as I had the output knob on the pedal too low while recording).
And here we go.
G6120-GA Nashville Golden Anniversary
- 2.75" x 16" open-f-hole body; 24.6" scale; TV Jones Classic pickups, tone switch circuit; bar bridge; 9.45" radius ebony fingerboard; parallel tone bar bracing with sound post; D'Addario 11-49 round, plain 3rd; Catalog entry here.
G6120DSV Nashville Dynasonic; the 1957-inspired "Duane" model
- 2.75" x 16" open-f-hole body; 24.6" scale; Dynasonic single-coil pickups, tone pot circuit; bar bridge; 12" radius rosewood fingerboard; parallel tone bar bracing with sound post; D'Addario Chromes 11-50 flat, wound 3rd; Catalog entry here.
G6122-1959 Nashville Classic; the modified-1959 "Chet" model
- 2.25" x 17" closed body w/fake f-holes; 25.5" scale, zero fret; TV Jones Magnatron neck pickup; TV Jones Plus bridge pickup, custom tone circuit; bar bridge; 12" radius ebony fingerboard; parallel tone bar bracing, tone post, plus internal waffleboard; D'Addario 11-49 round, plain 3rd; Catalog entry here.
Note: This guitar varies from stock configuration in having a TVJ Magnatron at the neck rather than the stock SuperTron; the tone pot has also been modified to be bi-directional, with both tone-switch capacitors, so that it combines the rotary functionality of the tone pot guitars with the ability to gradually engage either of the tone pot caps. Sound sample of guitar in stock configuration will be added later.
G6122-1962 Country Classic; the "Harrison on Sullivan" model
- 2" x 17" closed double-cutaway Electrotone body w/fake f-holes; 24.6" scale, zero fret; Gretsch High-Sensitive Filtertrons, tone switch circuit; bar bridge; 12" radius ebony fingerboard; parallel tone bar bracing w/tone post; D'Addario 11-49, plain 3rd; Catalog entry.
G6196 Country Club; solid-spruce top model
- 2.75" x 17" open-f-hole body; 25.5" scale; Dynasonic single-coil pickups, tone pot circuit; bar bridge; 12" radius rosewood fingerboard; parallel tone bar bracing with NO sound post; D'Addario 12-52, wound 3rd; Catalog entry.
Note: This guitar varies from stock configuration in having a bar bridge rather than Adjustamatic; and having a Bigsby tailpiece instead of the G-trapeze
G6119-1962HT Tennessee Rose HT; "Harrison" mid-60s model
- 2" x 16" closed single-cutaway body w/fake f-holes; 24.6" scale, zero fret; Hilo'Tron pickups, tone switch circuit; bar bridge; 12" radius rosewood fingerboard; parallel tone bar bracing with sound post; D'Addario 11-49 round, plain 3rd; Catalog entry.
Same 6119HT, but with D'Addario Chrome 11-50 flatwound strings. (Note this sound clip is 14 MB, and quite long. I couldn't stop.)
