54stratlover
New member
I recently had the opportunity to try out the new gretsch "Billy Bo". Reverand Billy G's take on Bo Diddly's Gretsch Jupiter. i have to say I havn't been this impressed with an off the shelf guitar in a long time. I am not a stickler for individual aspects of a guitar (neck shape, pup config, neck scale, body wood) I am more interested in the feel, playability, groove, and sound of an individual guitar overall. I gues that is why I am more interested in used guitars in general. They have more groove, and personality than new guitar generally.
the Billy-Bo surpassed my expectations in the groove, and personality department.
First impression: the guitar is light and feels good in my hands. Overall the guitar looks good (to me). Unplugged the guitar is EXTREMELY ressonant. The neck has a good feel to it, although it is different than a gibson, or a fender (l.p. or strat). It feels like a '58 neck that someone reduced the overall profile by maybe 20%. I would say it felt like my '58 reissue, but a touch narrower, with a similar depth. Alot like my trussart, but not as deep.
Plugged In: I plugged the guitar into a fender hot rod deluxe amp. I have to say that the only other gretsch I have played was a gretsch round-up. It had some sort of singly coil that I suspect was stacked. Overall I have very little experience with filtertron, tv jones, or gretsch pups. The pups in this guitar are advertised as filtertrons, but these particular pups said TV Jones on the top of them. I love them. The pups are very articulate. Even in the neck position. The pups were not set up appropriatly as far as height went. the bridge pup was HOT, and therefore had a great jump in volume when switched from neck to bridge. even with that, when played on a clean setting the pups were very warm sounding, and wanted to drive the amp when settings were dimed out. I would be very interested to know what the output of these pups are. I suck at pup reviews. the biggest impression I had of these pups were there string to string articulation. Each string is heard clearly on the clean or overdriven setting. These pups seemes to me to have less midrange than standard PAF style hbuckers. I had a hard time getting used to the gretsch electronics layout. One thing I would do If I had this guitar is get rid of the pickguard. The master volume is in the pickguard, and only a 1/4-1/3 inch sticks out, which made it hard for me to access it like i do with strats or LPs. The tone pots were very usable with the pups. I could see myself actually using the tone knobs on this guitar due to the noticable (usable) differance in tones from 0-10. The guitar felt very balanced when worn, or when held while sitting. I hate to play sitting down, but this guitar is very comfortable. All of the appointments on this guitar seemed to be of a very high quality. Finish was great as far as i could tell.
Overall: I give this guitar a thumbs up!. the price is high, but in my estimation, the quality is there to justify it. I will look to add this guitar to my collection in the next year or so. If you have any particular question I would be happy to answer it.
Craig
the Billy-Bo surpassed my expectations in the groove, and personality department.
First impression: the guitar is light and feels good in my hands. Overall the guitar looks good (to me). Unplugged the guitar is EXTREMELY ressonant. The neck has a good feel to it, although it is different than a gibson, or a fender (l.p. or strat). It feels like a '58 neck that someone reduced the overall profile by maybe 20%. I would say it felt like my '58 reissue, but a touch narrower, with a similar depth. Alot like my trussart, but not as deep.
Plugged In: I plugged the guitar into a fender hot rod deluxe amp. I have to say that the only other gretsch I have played was a gretsch round-up. It had some sort of singly coil that I suspect was stacked. Overall I have very little experience with filtertron, tv jones, or gretsch pups. The pups in this guitar are advertised as filtertrons, but these particular pups said TV Jones on the top of them. I love them. The pups are very articulate. Even in the neck position. The pups were not set up appropriatly as far as height went. the bridge pup was HOT, and therefore had a great jump in volume when switched from neck to bridge. even with that, when played on a clean setting the pups were very warm sounding, and wanted to drive the amp when settings were dimed out. I would be very interested to know what the output of these pups are. I suck at pup reviews. the biggest impression I had of these pups were there string to string articulation. Each string is heard clearly on the clean or overdriven setting. These pups seemes to me to have less midrange than standard PAF style hbuckers. I had a hard time getting used to the gretsch electronics layout. One thing I would do If I had this guitar is get rid of the pickguard. The master volume is in the pickguard, and only a 1/4-1/3 inch sticks out, which made it hard for me to access it like i do with strats or LPs. The tone pots were very usable with the pups. I could see myself actually using the tone knobs on this guitar due to the noticable (usable) differance in tones from 0-10. The guitar felt very balanced when worn, or when held while sitting. I hate to play sitting down, but this guitar is very comfortable. All of the appointments on this guitar seemed to be of a very high quality. Finish was great as far as i could tell.
Overall: I give this guitar a thumbs up!. the price is high, but in my estimation, the quality is there to justify it. I will look to add this guitar to my collection in the next year or so. If you have any particular question I would be happy to answer it.
Craig
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