What is the Great Gretsch Sound to you?

[General_Lee]

The guitar tone in Chet's original version of "Copper Kettle". Still the best and Gretschiest tone I've ever heard...

 

[Shadowy_Man]

Filtertrons:



Dynasonics:

 

[Horse Nation]

It never ceases to amaze me how much of that 80s postpunk sound was Gretsches into a Roland Jazz Chorus.

It wasn't just Gretches into the Roland Jazz Chorus. It was really any guitar into that amp. It was that amp that was the sound of '80s post-punk. Any genre - goth, soul, pop, new wave, indie, jangle... - that Roland Jazz Chorus was there.

I recently binge watched a few seasons of that classic UK live music program "The Tube." I kid you not, 90% of the bands that performed on that show, if you looked at the gear on stage, you'd see a Roland JC.

 

[Ricochet]

I didn't get a Gretsch for "that great Gretsch sound", allthough I can appreciate what Brian and Chet did with it.
I wanted an "in-between" for the bloathed Humbucker and t(h)inny Single coil sound and for that they function well, while looking cooler than a mini-humbucker.

 

[Craig Encinitas]

I can describe that great Gretsch sound. I can’t put sound into words. But I put away a Stratocaster this morning. The Ultra noiseless pickups always sound great to me. I can always find a pickup or combination that works but I wasn’t finding perfect. I brought up my 6118T Anniversary, plugged it in, selected equalizer memory 1 and there was my sound. THAT GREAT GRETSCH SOUND. There’s nothing else like it. I blend pickups, a little more neck finger style, a little more bridge with a pick. No delay with finger style. It’s there. THAT GREAT GRETSCH SOUND. It’s not about words anyway. It’s all about THAT GREAT GRETSCH SOUND.

Yeah…I have ended up a Strat and Tele player. But it makes pulling that Gretsch out from its case such a magical experience. Seriously.

I played the 6659 yesterday. Wow. It just sounds so different, and makes me play slower. Lots of sustain with a rich tone from FullTron pickups. The ebony fretboard, 12” radius neck and the slinky feeling of the strings from the shorter scale.

Yep…that’ll do it.

That Great Gretsch Experience!

 

[RatRod Gentleman]

So armed with all this research I've refined an original of mine. It's not a brand new song as our band has been playing it for a bit but I've "Gretschified" it some more after hearing much of the above. This is a rough new recording done today without the Strat, Gibson and drums that usually accompany it but this is an example of the direction yours truly aims to take the Great Gretsch Sound to the hat full of people who watch us .

Song Title - Through snakes eyes.

The further Gretschified ‘cowboy n cactuses’ tune written to illustrate how the Transcontinental Railroad workers of the Central Pacific Railroad Co may have felt after slowly and precariously blasting their way through the Rocky Mountains and only then working toward an arid, desert rise of 7000 feet to the Sierra Nevada in the late 1860s.

Lyric written as a warning about choosing a woman of the night wisely. The brutal mortality rate left by virtually experimental nitro-glycerine use, left many a widow who needed to feed her family any way she could. Many of these women forced into prostitution, were beautiful, exotic Asian woman and widows of the most persecuted workers from China and Japan where famine was rife. Many of these women had sailed to California in search of hope and food, spoke little if any English, lost their husband in one of the hundreds of tunnelling accidents and rightly had a score to settle with anyone she deemed responsible for her situation.

 

[afire]

DeArmonds:


FilterTrons:


HiloTrons:

 

[Shadowy_Man]

Hilotrons:

 

[BohemianLikeMe]

It wasn't just Gretches into the Roland Jazz Chorus. It was really any guitar into that amp. It was that amp that was the sound of '80s post-punk. Any genre - goth, soul, pop, new wave, indie, jangle... - that Roland Jazz Chorus was there.

I recently binge watched a few seasons of that classic UK live music program "The Tube." I kid you not, 90% of the bands that performed on that show, if you looked at the gear on stage, you'd see a Roland JC.

Yeah, club backlines kind of define the sound of an era, don't they? The 2000s for me are all about the sound of, rightly or wrongly, the Fender Hot Rod series-- every band and every club seemed to have at least one of them kicking around.

 

[Horse Nation]

Yeah, club backlines kind of define the sound of an era, don't they? The 2000s for me are all about the sound of, rightly or wrongly, the Fender Hot Rod series-- every band and every club seemed to have at least one of them kicking around.

Yes. I never really gave that much thought, but it really isn't the artists that define an era...it is the gear. That Roland Jazz Chorus truly was the sound of '80s. A Fender Rhodes keyboard was the sound of the '70s. VOX amps defined a British invasion. Ovation guitars were the sound of those ubiquitous '80s hair bands' ballads.

 

[Craig Encinitas]

They can be a bit odd.
But their theme song is swinging!

 

[Shadowy_Man]

They can be a bit odd.
But their theme song is swinging!

Cool! I think that's the first time I've seen Brian Connelly even pictured with a Dynasonic-equipped Gretsch. I believe that's the original theme though and not a re-recording?

 

[Synchro]

Hilotrons:

I feel like I’m back in 1966.

 

[LongJohn]

Here's what I immediate think of

Stole my thunder

 

[moltenmagna]

 

[moltenmagna]

 

[moltenmagna]

 

[moltenmagna]

 

[Wood Hollow]

G-T member @mrfixitmi has a son who can make a Gretsch sound reach the heavens ( hope you don't mind mrfixit , but it needed to be shared )

That should be prohibited just for the title!

 

[Wood Hollow]