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NGD - Happy birthday to me...
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 4:26 am
by zhivago
It actually arrived a day early, so I held out to post this.
Gretsch vintage select ‘58 White Penguin with TV Jones pickups.
Colour me impressed, Westerberg-style.
This guitar is a game changer!!!
Re: NGD - Happy birthday to me...
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 4:44 am
by sookwinder
OMG Yannis .. you need sun glasses just to look at it
Do you have your rhinestone jacket back from the dry cleaners?
Re: NGD - Happy birthday to me...
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 4:46 am
by Despot
Very cool Yannis!
And happy birthday (mine is the 10th...)
Re: NGD - Happy birthday to me...
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 4:56 am
by shadowplay
Congrats, really cool, as a former Falconer I approve of you going the full March of the Penguins, I've never even seen one in person.
I don't have a Falcon any more (I went over to a Black Phoenix which is a hybrid of both early Falcon eras but in black and silver and not unlike your penguin with the thumbnail markers and the vertical glamour logo) but my eldest has a WF G6136TLDS which she had converted to dynasonic size TV Jones filtertrons and if your Penguin is cut from the same cloth you'll be over the moon. Hers is a nice colour too, not ultrabrite white but not that sort of piss stain-esq white aging you see on lesser brands, it's just had the Dulux knocked out of it a tiny hair.
Filtertrons are IMO the best 'buckers.
D
Re: NGD - Happy birthday to me...
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 5:21 am
by PJazzmaster
sookwinder wrote: ↑Tue Jan 08, 2019 4:44 am
OMG Yannis .. you need sun glasses just to look at it
↑ This! But a really cool one
Re: NGD - Happy birthday to me...
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 5:40 am
by zhivago
sookwinder wrote: ↑Tue Jan 08, 2019 4:44 am
OMG Yannis .. you need sun glasses just to look at it
Do you have your rhinestone jacket back from the dry cleaners?
Hahah, I have the most awesome matching shirt that I bought in Nashville almost exactly 365 days ago...will post photo later!!
Re: NGD - Happy birthday to me...
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 5:41 am
by zhivago
Despot wrote: ↑Tue Jan 08, 2019 4:46 am
Very cool Yannis!
And happy birthday (mine is the 10th...)
Wow Kev, I had no idea we were that close birthday-wise!!! Many thanks!
Re: NGD - Happy birthday to me...
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 5:43 am
by zhivago
shadowplay wrote: ↑Tue Jan 08, 2019 4:56 am
Congrats,
really cool, as a former Falconer I approve of you going the full March of the Penguins, I've never even seen one in person.
I don't have a Falcon any more (I went over to a Black Phoenix which is a hybrid of both early Falcon eras but in black and silver and not unlike your penguin with the thumbnail markers and the vertical glamour logo) but my eldest has a WF G6136TLDS which she had converted to dynasonic size TV Jones filtertrons and if your Penguin is cut from the same cloth you'll be over the moon. Hers is a nice colour too, not ultrabrite white but not that sort of piss stain-esq white aging you see on lesser brands, it's just had the Dulux knocked out of it a tiny hair.
Filtertrons are IMO the best 'buckers.
D
Thank you David, I was honestly thinking of you when I pulled the trigger, as I knew your love of Gretsch guitars in this sort of style.
The guitar just sings, and is literally a year old. I have been forced to really re-evaluate guitars this year. This Gretsch and also my ES345 are up there with my vintage guitars.
Maybe this really is the golden age of guitar building.
Re: NGD - Happy birthday to me...
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 5:44 am
by zhivago
PJazzmaster wrote: ↑Tue Jan 08, 2019 5:21 am
sookwinder wrote: ↑Tue Jan 08, 2019 4:44 am
OMG Yannis .. you need sun glasses just to look at it
↑ This! But a really cool one
Heheh...pair of Wayfarers on!
Re: NGD - Happy birthday to me...
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 5:58 am
by mynameisjonas
Happy birthday!
Excellent gift to give yourself!
I may just give myself a guitar for my birthday too, if I can find one I like in the next 10 days.
Re: NGD - Happy birthday to me...
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 6:06 am
by zhivago
mynameisjonas wrote: ↑Tue Jan 08, 2019 5:58 am
Happy birthday!
Excellent gift to give yourself!
I may just give myself a guitar for my birthday too, if I can find one I like in the next 10 days.
Thanks Jonas!
You should definitely do it if you can do it in time. And if you run out of time, do it anyway. I am now 41 and my feeling is: do it now when we are all here and happy. Who knows what will happen in 10 years. Rock out now
I opened the case and thought “oh my god! This is EXACTLY what I wanted!”
Re: NGD - Happy birthday to me...
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 6:10 am
by Despot
zhivago wrote: ↑Tue Jan 08, 2019 5:43 am
Maybe this really is the golden age of guitar building.
I thought long and hard about the whole vintage v new guitars thing this past 12 months. As beautiful as my old ES345 is/was, the reissue was close enough for my needs. I think back to when my main guitar was a knock off Telecaster copy - if someone had handed me my Memphis ES345 as a guitar to use I'd have been bowled over. I think when you've played lots of old guitars you tend to have a distorted view and you forget that a guitar that sounds good is good regardless of whether it's new or old.
