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Some of you may remember, about a month ago I posted some gear I wanted to trade - a Standel Amp, a '64 National and a '62 Eko. Still have the National and the Eko, but I was lucky enough to find someone on the Gretsch forum willing to trade a guitar for the amp. Not just any guitar - a '61 Anniversary, in sunburst, with three pickups! Talk about Kismet. When I got it there was a HiLoTron, a FilterTron and a Dynasonic, though now it's sporting three dynasonics (two TV Jones TArmonds and a vintage DeArmond in the middle). I also installed a brass nut and a "Duane Eddy" vibrato arm to get a twangy vibe.



The guitar came to me with an interesting wiring set up - in addition to the volume knobs (master plus one for each pickup) the upper bass bout switches were a three way toggle for neck and bridge and the Gretsch tone switch. The middle pickup was wired to the output through the standby switch on the lower treble bout. I rewired it to have two three way switches on the upper bout (neck + middle) + bridge and I moved the tone switch down where the standby was.

The Dynasonics are great pickups, somewhat similar in character to the Mosrite pickups in that they're high output (10+K) single coils. This baby oozes twang!

The neck on Anniversary models often had a pretty low angle, and this is one of them, so there's not much string break over the bridge with the Bigsby. Short of a neck reset, the only way to increase the angle is to raise the bridge. Not very good for the action. So, I thought about this for a while and came up with another way. I made a new roller for the Bigsby, notched down 2/16", just 1/16" over the centerline of the roller. Have to keep above the centerline or the tremolo action gets reversed - down raises pitch, up lowers it. This adds a bit over 1.5 degrees of angle to the strings over the bridge - minor, but it helps!

Here’s a close up of the bigsby where you can see my notch job:


And a look at the stock bar and my hack notch bar. Yes, the posts on my roller are made from a sliced up 3/32" drill bit.

Congratulations Mel! That is a beautiful guitar. How do you like the T-Armonds compared to the Dearmonds?

I love my Anniversary although it's not vintage it's still on of my favorites I've ever owned. Mine is the 6118T-120th. It has TV Jones Classics in both positions. I fell in love with it immediately and after having my tech dial it in I really fell in love with it. I would love to have a vintage Annie as well.

Here's mine!



This is with the pickguard. I keep the pickguard off because it's signed by Fred Grestch, Joe Carducci, Kim Falcon and Paul Pigat. I have just enough space to add Brian Setzer and Duane Eddy if I'm ever so lucky!

Oh they're beautiful guitars.
I'd so love to have a Gretsch, even a modern one.
I'll just have to be satisfied with my Filtertron equipped Surfcaster for the time being.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kylaRJXWnjw/TcZrj8aFqNI/AAAAAAAAAYg/oAGBfshu7w0/s1600/IMGP4139.JPG

Very clever ingenuity there Mel.

Sarah, that's a gorgeous guitar. Gretsch has had some great two-tone color combos through the years.

This is the first Gretsch I've owned, though back in the early 90s I had a Kay archtop and I put a Filtertron in it that I'd bought from Duke Kramer's catalog. Being a fan of Twang, I'm more inclined towards the Dynasonics, but Filterons are some of the best sounding humbuckers, IMHO.

Danny, I thought up a number of far more hairbrained ways to increase the string angle while keeping the bridge low, but this was the only one that required no permanent modification, at least to any stock guitar parts. I'd say the carriage bolt and drill bit would be hard to put back to factory stock.

dubtrub wrote:Very clever ingenuity there Mel.

Yeah, +1
Mel, what can I say but .....CONGRETCH!

Thank you Mel. I love the Bamboo Yellow. The TV Classics give me a wonderful range for the types of music I play. With the bridge pickup and running through a delay and chorus I get a beautiful twangy slapback. It can totally nail Scotty Moores tone from Mystery Train. With the neck pickup and a little chorus and reverb I've recorded some Country songs that sound like I'm playing and acoustic through an amp. With both pickups and a little distortion I can totally nail Mike Campbells sound for Mary Jane's Last Dance.

I've found my Annie to be one of the most versatile guitars I've ever owned. When my tech leveled the frets and dropped the nut just the little, the neck just became amazing. I love playing it! I know they call them "The poor mans 6120", but I wouldn't trade my Annie for anything. When I play locally as soon as I take it out of the case people just marvel at how beautiful it is. It definately looks better in person.

Sarah, we gotta get Mel to the next Gretsch Roundup! Mel, you should definitely post that thing on the Gretschpages.

Two very nice guitars.
Jim

FritzCat wrote:Sarah, we gotta get Mel to the next Gretsch Roundup! Mel, you should definitely post that thing on the Gretschpages.

Fritz, I think that's a great idea. Mel is already a member of Gretsch Discussion Pages.

Mel, you might like to join us in September at the NorCal/NorNev Roundup at Claire Tapaan Lodge near Truckee, CA. It is an awesome time!! Joe C., Fred Gretsch, and Kim Falcon usually make that one.