swampash Posted September 20, 2012 Share Posted September 20, 2012 I traded my 2005 Jeff Beck Strat for this yesterday. When I did the deal, myself and it's previous owner thought it was a Duo Jet, but in fact it's a 2005 Gretsch G6128TVP Power Jet, a souped up version of the Duo Jet with TV Jones® Power’Tron™ pickups, made in Japan. I brought it home, cleaned it up and put a new set of Ernie Ball Standard slinky 10s and set her up. Quickly I realised that this Guitar was a steal and vastly superior to the Strat I traded for it. Even straight through the amp with no overdrive and a nice helping of reverb, this guitar is special. The ebony fretboard is just incredible. The space control bridge (a non standard bridge) takes some getting used to especially when it fell off the Guitar when i was re-stringing it. It's literally held to the Guitar by string tension. I may have to see about a long term solution to this but it's not an issue right now and the next time it's restrung, I'll change out two strings at a time rather than take them all off together. I'm thinking about putting a Bigsby but it will have to be the factory correct one which may be hard to find. It will also mean that I will have to get a new hard case for it as the current one would not accommodate the Guitar with a Bigsby attached. Decisions decisions! I love this Guitar. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kidblast Posted September 20, 2012 Share Posted September 20, 2012 a fine score swamp. and yea,a bigsby would rock on that one! All the best.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brundaddy Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 Wicked. Don't be so sure a Bigsby won't fit in the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookieman15061 Posted September 24, 2012 Share Posted September 24, 2012 The Duos and Powers are great guitars. Congrats. Gretsch's rock! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaxson50 Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 A bit of advice on changing strings on any arch top with a trapeze style bridge, change strings one or up to three at a time, if you want to clean the fretboard up, cut the sticky part of a post-it note off and mark the location of the bridge before removing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigKahune Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 . Great deal. That's a killer Jet. Congrats. . B) . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riffster Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 I have a poorly Double Jet that I am modifying. Yours is much nicer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon S. Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 Congrats!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milod Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 Looking at this one... There's an old technique for guitars like this: Just press down on the trapeze to get a bit of Bigsby-ish rise in pitch. With the roller bridge it should work fairly well, depending on the trapeze setup. Never cared much for any sort of whammies - and I think that's why I got rid of my old orange Gretsch ages ago. It had one. m Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
retrosurfer1959 Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 great guitar and much nicer than a start. I have a Brian Setzer model with the TV Jones and it's been working it's way stedily up the play list since I got it great guitar and a great deal sounds like Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pippy Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 That's a very fine looking instrument! Congrats! P. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FenderGuy1 Posted September 25, 2012 Share Posted September 25, 2012 I traded my 2005 Jeff Beck Strat for this yesterday. When I did the deal, myself and it's previous owner thought it was a Duo Jet, but in fact it's a 2005 Gretsch G6128TVP Power Jet, a souped up version of the Duo Jet with TV Jones® Power’Tron™ pickups, made in Japan. I brought it home, cleaned it up and put a new set of Ernie Ball Standard slinky 10s and set her up. Quickly I realised that this Guitar was a steal and vastly superior to the Strat I traded for it. Even straight through the amp with no overdrive and a nice helping of reverb, this guitar is special. The ebony fretboard is just incredible. The space control bridge (a non standard bridge) takes some getting used to especially when it fell off the Guitar when i was re-stringing it. It's literally held to the Guitar by string tension. I may have to see about a long term solution to this but it's not an issue right now and the next time it's restrung, I'll change out two strings at a time rather than take them all off together. I'm thinking about putting a Bigsby but it will have to be the factory correct one which may be hard to find. It will also mean that I will have to get a new hard case for it as the current one would not accommodate the Guitar with a Bigsby attached. Decisions decisions! I love this Guitar. :) that guitar deserves some Brian Setzer or Eddie Cochran Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVOL! Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 Quickly I realised that this Guitar was a steal and vastly superior to the Strat I traded for it. Quote of the day! Seriously, sweet axe. She's a winner for sure. A classic pin-up girl static decal would look killer on her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sellen Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 super nice guitar . As an AC-DC geek i would love to have a Gretsch Double-cutaway Jet Firebird. Can't understand why they don't make 'em. Im sure there would be a marked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AXE® Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 *drool* Love it!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kennis Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 Looks fantastic! Always wanted to try one of those. Grats! