I had fallen out of love with a couple of pieces of gear that I have (a Strat and my Ampeg Jet being the big ones,) so I started keeping an eye out for potential trade bait, and I listed the gear on Craiglist/Marketplace. There's a shop in Troy, NY, Love of Fuzz, I was searching their Reverb page and I saw that they had this Gretsch. I've always had a soft spot for Gretsch guitars (thanks Australian Rockabilly-ish Punk band The Living End.) I reached out to them last week to see if they'd potentially be interested in a trade and they said yes, so I headed there this afternoon.
Got there, showed them the Strat and Ampeg and they were into it, and I tried out the Gretsch, and I was into it. So a deal was done. The Gretsch seems to be in pristine shape. I can't find a scratch or ding on it. Unplugged it's lively and resonant, and plugged in to my Marshall Origin 20 it's somehow twangy and beefy at the same time. The guitar plays great; the action is super low with my preferred 10-50 strings. Everything on the guitar just looks well done and well made. The only change I'll likely make at some point (probably soon) is getting a Compton aluminum bridge on here. I've had them on a couple of guitars and I love how they feel and what they bring out of a guitar tonally.
It has some pretty cool features, it has a smaller neck joint, which really makes playing on the higher frets easier, compared to a standard Duo Jet or a Les Paul.
It also has Gotoh locking tuners, Schaller strap buttons (which I may change out for regular Fender ones, we'll see what happens.), and it has a non-floating bridge, which is a nice little feature. It has a string-thru Bigsby, which isn't really a big deal for me. At one point I had three Bigsby equipped guitars and I got used to doing the pins. It's actually a little difficult sliding the string ends into the cups here due to the angle, not a deal breaker though. The neck is slim, but comfortable, pretty similar to my Yamaha Studio Lord, so it won't take much getting used to in that regard.
It's not the White Falcon of my dreams, but I think that's an unattainable goal.
Anyways, here's what you're here for, my apologies for not cleaning off the top super well.
definitely on my list of wants for some point in the future, that or a Black Penguin 