#1 May not be a problem, depending on the model of the guitar. The Gretsch I bought last summer came with both a trapeze tail piece and a Bigsby tail piece. The bridge floats (it may be pinned, I haven’t had it off the guitar). Switching out the tail pieces looks to be simple, they mount using the same three screws.
But yeah, the Bigsby doesn’t come free, and it’s not the same as the dive bombers. They’re a totally different animal when it comes to mounting them.
If you’re not sure about the Country Gentleman (at their price, I can understand), Gretcsh also makes their less expensive Electromatic series, the ones I’ve played sound very nice. The G100CE looks to be trying to be a traditional jazz guitar, too.
I always advise: play the guitar before you buy it, or make sure you can send it back. If once you play it, it feels like it’s worth the price to you, get it (or keep it, as the case may be). I had a hard time finding any Gretcshes to test, and couldn’t really test the one I bought before I got it. I was happy when I did get it, but I was nervous before hand, and probably made the sales guy as nervous as I was by asking a ton of questions about their return policy.
I was at our local shop today, picking up a couple of small items. The guitar specialist and another guy were talking. The only thing I could hear was that the discussion was about new Fender Squiers and they both thought they were a good deal. But I couldn’t hear why they thought that. Any ideas?
Also, another question. My guitar teacher breaks a lot of G strings. I was going to buy him a pack of them for Christmas, and I’m sure that he said he uses 10s or 12s. The guy at the shop was shocked at that, for some reason. The teacher has a Taylor acoustic/electric strung with steel strings, so what’s the problem with a 10 or 12?
Hmm. A Gretsch is a rockabilly guitar, not a jazz guitar. The Bigsby vibrato is for little wavers on the end of notes, a la Brian Setzer. They make an affordable version I think called a 5120 that is wonderful, but I don’t know if it will be what you are looking for. I don’t know of any jazz cats that use Gretsches.
I would check out both semi-hollow and fully hollow guitars. If your price range is less than $1,000, you can check out Epiphone Dot Neck semi-hollows, Ibanez and a few others - lots of folks use them for jazz. Joe Pass played a Gibson fully hollow ES-175 with a couple of humbuckers and there are a few makers that make similar guitars - e.g., Ibanez and Washburn. Ibanez used to make an affordable version of their George Benson model. Probably worth checking out.
I have a Squire strat that has great action. It’s an HSS model. I’m not too thrilled about the PU so I’m thinking that my Christmas money may go towards a prewired Seymour Duncan pick guard assembly.
10’s or 12’s - Forgive me if I’m misunderstanding but I can’t tell if you are asking to buy 10s 12s gauge to be used for a G string or if you are speaking of the G string from a typical 10 or 12 set.
If you want to by him a bunch of 10 gauge or 12 gauge strings to be used as replacement for the G string then I can understand why shop guy is confused. 10s or 12s are typically used for the lightest string (high E in standard tuning).
A set of guitar strings is sometimes referred to by its it’s thinnest gauge string so if your teacher uses a 10 or 12 set then the gauge of the G string would be 17 to 25. If so I’d get him a few 18’s and a few 20s for his G string replacements.
Sorry - I didn’t comment on this. What BubbaDog said. I suspect a Taylor A/E unless he really treats it like an electric, with a lot of aggressive bending. More likely he uses Acoustic Light Gauge, where the High E starts at .12. You would need to look up what the G string is gauged for with that type of set and go from there…
As for Squiers - Fender seems to shift around where they source them in order to get the lowest price. Some can be surprisingly decent, but you’d have to play a couple of dozen to find one. Some production runs are just lousy end-to-end - play like toys…
Has anybody ever tried to re-glue a Gibson style neck?
I bought a busted neck Epiphone EB-1 bass guitar from a guy a few years ago. He had busted the crown off of the top and glued it back together with gorilla glue :smack:. Even though it’s a Gibson style the Epiphone has a bolt-on neck. The fact that it IS a neck through copy with a bolt on neck makes replacement necks hard to find and even harder to stomach the replacement price.
But the price point on this was so low that bit on it and enjoyed playing it for a year or so as the Gorilla glue ever so slowly spread apart and the head came out of alignment taking with it all hope of intonation. The pickups on this are so sweet that I decided to make an effort and try to reset the head.
Had the guy used wood glue in the first place instead of Gorilla glue I think that it would still be intact. Gorilla glue has great sheer resistance but retains some malleability even after drying which led to its eventual creeping.
