1964 Gretsch Corvette Electric Guitar Demo

I sounds pretty good that way too. Sort of thin and wirey. It does really well with cleans. I think theres another youtube on here of a guy playing blues clean with a similar 2 pickup Corvette

man I love that guitar sound/amp/your playing. I'd like to hear you drown it in reverb. that'd be pretty cool.

sounds awesome! nice little amp.

The electromatic Corvettes are fantastic. In many ways better than the originals (better tuners, better fretwork and radius, non-floating compensated bridge, Bigsby) The pickups are high output ceramic pickups. You might love them or hate them. I have an electromatic and replaced the ceramic magnets with alnico magnets in the pickups. Very cheap to do and now they sound like TV Jones Powertrons. New Corvettes are a great buy (sometimes even cheaper used) Great for swapping pickups!

I like how the camera shakes every time you use the tremolo arm. Also, I'm thinking about buying a new Corvette (for about $530), considering that the vintage ones are out of my price range. Have you played the newer models? Are they any good?

I'm definitely no Brad Pitt...But yea I figured that out with some of my later vids.

I really wish you would have had the camera on the guitar during the demo... It's like have Bradd Pitt in a movie, but not putting him on camera.

your finish is checkin like a mo-fo haha but that's to be expected from a 44 year old guitar. but yea i like it, my friend is gettin a vette soon and i just might steal it =] (oh and props for playin some beatles) =]

Give me this guitar now. I'm a Gretsch and Fender fanboy.

Do you mean the normal 5120 Electromatics? Because my 5122DC has two double-coil Gretch pick-ups.

I did the video in one take and made a few mistakes (calling the Burns a Bigsby)...I also refer to the pickup as a "humbucker" when it isn't. Hilotrons are single coils. Actually I agree that the Burns is a better vibrato than a Bigsby. You don't seem to have to move the arm as much to get the pitch change (a "faster sweep") That way I get a faster vibrato easier. It also seems to stay in tune better than the Bigsby I have on my reissue Electromatic Corvette.

Your vids are great. Thanks for sharing. The vibrato is a Burns on this model...as opposed to a Bigsby. I've read that Gretsch actually considered this an upgrade at the time. But then again, the internet is not always the gospel.

The new Electromatics are great guitars but sound a bit thicker and less twangy because they use a humbucking pickup called a Magnatron instead of single coil Hilotrons. You COULD swap pickups if you really liked the vintage sound.

Lovely guitar. I'm thinking on getting the new electromatic corvette. Would you recomend this. Would it sound similar?

My secret identity revealed. Curses.

you kinda sound like Will Ferrel. But nice guitar tho.

The mahogany body seems to complement the pickups well. Doesn't sound "muddy " at all. I'm trying to decide on a body/neck-wood combo that will work with these pups. I'm a fan of swamp ash/maple...but might be a little too bright with the HiLos.

I usually use 10's Tv Jones Hilotrons are probably BETTER than the original Hilotrons of the 60's Original Hilotrons were underwound and the magnets might have become weaker with time. I usually recommend them over standard vintage Hilotrons which sometimes need to be rewound hotter. My favorite humbucking Gretsch pickup of all time is the 60's Supertron. TV Jones makes a nice Supertron but it's wax potted which I don't like. He might be able to custom wind one without wax potting though....

Gretsch pickups in the early 90's were REALLY weak and lame sounding. Ceramic magnets+ underwound. I had a 1992 White Falcon that had very weak pickups...Sounded like a mic in front of the guitar instead of a pickup. Anyway after THOSE TV Jones pickups were a success...TV Jones started making hotter versions of Filtertrons than vintage. Powertron, Powertron Plus...etc.. At any rate I HIGHLY recommend TV Jones Filtertron Classics as a first choice over the hotter Filtertrons. Most versatile.

I should mention that I'm playing through a Fender tweed Deluxe copy (late 50's 5E3 circuit) These amp designs are a bit raw and mid-heavy due to the crude tone stack Fender used in the 50's...so the guitar might sound a bit "warmer" than through more modern amps...Which brings up a good point. Early guitars had thinner weaker pickups and this works well with small raw amps with tiny overdriven speakers. TV Jones pickups were originally about replicating older Filtertrons....

Thanks for the posts. This one and the other featuring the Powertrons on the Agile. Really helpful for people like me....building a guitar and trying to get T V Jones sound samples for purposes of comparison. What's your overall impression of these pickups? They actually sound a little warmer (surprisingly)then the TV jones buckers samples I've heard. Maybe a little more glassy. Also, what gauge strings were you using? They sounded like 10s or 11s.

Ebay. I bought it with a few problems that needed fixing but nothing major. New pickguard. New tuners. Rewound the bridge pickup. Replaced the pots. Replaced the switch. I paid $650 for it and probably spent $150.00 to get it in working condition. This was about 3 years ago. i think they seem to be going for a little more now and go for around $950 and up depending on condition.

ok where in the world do you find your wonderful gretsch guitars. This gretsch is probably worth more than all of mine together. awesome collection

the tone sounds great!!

Those are the opening verse chords to Stray Cat Strut by Brian Setzer and the Stray Cats...but I'm sure lots of songs feature that tried and true Bm A G F#m7 chord progression