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Because of a relationship I have with the local Guitar Center, I was loaned a Tennessee Rose and a 1957 Duo Jet Reissue to photograph. Although the Tennessee Rose is a fantastic guitar, I'm more of a solid body kind of guy myself, so for me, the Duo Jet really stood out. When I first picked up the Duo Jet, I was sure I was not going to like it. First off, it had DynaSonic single coils. I was expecting FilterTrons. And that crazy Space Control roller bridge with saddles you can't even intonate. I figured, “it looks great, but it's going to sound like junk”.
So after that, it was time to play it. As far as the guitar itself, it played great. Very good action, smooth and easy to play. In fact, you can even shred on it if you want. It has a very fast playing neck, and the pickguard is at just the right height so that it is very comfortable. It's also very light, but not so light that it is unbalanced.
Surprisingly, the intonation was very close to being right on, even with that bridge. Sure, a couple of strings were not perfect, but not really that bad. Plugging it in was a total surprise. It had an extremely warm sound to it, very similar to a 335 with PAF's in it. How they were able to pull that off with single coils, I'll never know, but they did it. The lows were low, but not so low that it sounded flabby, and the highs were crisp and clean. I was in the process of doing some recording, and I had tried three different guitars, and none of them sounded right for this piece, but after plugging the Duo Jet in, it sounded perfect! I laid down the track and was all set!
In conclusion, I'm sold. This is the most versatile, best playing, and best sounding guitar I've ever had in my hands. I don't know how or when, but a Gretsch Duo Jet is in my future! View the full photo spread here Get the Duo Jet Screensaver here Gretsch and Duo Jet ® of FMIC |
I
guess I've always been more of a traditionalist when it comes
to guitars. I've pretty much stayed with the old Fender /
Gibson format, and did not venture much out of these styles.
But as time went by, I felt I needed to branch out, as far
as the guitar photo gallery goes on our main web site. I figured
a couple of Gretsch's would spice things up a bit.
So
I did my usual thing. Took the strings off, detailed the guitar,
put it all back together and set the string height and intonation
as good as I could with that bridge. I then did the photo
shoot, and got some incredible photos of it. I have to say
that Gretsch puts out some of the most photogenic guitars.
That Bigsby tremolo and the black and silver color scheme
makes for some really dramatic photos.
The
controls worked very well, though the neck pickup volume control
is a bit close to the Bigsby, and that makes it hard to get
to. It has a master tone control, and individual neck and
bridge pickup volume controls. But it also has a master volume
control. This is an excellent feature for blending of pickups.
You can get just the right blend, and then use the master
volume, instead of having to disturb the individual pickup
controls to increase or lower the volume.
Playing
it was a dream. No matter what I tried to do, it did it. Clean
tones, overdrive tones, whatever. Even when I went into “heavy
metal” mode, it pulled it off perfectly, and the low
notes kept their definition.
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