So about a month ago I separated the head, carefully picked out the gorilla residue and added some generous amounts of wood glue to the wound.
Lacking a decent clamping system I finally and reluctantly settled on tightly wrapping the neck in duct tape. I then let it sit for three weeks. I unwrapped it, carefully cleaned the excess wood glue and tape mastic from the neck and its been sitting another 3 weeks over in the corner.
I’ve held the neck in my hands and stressing it via twists, pulls, bending force etc and it appears to be very strong. I’m going to string it up within the next week and under tune it for a week and then try to take it to a 440 tune after.
It’s been a fun project. I’ll report back on the results. In the meantime I’d love to hear anybody’s experience with this kind of a repair project.
The good news is that, should this work, the guitar will never leave the protection of my guitar room. If it doesn’t work then my next project may be to retrofit my Epiphone PU’s to a cheap Squire Bass I have that plays quite well but has very mundane PUs.
I know that there are more common jazz boxes out there, even the Ibanez has more of a jazz history than any Gretsch. But there’s a whole thread over at jazzguitar.be with people getting nice tones from Gretsches. The first linked clip from Rune Gustafsson is my favorite, though.
The other guitars you recommend are more standard jazz guitars (and most are cheaper), but a trapeze tail piece Gretsch has largely the same equipment as the standard machines do, even if the controls are a little unusual.
Sorry if it seems I’m jumping on you, but limiting guitar mfrs. to certain styles seems a lot like saying a Miata is a girl’s car, without the sexism.
Interesting, because Chet’s style in that clip has just the slightest hint of country twang that sets my teeth on edge…
I can afford to get a more expensive guitar. I probably wouldn’t drop $12K on a custom Gibson (I’m not that good), but I don’t mind going over $1000-$2000 if I think it’s worth it. On the other hand, I’m not going to get a $2500 guitar just because it must be four times as good as a $600 guitar.
Ranger Jeff, can you expand on the drawbacks of the vibrato tailpiece? Is it just the added expense for an unused feature? An ongoing maintenance/reliability/tuning issue? Big honking lever in the way all the time?
Thanks, everyone. Off to call the craigslist guy with the Ibanez…
scabpicker - yep, makes sense. Gretsch models like that ARE hollow-bodies, so there’s no reason they can’t do jazz. But they don’t seem to be used that often.
Tierce - jazz players typically play with heavier gauge strings and are looking for a solid feel. They typically don’t bend strings and play complex chords that require a well-intonated guitar. A vibrato tailpiece adds slinkiness to the feel, works best with non-heavy gauge strings, is used in a bending-like way on notes and chords, and can add to intonation issues. Ergo, not many vibratos on jazz guitars.
Given your price point, why not find a used ES-175? If they’re good enough for Joe Pass, Pat Metheny and other folks like them (and Steve Howe!), I suspect you could find one in your price range. Or a smaller bodied Ibanez George Benson model - those are very highly regarded.
Gibsons and Epis are notorious for this. You are right that he should have used wood glue, preferably high strength hide glue or Titebond. Take your time when you’re tuning up as the last thing you want is a catastrophic failure under full tension. Google broken Gibson headstock to see what I mean.
I’ve never seen the EB-1 before, thanks for sharing!
Tierce, the best advice is play a bunch of different ones and see what appeals but may I also recommend you consider the Ibanez Artcores, the new D’Angelico USA series, or the Godin Kingpins. I’ve played them all and if I were to get right into jazz they would be under serious consideration.
I put a Bigsby on my Tele and enjoy it, YMMV. The lever swivels out of the way when I don’t use it and since the tuners were zonked on the neck I had, I swapped in locking tuners which has helped the stability.
Again, off to your LGS and try a bunch out, ideally the same models with and without. BTW, I love that G & L you have, great guitars!
I just found a Taylor 414CE on Craigslist for $1250. Going out to see it on Thursday. The guy says he bought it in 2010 and probably put 30 hours on it, tops. No damage and with the original hardcase. They go for about $2,000 new, so whaddya think?
Damn, I hate when a whole post you’ve been writing disappears!
Disclaimer: I have no experience with Floyd Rose vibrato tailpieces. I have a lot with the one on my Stratocaster and I’ve played friends’ guitars with Bigsbys.
