Gretsch Synchromatic Reissues
scandi
I have the opportunity to buy a Gretsch Synchromatic 400 Guitar, that was
made in Japan in the nineties. It was made entirely acoustic, but the owner
has added a floating Benedetto pickup. Photos show some crazily flamed maple
on back and sides, and the top is said to be solid spruce. The seller lives
some hours away, and I wondered if any of you were familiar with these
guitars. I think $1200 sounds like a pretty good deal, when the guitar is
hardly used. Any thoughts on this?
Regards, Scandi
Greg
perhaps those $149 models). as I understand it, Fred Gretsch (III ?) bought the
rights to his uncle's name for guitars in the 80's (?). He scouted for an
american manufacturer, but could not close a deal, ending up with a Japanese
company instead.
Now what you have to do is find out the "worth" of a S-400. I'd start with EBAY
and then try http://www.google.com and finally use http://www.deja.com to do my
searching.
Greg
smoy
I am using one right now; mine is a 400 c cutaway acoustic. If you go to the
Gretsch web site you will see under acoustic a picture of the non-cutaway
which this seems to be. I concur that the top is spruce with maple sides. I
had our luthier check it out and he feels that the one I have is a well made
gtr. The neck should play well.it has thin frets, It should be a 25 1/2"
scale. with a wood bridge and metal tailpiece. It has two cat eyes for the
f-holes.I had the frets levelled on my guitar and currently have the action
quite low, I picked up the gtr for the way the neck felt to me. If possible
try to string it up with something like TI be-bop 0.14 strings.I've tried
many pickups, currently I have a 12 pole armstrong on there but may change
to the Buscarino pickup soon. I didn't like the Benedetto pickup that
much-,to my ears the armstrong is warmer and will give you a sweeter tone
over the Benedetto one.You need to play this gtr to break in the tone and
let it get sweeter.BTW I changed the metal tailpiece for an ebony one made
by John Buscarino, this gives the gtr more of a woodier tone.
As a side note, when Larry Coryell was visting, he played my guitar and
really liked it.Most guitarists who have played this gtr like it also. You
should be able to play Freddie Green type rhythms as well as get a Wes L-5
warm sound from the box. The price is fair, brand new without the pickup
they retail for about $USD 1600 if you can find them.
I use this gtr for the majority of my gigs these days, it works great for
solo work and anything acoustic. I use doug's plugs for louder work,and
prefer this tone I am able to get over my 53' ES-175, currently using a
Raezer cabinet with Clarus head.
Skip
scandi <gva...@c2i.net> wrote in message
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smoy
http://www.gretschpages.com/models/synchromatic/index.html
Skip
scandi <gva...@c2i.net> wrote in message
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Daniel & Narelle Lee
pickups). It is great. It has a very wide ranging and versatile tone quite
suitable for Jazz all the way through to rockabilly. I strongly recommend
them to anybody considering one. It's only possible fault is the gold
plating is so thin it's already starting to wear through.
I also own an archtop (handcrafted) with a solid spruce top and benedetto
pickup. This guitar is absolutely awesome. The Benedetto pickup is IMHO the
best you can possibly get anywhere.
Don't be afraid of Japanese made guitars.
I don't live in the U.S. so I can't comment on the price.
Daniel Lee
"scandi" <gva...@c2i.net> wrote in message
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scandi
"smoy" <sm...@netvigator.com> skrev i melding
news:9p8ptm$ri...@imsp212.netvigator.com...
Thanks a lot for the extensive info, Skip.
rgds, scandi