Chubbuck Guitars / Kevin Chubbuck, making & repairing guitars in an old building just north of Boston, Massachusetts.
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gretsch
Here is a left handed Gretsch Duo Jet with a Bigsby. The tailpiece was mounted slightly off so it pulled the strings towards the bass side of the fingerboard. The floating bridge was double stick taped down, but had shifted over. I ended up shimming the Bigsby tailpiece to better center the strings down the neck and the bridge was remounted as well.
Here's a guitar that I test played for a long time once I got the tuning issues sorted out. It was a lot of fun and sounded great. Like many Bigbsy Gretschs, tuning issues can drive you nuts (and this one was tricky for me). The headstock has a wide splay so the strings break fairly hard outward at the nut. Many tuning issues can be sorted out by properly cutting the synthetic nut, or better yet swap it out for nice hard bone. The trick is to minimize any friction points so the strings return to pitch.
A pretty little Gretsch holllowbody in for a setup. These Bigsby-equipped guitars can be tricky to dial in the tuning stability.
Duct taped output jack :: 2008 Gretsch G5135 CVT Electromatic [6.7 lbs]
This has an old school Tele cup output jack that was completely floating in the side of the body, to the point that it was duct taped in place. There was no way to resecure the original jack as the mounting hole was enlarged (for some reason). I opted to replace it with an electrosocket, but had to wrap it with a thin mahogany veneer in order to make it fit tightly. Once the jack was squared away, this Bigsby-equipped guitar was then setup.
2006 Reverend Flatroc [8.1 lbs] :: setup.
These Revtron pickups (Reverend’s take on Gretsch’s Filtertron) are a refreshing sound compared to the often “round” humbucker and the articulate single coil. The last control knob is a bass contour that passively rolls off the bass to keep things tight in your rig. I dig!
The Bigsby vibrato, bridge and string tree were lubricated and set up for D’Addario XL 9’s.
![Lefty setup :: 2006 Gretsch Duo Jet G6128TLH [7.6 lbs]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dfcee2e4b0c0da377c65c7/1484203422392-TYVF0QK8582NLCFC740R/20160902_2006_gretsch_duojet_lefty_bench.jpg)
![Stay in tune :: 2014 Gretsch G5420T [7.1 lbs]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dfcee2e4b0c0da377c65c7/1451638293673-TIEQA25J478JNZXCSA8W/image-asset.jpeg)
![Bigsby setup :: 2007 Gretsch G5120 [7.2 lbs]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dfcee2e4b0c0da377c65c7/1451404430991-5Z80K4PRQAPDTR5FPQUZ/image-asset.jpeg)
![Duct taped output jack :: 2008 Gretsch G5135 CVT Electromatic [6.7 lbs]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53dfcee2e4b0c0da377c65c7/1430978156210-138HW2IYM07D7AIH7QFW/image-asset.jpeg)