The lever was never an issue with my Strat. I usually unwound it and left it in compartment in my case with the spare set of strings and picks. The levers on the Bigsbys seemed to be good at staying swung out of the way. I don’t know if you could adjust the tension on them. For the record, I’ve read that Pete Townsend managed to drive the lever on Strat (I think the one Clapton gave him) through the palm of his hand while he was doing one of his “windmills”, which knocked him out of action for a while.
B. You need to tune a LOT with a vibrato tailpiece unless you block it, thereby giving up the vibrato feature. If you start tuning at the 1st string, by the time you get the 6th string tuned, the 1st string will be a bit flat. And with the tilting bridge on a bigsby, every time you actually use the lever, there’s a good chance you’ll knock the whole guitar out of tune. Most guys I knew with a bigsby eventually sawed a disc out of a broom handle and replaced the spring with it, thereby blocking it. And I don’t recall an individual string intonation adjustment on bigsby bridges. You can block a strat vibrato with some shims or, I’ve heard, a wooden domino.
III. I’ve only heard a vibrato tailpiece actually used for dive bombing in metal or in rockabilly stuff. Maybe a little in some Chris Isaak stuff. Other than this, there aren’t many guitarists who I think can use one well. Other than Brian Setzer, that’s about it. Do you really need one to play the jazz you want to play? If not, then why not save your money?
I hope this made sense. I do like the looks of that Chet Atkins. But I’m partial to single cutaways hollow/semi hollow bodies with a Venetian, not Florentine, cutaway.
Chefguy, when my quasi-nephew was fairly new at guitar, he broke g strings left and right. It didn’t seem to matter which guitar he played, his electric or his dad’s acoustics. I bought him some G strings (.022s, both wound and plain, IIRC) and a half dozen Fender mediums and lights and told him to stop using the Jim Dunlop picks his father preferred until he’s refined his ‘touch’ with the pick.
To be clear: Taylors are extremely well-made guitars and that price on a 414 sounds great. If you know you like Taylor guitars - they have a certain tone profile that is distinct from Martins and Gibsons, for instance - then it could be a great opportunity.
Wow, I missed this while I was being personally offended by broad social trends. Those are neat basses! I’ve never repaired a snapped neck myself, but I would echo swampspruce’s advice to bring it up to pitch gradually.
What do you like about the pickup? I thought I was the only person who liked the boom of the tuna cans (also known as the mudbucker). (Well, besides Berry Oakley, who put one in his Fender Jazz).
Yeah, he’s not really a jazz player, even though he’s very skilled. I don’t know how he ended up on stage with Stanley Jordan in that clip. But the guitar can get a nice jazz tone, even if it’s not usually used that way.
You sound like you’ve got the perfect attitude to shop for a guitar. Almost all of Ranger Jeff’s advice is spot on, but:
In every instance I’ve seen, Bigsby-style vibratos don’t have their own bridges. It’s almost always just a tail piece, and you use the original (usually tune-o-matic style, but I’ve got a Univox with nylon roller saddles ) bridge.
I’m going to give it a try. Some Taylors seem to have very large bodies, which isn’t that comfortable for me. I’ve thought about a Martin or a Gibson, but the price ranges are pretty stiff.
In every instance I’ve seen, Bigsby-style vibratos don’t have their own bridges. It’s almost always just a tail piece, and you use the original (usually tune-o-matic style, but I’ve got a Univox with nylon roller saddles ) bridge.
[/QUOTE]
From my memories (and I’m feeling lazy and don’t feel like checking out the Bigsby website, but you’re more than welcome too (no snark intended), Bigsbys (or at least some of them) come with tilting bridges. They are not physically part of the tailpiece. They go where a regular bridge would go, maybe an inch or so south of the bridge pickup. I assume the tilting is to prevent or lessen the wear and tear on the strings from scraping when you use the lever. I can see how roller saddles would ease that and if the Bigsby is added on, I can see someone preferring a good tune-o-matic over the Bigsby one. The giveaway to me was when a guitar would have all chromed hardware but the bridge would be the same brushed aluminum as the tailpiece.
Ok, I did check the Bigsby website. They do sell bridges. Oddly enough, one of the non-adjustable ones is what the repair guy used to replace the missing one on my EKO (not correct, but it works).
But yeah, they’re not sold as part of the vibrato arm, and not usually necessary as long as the guitar was originally equipped with a trapeze or separate stop tail piece and bridge. One place where one is necessary that I didn’t consider is when it’s installed on a Tele. Their units for Teles are the rocking kind, sort of like a Jazzmaster’s, but they’re adjustable.
) bridge.