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(More customer reviews)The Gretsch Jet Baritone is a long scale solid body electric guitar that comes setup as a bassVI out of the box which while interesting isn't nearly as cool as a true baritone electric guitar.
BassVI? Baritone?
What's the difference you may ask? A bassVI is essentially a six string electric guitar with a longer scale that is tuned an octave below a standard electric guitar making it a six string bass. It uses lighter gauge strings than a traditional bass but still too heavy for barr chords and is too muddy for chording anyway. A baritone on the other hand is tuned from B to B and uses strings somewhere in-between those used on a bassIV and and a standard electric guitar. A set of light gauge electric baritone strings will be from .062 for the low string to .013 for the highest. (D'Addario Electric Baritone Guitar EXL158)
Converting From BassVI to Baritone
To convert from bassVI to a true baritone entails changing the strings, adjusting the neck tension, reintonating the guitar and raising the pickup heights as these smaller diameter strings need to be closer to the magnets to get the most out of the guitar. This sounds like a lot more work than it actually is. I'm an intermediate at guitar tech work at best, and was able to do it in about an hour and a half. The truss rod adjustment on the headstock is done with an allen wrench and was a breeze to do as you don't need to detune the guitar or remove the pickguard as with some instruments. If this all seems too intimidating it is easy work for any guitar shop's tech.
A Couple Of Notes On Restringing.
There were a couple of issues with restringing the Jet. First the D'Addario EXL158s were barely long enough to fit on this beast. At first I was afraid the 3rd string wasn't long enough to use but it was... b a r e l y. The second is the way the strings attach to the Bigsby Tremelo bridge. There are small straight posts that stick out of a round bar that the strings wrap around. At first I couldn't for the life of me get the strings to stay in place while I was trying to tighten them. I finally found that if I pre-bent the base of the string at the ball end with a pair of needle nose pliers into the approximate shape of the bar they wrap around, they then easily held on until there was sufficient tension for them to stick. All of that said, it has worked well and I haven't had any problems with the strings staying in tune.
Is It Worth All That?
So, what is it like to play and is it worth the money and the work to convert it? Absolutely. The Jet is a joy to play. The neck is really nice and doesn't take anymore finger pressure that an acoustic to get a great tone. It has 2 mini humbucking pickups that share a single volume and tone knob to good effect along with a 3 position toggle switch for pickup selection. With a bit of reverb and tremolo it becomes the biggest clean guitar tone you've ever heard. Huge and clear. For recording it's a voice that sits in it's own pocket with plenty of room for standard guitars above and traditional bass below. That said, I have done entire recordings with just this guy and they sound fantastic. I use the tremolo just for subtle effects and haven't had any problems with it throwing the guitar out of tune. Using it for dive bombing will throw it out of tune but this is a known problem with all Bigsby tremolo bridges.
Would I buy this guitar again? Yeah,In a heartbeat.
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