I do love a big semi-acoustic. For a Chinese made guitar these are excellent value. This one’s been fiddled around with a little though, so it needs a setup. It’s fairly new so doesn’t really need any cleaning as such, but a splash of lemon oil never goes amiss. A little polish on the top before […]
I like these, great value, really well made although there are some slight problems. Much as I love a Bigsby they do have one or 2 weak points. The first one is not staying in tune, or more correctly not returning to tune once you use the trem. Part of the problem is the bridge […]
I love these guitars, the best value out there in their price range but this one has a common problem. It’s common to most guitars with Bigsbys, tuning stability. Use the tremolo and it doesn’t always return to normal. There are a couple of things that can be done…. While I’m at it, why do […]
I love these, some great guitars coming out Gretsch these days. Great value an very well made. This one just has a slight problem, staying in tune. It’s probably the nut. I’m not much a fan of these new fanged materials, I don’t think you can beat good old fashioned bone. Unfortunately I can’t find […]
Had a bit of a busy weekend, culminating with a grand day out in Birmingham, at the Guitar Show. Some fantastic bargains to be had. I was looking for a small, portable, practice amp. Something simple with valves! I’m fed up with overly complicated amps with far too many effects. What I found isn’t quite that, […]
Finally got back to that old Gretsch. Rather fragile, just handling it and bits of the binding are just falling off. The only way to be able to play it, is to strip it all off and replace it. I found some modern binding that just about matches the colour of the old stuff. It’s […]
Nothing much wrong with this one realy, I think this range of guitars are excellent value for money, it just needs a little tweek here and there to optimise its setup. While the strings are off (It’s always worth fitting new strings before completing a setup) I gave the fretboard a clean and oil. The […]
Don’t look, it’s horrible!!! What a poor old wreck, I’ve dived on less corroded ships at the bottom of the sea! This one was built in 1964 and, sadly, Country Gents built around that time all have dodgy binding that falls apart. That may provide content for another blog, but, for the time being I’m […]
Wow, another big bodied Semi-Acoustic to play with! This one needs a lot more work to get it playing properly mind you. Some of the frets are very uneven so they’ll need levelling if it’s ever going to play nicely. Before removing the strings it’s always a good idea to mark exactly where the floating […]
Had a bit of a problem with a Gretsch this week. The owner wanted a setup to cure some fret buzzing, sadly it needed a bit more than just that. The frets were quite uneven so they needed dressing to get the most out of it. Rather uneven frets….Grinding the frets to level the tops…Once […]