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookieman15061 Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 that guitar deserves some Brian Setzer or Eddie Cochran actually some George Harrison. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookieman15061 Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaxson50 Posted September 28, 2012 Share Posted September 28, 2012 George called his Cloud 9. These are great guitars! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChanMan Posted September 28, 2012 Share Posted September 28, 2012 Nice score man! That is a gorgeous axe :D!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foggy Notion Posted September 28, 2012 Share Posted September 28, 2012 A lovely guitar congrats. I have a very similarly specced Duo Jet & love it daily! I have been around Gretsches for a while & submit the following humbly as opinion/info/advice as well meant,to address some of the OPs comments. This is a pre fender owned (FMIC) made Gretsch known as Baldwin era made, slightly different headstock shape. The 'space control bridge'.Whilst being the antithesis of 'Gretschiness'. Generally people dont like these, they are uncomfortable for palm muting & will often start to rattle & suck tone after a while. Most Gretsch-o-philes swap out the bridge for a Compton or Tru Arc solid type bridge. Most seem to think the bridge radius (12 on a Jet fret board) is better suited, also most will claim better; tone & sustain & doesn't seem to cause any intonation issues. I have one & do find it more comfortable & less 'noisy' but I couldn't say there was any tone improvement with any degree of certainty. Bigsby, Bigsby vibratos are nothing like a floyd rose or floater, deffitnitly not a dive bomber, more of a warbler! Worth a try & deffinitely suited in both sound & appearance to a Gretsch. The model for your guitar would be a Bigsby B3 with 'V' cut. Not too hard to find. One thing to beware of when fitting. The strap button screw & other tail piece screw holes will not match the Bigsby holes, so you will need to fill & re drill (about 1/8th" over). It's not a huge problem if you're happy to drill it. Many of the factory fitted Bigsbys are not lined up with the neck accurately so it gives yo ua chance to do a good job of it!! Those great looking Knurled Gretsch strap buttons. They can be a pain to put on/undo on a dark stage. They are also inclined to undo themselves over time, beware! Strap locks or grolsch bottle type locks are highly recommended. I've probably blithered on enough in my Gretsch excitement for now :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swampash Posted October 1, 2012 Author Share Posted October 1, 2012 A lovely guitar congrats. I have a very similarly specced Duo Jet & love it daily! I have been around Gretsches for a while & submit the following humbly as opinion/info/advice as well meant,to address some of the OPs comments. This is a pre fender owned (FMIC) made Gretsch known as Baldwin era made, slightly different headstock shape. The 'space control bridge'.Whilst being the antithesis of 'Gretschiness'. Generally people dont like these, they are uncomfortable for palm muting & will often start to rattle & suck tone after a while. Most Gretsch-o-philes swap out the bridge for a Compton or Tru Arc solid type bridge. Most seem to think the bridge radius (12 on a Jet fret board) is better suited, also most will claim better; tone & sustain & doesn't seem to cause any intonation issues. I have one & do find it more comfortable & less 'noisy' but I couldn't say there was any tone improvement with any degree of certainty. Bigsby, Bigsby vibratos are nothing like a floyd rose or floater, deffitnitly not a dive bomber, more of a warbler! Worth a try & deffinitely suited in both sound & appearance to a Gretsch. The model for your guitar would be a Bigsby B3 with 'V' cut. Not too hard to find. One thing to beware of when fitting. The strap button screw & other tail piece screw holes will not match the Bigsby holes, so you will need to fill & re drill (about 1/8th" over). It's not a huge problem if you're happy to drill it. Many of the factory fitted Bigsbys are not lined up with the neck accurately so it gives yo ua chance to do a good job of it!! Those great looking Knurled Gretsch strap buttons. They can be a pain to put on/undo on a dark stage. They are also inclined to undo themselves over time, beware! Strap locks or grolsch bottle type locks are highly recommended. I've probably blithered on enough in my Gretsch excitement for now :-) Thanks very much. :) I did some more research and put a lot of questions to the folks on Gretsch talk. Turns out I have a 2005 Duo Jet G6128 which is 100% stock. I must admit that I've instantly fallen in love with it. It's a lot more versatile than I thought it would be and you can pretty much use it for any genre of music. My Gibson ES-335 Dot Re-issue is the undisputed number one in my collection but this Gretsch is giving it a serious run for it's money. Just a little bit of overdrive and a generous amount of reverb produces incredible tones. The Filtertrons are just amazing. The attention to detail and build quality is spot on. The fretboard isn't as wide as my other guitars but I'm getting used to it, the ebony fretboard is a wonder. I must admit that I could probably live with the space control bridge and I do want to keep this Guitar as close to stock as possible. I probably will put a Bigsby on her and one of the guys in the Gretsch forum gave me the URL to a site that sells the correct Bigsby B3C vibrato. It's going to be a Christmas present from my wife. :) I have a friend who will fit it professionally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaxson50 Posted October 6, 2012 Share Posted October 6, 2012 Foggy has it right on about the Bigsby, they are not whammies, they were designed at a time when 90% of players used flat. Wound strings, and are great for subtle use. Harrison used Bigsby's perfectly with a slide on many of his works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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