Brian Setzer's Vintage Gretsch Guitars 6120s

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The guitar star brings a trio of hollowbodies-including two old friends-during his most recent U.S. tour.
Two-time Grammy Award-winning rockabilly hero Brian Setzer recently played a sold-out show at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium in support of his new solo album, The Devil Always Collects. Tyler Sweet, who has teched for Setzer for 17 years, took PG’s John Bohlinger through the rig that rocked this town, and just about every other town in the world over Setzer’s 40 years of twanging and sanging.
With his recognizable arsenal of plucky semi-hollows, Setzer has probably done more for the Gretsch brand than any other player in the last half-century. On this tour, Setzer brought out some old friends, like this 1959 Gretsch G6120 with gold hardware, rebuilt and restored by TV Jones. Jones treated it to a total overhaul, including a neck reset, a refret with a new radius, new inlays in the upper register, fresh binding side dots on the bass side and lacquer on the neck, a new bridge, reversed toggle switches, and an upgraded Wilkinson Delrin nut-plus, he removed the zero and fret-fill behind the nut. Like all of Setzer’s guitars, this supercharged swing machine stays strung with D’Addario EXL 110s (.010-.046), which Setzer strikes with medium celluloid picks.
In a 2014 interview with Setzer, PG featured had a sidebar with guitar guru TV Jones who detailed what he did to Brian’s guitars and how he created his signature pickup: “TV Jones mastermind Tom Jones-who’s been rehabilitating old pickups and winding new ones for Brian Setzer for 20+ years-explains the process behind the Stray Cat’s new signature pickups.
“It’s my job to ensure that all of Brian’s guitars play and sound the absolute best they can possibly be,” says Jones, who debuted the pickups at the March 2014 Musikmesse gear show in Frankfurt, Germany. “A few years back, I found that a few of Brian’s new Hot Rod signature guitars-which were sent to me by Gretsch to set up for his upcoming tours-sounded slightly brighter acoustically. So I decided to design a new pickup to bring out the best in these guitars-higher fidelity on top, with a slight punch in the bottom end-by using sonically unmatched coils and custom steel-alloy pole screws. The results were beyond my expectations.”
Jones also reworked this 1960 Gretsch G6120, which bears nickel hardware. He scraped a new shape in the neck, then refinished the lacquered neck and face cap. Like his work on the ’59, Jones also removed the zero fret and filled behind the nut (another Wilkoloid Delrin), manipulated the pickups, replaced the fingerboard binding and inlays with side dots, fit a new bridge, turned around the toggle switches, and gave it a refret and new conical fingerboard radius.
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[@premierguitar]

Shop the Rig: 1959 Gretsch G6120 - sweetwater.sjv.io/VmA4GJ D’Addario EXL 110s (.010-.046) - sweetwater.sjv.io/ba0NoM Boss TR-2 Tremolo - sweetwater.sjv.io/9gQOYW

[@JR-tg1vg]

Great clip. I’ve seen Brian numerous times, and I was fortunate enough to meet him as well. He’s a super humble and friendly guy, and one of my greatest influences on playing guitar. The dude is an icon, and I’m so glad he’s back touring again. I hope his tinnitus is doing better these days, I have it and it’s terrible to deal with. 👍🎸🎤😊

[@snapfinger1]

It’s called resto-mod in the car world. You want your ‘60 ‘vette to be a daily driver.

[@markcoalt6352]

Be Nice!

[@_o__o_]

them pants are too high Ace