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George Harrison’s replic Gretsch Duo Jet Guitar

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So Gretsch guitars are paying tribute to the late George Harrison by recreating a limited quantity of the 1962 Brown Gretsch Duo Jet Guitar that he made famous.

If your not all that familiar with this model, it is the one that you see George playing while he was with the Beatles when they were performing in the legendary Cavern Club in Germany. If you can’t recall it, then look at a copy of George’s Cloud Nine album. If you haven’t notice yet, I’ve got a Gretsch on this page. On this cover George looks an awful lot like a buddy of mine Tim M. in this picture to me that is!

Even his son, Dhania Harrison, gave the replica a two thumbs up. Dhania is quoted as saying “I’ve never seen a more precise and detailed replica of any guitar in my life.” Hell, Guitar Hero even has a replica one!

Don’t expect to pay the same price for this Gretsch Duo Jet Guitar that George did back in the day, which was around $210 at the time. The suggested retain price has shot up to around $20,000. Expect them to show up in selected stores about May of 2011.

I find it a unique approach that the designer used in making George’s replica Gretsch. This designer, a master luthier named Stephen Stern, went ahead and took his original guitar and brought to some who had a CAT scan machine, and scanned it.

Using this technology, you can see even the tiniest of imperfections in the instrument that the naked eye would easily miss. It would be able to differentiate between cracks and fractures that would affect sustain and resonance just to mention a few. You never know, all those little flaws that appear in or on the guitar really might make it have that distinctive sound that you might be searching for.

Talk about over kill but on the other hand, for $20,000 it might as well be as precise as possible!

Keep on Jammin’





Set up Guitar Action for Fender like Bridge

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If your a do it yourself kinda person and want to set/adjust the action of your guitar saddle, then you have to watch this video!

I attempted this back in 1978 with disastrous results. I tried this out on my 1959 Fender Duo-Sonic. Soon after I realized that I screwed my guitar up royally, I had to take my patient to the local guitar shop, Music and Sound on Market Street in Brantford, to have it done right.

Back then, we didn’t have the internet and all the wonders that come with it. The way we gathered information was just by asking someone if they had done it or went to this thing called the library, are those things still around?

So if I have spurred your interest in this topic, check out this video, and then tell me what you think of it and if you could pull something like this off yourself.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zd5DbChTzoM&feature=related

Keep on Jammin’

Really dedicated to the cause

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With some genres of traditional music quickly going by the wayside in our ever evolving society, these older guitarists from Myanmar have my undying respect! Image being one of the last few remaining musicians that once accompanied silent films in theaters with their instruments. Think about the emotional experience that the musicians would be go through performing at a show like that when silent movies were the only show in town?

Personally I can say that playing in a band during a musical play was fantastic. I had the honour of playing in the band for our high school musical called Godspell. I can still hear the musical director, a self proclaimed tone deaf man, who always said “Damn it, HIWATT‘s should have wheels”! The live experience that you get while being part of something like this is something to cherish forever. All the miscues in during some parts of a show, starting in the wrong key or just plain not playing a song at all.

So check out this link to an LA Times article to see what I’m talking about.

Keep on Jammin’

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