Another new guitar day!

[Iceman0124]

Got my B-stock Gretsch 5129. The bad first....contrary to the ad stating they couldnt find any blemishes only leads me to believe they hire blind inspectors. Its got flaws, nothing too big, but theres a little paint on the binding, the seam where the body meets the neck at the upper bout is just wretched( looked like I tried to do it for the first time) and the paint on the F-hole under the pickguard is badly chipped.....And stock setup blows bad, its gonna take some work, gonna have to figure out the bigsby compensated rocker bridge as well, right now it aint too stable.

Now for the good.....TONE!!!

Unplugged this thing is bright,tight and oh so twangy, and about twice as loud as my 5120, plugged...those Dearmaond 2000's(dynasonics lite) rule! Super bright but never ice picky and just tons of clarity, hard to describe tone, but 3 dimensional seems to fit, much more complex characteristics than the Gretschbuckers my G5120, once I can get her to stay in tune I'll be a happy pappy.

Heres some crappy after dark pics (better ones soon)







Overall I'm pleased so far, despite the problems....I got a nearly new just under $1000 guitar after the price hike for just over $400....with a little work I'm pretty certain she's a keeper.

[alligatorbling]

bad ass man! i love it =D for the price you cant beat that! one day id love to add a gretsch guitar to my collection... my drumset is a gretsch =)

[Iceman0124]

I'm torn now about the guard, i want the shape and layout to match the one I had made for my 5120




But I'm not sure on the color though anymore. Thought I was sold on gold with black lettering , now that I have the guitar, not sure if thats what I want or not.

Thoughts right now are

gold guard black lettering, no border

black guard silver lettering, no border

Silver guard black lettering black border

or if possible, as I love the way the black on black looks with my 5120, Matching or extremely close to the firebird red guard, with ...unsure of the lettering, black, silver, possibly mirror gold? or off white to match the binding and of course it would have to have a matching border....?

Thoughts and opinions most welcome! Setzer charges a fair price for all the work involved, but its high enough I only want to do it once.

[The_Sentry]

Dude.....that's sooo kickass! Right on!!

You got anything on audio yet so we can hear these bad boys?

[Iceman0124]

I've been working on that. I can actually record straight into my Digitech RP500 fairly well with cubase LE ont my computer with decent results...just cant figure out how to make the recordings into a basic audio file.

Any thoughts on the guard choices? I'm at a total loss right now........

[Iceman0124]

Think i'm gonna try black on red, got shome phtoshopped mockups, the silver kinda gets lost in the red a little.

[steadyriot]

I don't like the red on that guard, but hey! its your guitar.

[Iceman0124]

I think it'll look hot as hell when its actually done, those are just photshopped mockups of the original plain black guard.

[Iceman0124]

Yanked off the old strings and did some serious work on her....end result...she's a keeper!

Some better pics (guards in progress)





Also did some work on the headstock ( P setzer supplied the decals)

Stock



after



Think it looks pretty hot if I do say so myself.

[The_Sentry]

Originally Posted by Iceman0124

I've been working on that. I can actually record straight into my Digitech RP500 fairly well with cubase LE ont my computer with decent results...just cant figure out how to make the recordings into a basic audio file.

Any thoughts on the guard choices? I'm at a total loss right now........

I dunno....I'm not using guards at all on most of my guitars.