gretsch8217
Member
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2001
- Messages
- 39
Here's my take on it. I think it's a nice guitar for the money. I bought mine (sunburst finish) from the original owner and got it for a good price. That being said, I can't comment on the set up 'right out of the box'. When I bought it, it had, what I believe to be, the original, light gauge (.009?) strings and played great.
As with most import guitars, there was room for improvement. The guitar is very light and resonant, but top heavy due to the banjo tuners. Not surprising, but much more so than my '96 FB Reissue.
Before I made the changes, the guitar sounded thin to my ears. I'm sure the lighter strings had something, but not all, to do with it. The following, what I believe to be, improvements were made:
1. Replaced stock pots with 500K volume and 250K tone pots from a '64 Epiphone Olympic. Added a paper in oil capacitor.
2. Replaced the output jack with one from the same Olympic.
3. Replaced original bushings, studs and tailpiece with Mojoaxe steel studs and bushing and their compensated tailpiece.
4. Replaced original pickup, which wasn't all that bad, with a custom wound Jon Moore modified FB pickup. Pickup has steel slugs in the coils and an alnico II magnet underneath. Kind of like a faux minihumbucker.
5. Restrung it with D'Addario 010's.
The guitar, to my ears sounds less thin now, and not as offensive in the high end. Other than the hardware items, everything else was from my parts stash, so the mods didn't cost me much.
Now, my question to others who own this guitar is, do you have any issue with the steep neck angle? I ask because mine is such that the tailpiece sits very high off the body. I'm guessing that the necks were cut from blanks using a CNC machine, so they all should be consistent.
Does anyone else have this issue?
As with most import guitars, there was room for improvement. The guitar is very light and resonant, but top heavy due to the banjo tuners. Not surprising, but much more so than my '96 FB Reissue.
Before I made the changes, the guitar sounded thin to my ears. I'm sure the lighter strings had something, but not all, to do with it. The following, what I believe to be, improvements were made:
1. Replaced stock pots with 500K volume and 250K tone pots from a '64 Epiphone Olympic. Added a paper in oil capacitor.
2. Replaced the output jack with one from the same Olympic.
3. Replaced original bushings, studs and tailpiece with Mojoaxe steel studs and bushing and their compensated tailpiece.
4. Replaced original pickup, which wasn't all that bad, with a custom wound Jon Moore modified FB pickup. Pickup has steel slugs in the coils and an alnico II magnet underneath. Kind of like a faux minihumbucker.
5. Restrung it with D'Addario 010's.
The guitar, to my ears sounds less thin now, and not as offensive in the high end. Other than the hardware items, everything else was from my parts stash, so the mods didn't cost me much.
Now, my question to others who own this guitar is, do you have any issue with the steep neck angle? I ask because mine is such that the tailpiece sits very high off the body. I'm guessing that the necks were cut from blanks using a CNC machine, so they all should be consistent.
Does anyone else have this issue?
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