Recently I had a chance to play a glorious sounding '57 Les Paul Junior and a nearly new Nik Huber Krautster II. The vintage snob in me wanted to prefer the old Les Paul ... but if you'd handed both to me blindfolded I know I'd have liked the Huber more - it was just a nicer playing and more 'alive' guitar (which isn't to say that the LP was a slouch - not by any means ... the Huber was just better).
Yannis - you're right about that Memphis ES345 - if someone like me who is even more OCD about ES guitars than offsets ends up owning a reissue ES rather than any one of the old ones I've had over the years then Memphis were doing something right with those reissues. I don't care about cosmetic blemishes or pain orange peel - to me it's purely a matter of how they play and sound, and on that level those guitars are as good as any of us would ever need compared to vintage ES guitars.
I'm delighted to see you getting that Gretsch. I love their consistency - I've rarely played a Japanese Gretsch that wasn't really nice to play; I like lower action on guitars and every modern Gretsch I've had has always been able to take super low action without a hint of fret buzz, which makes them a joy to play. In a similar way to the ES345 the Gretsch will give you a completely different set of sounds to play with, and just like the ES345 the modern Gretsch guitars are made with an eye to competing with the best of the old.
May it wear well fella.
Re: NGD - Happy birthday to me...
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 6:20 am
by zhivago
Despot wrote: ↑Tue Jan 08, 2019 6:10 am
zhivago wrote: ↑Tue Jan 08, 2019 5:43 am
Maybe this really is the golden age of guitar building.
I thought long and hard about the whole vintage v new guitars thing this past 12 months. As beautiful as my old ES345 is/was, the reissue was close enough for my needs. I think back to when my main guitar was a knock off Telecaster copy - if someone had handed me my Memphis ES345 as a guitar to use I'd have been bowled over. I think when you've played lots of old guitars you tend to have a distorted view and you forget that a guitar that sounds good is good regardless of whether it's new or old.
Recently I had a chance to play a glorious sounding '57 Les Paul Junior and a nearly new Nik Huber Krautster II. The vintage snob in me wanted to prefer the old Les Paul ... but if you'd handed both to me blindfolded I know I'd have liked the Huber more - it was just a nicer playing and more 'alive' guitar (which isn't to say that the LP was a slouch - not by any means ... the Huber was just better).
Yannis - you're right about that Memphis ES345 - if someone like me who is even more OCD about ES guitars than offsets ends up owning a reissue ES rather than any one of the old ones I've had over the years then Memphis were doing something right with those reissues. I don't care about cosmetic blemishes or pain orange peel - to me it's purely a matter of how they play and sound, and on that level those guitars are as good as any of us would ever need compared to vintage ES guitars.
I'm delighted to see you getting that Gretsch. I love their consistency - I've rarely played a Japanese Gretsch that wasn't really nice to play; I like lower action on guitars and every modern Gretsch I've had has always been able to take super low action without a hint of fret buzz, which makes them a joy to play. In a similar way to the ES345 the Gretsch will give you a completely different set of sounds to play with, and just like the ES345 the modern Gretsch guitars are made with an eye to competing with the best of the old.
May it wear well fella.
Heheh thanks Kev!
I am with you 1000% on this.
This year was the year I thought “screw it, I am gonna experience guitar designs”.
So for the first time ever, the particular guitar designs I chose did not have to be vintage.
The above sentence sounds as stupid as it is...I experienced some incredible instruments, that even though they were not played in, resonate as much as some old guitars I had in the past. I used to have a rule, that they had to be the best of the best and therefore, old.
I was talking to a good friend the other day after a day of jamming, I had the Memphis ES345 with me and he has played my ‘56 Custom.... I could not help but say that the Es is not 13k better than the Les Paul. it just isn’t, and they are both phenomenal instruments in their own way.
It sure is nice to own a couple of grail guitars, but it is just as nice owning some well made new guitars. This is for sure.
Re: NGD - Happy birthday to me...
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 6:39 am
by Despot
Yep. It's simply that logic of price versus quality.
I can no longer justify the cost of having expensive old things while we continue to live under someone else's roof, paying for the privilege. But even in saying that I spent days playing the two back to back before ultimately coming to the conclusion that there was no valid reason for having the old one instead of the new one. Once I'd actually made that decision it was easy to let it go ... and it has been easy since then to let others go. As I type this I'm looking at cases on the other side of the room - I know at least two more of those will go, and I'm okay with that too.
If modern Gretsch guitars were duds I could see the logic in saving up for an old one - hell ... some of the mid/late '60s ones aren't even that expensive compared to new models. But they're not - the Japanese guitars are some of the best they've ever made. There's no reason to have an old one other than a desire to have an old one ... and that's not enough of a reason for me anymore*
*I say that knowing that I'll be keeping at least two old guitars. In the case of both it's because they came my way relatively cheap and I doubt I could replace them with something new that sounds as good as they do.
Re: NGD - Happy birthday to me...
Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 6:48 am
by Embenny
Despot, you are absolutely right. Japanese Gretsches are super reliably great guitars. I don't think I have ever played a dud. I have a Bo Diddley sig and it's probably the best-playing guitar I own. It also has he TV Classics and sounds divine.
Happy birthday, Zhivago. That's a gorgeous guitar. Enjoy it in good health.