My Gretsch

[Droombolus]

He's a natural ! Do I see him do tap-ons & pull-offs on that pic ? And of course the room is rocking that's why it's that much out of focus of course ....... 

[leftybass]

Either that or it's a cheesy camera-phone.

[daan]

I had one of those Gretsches   I liked it when I got it, it played and sounded nicer than anything I had owned previously. I got mine at GC in late fall, and by the end of winter the neck had warped so much that adjusting the TR and  shimming the neck pocket had no effect on the fret buzz. I was ready to plane down the frets even... I tried taking it back for warranty work and the tech at GC told me that they wouldn't honor the warranty because I must have stored the bass wrong, like the wrong environment.  I ended up stripping all the parts off of it to fix my Hofner I swear the pups sound better in the Hofner than they did in the Gretsch. Of course it had cheap mini-pots and switch, and I used CTS parts when I did the rebuild so that may have something to do with it...
SHORT VERSION:
I had one of the 2-pickup versions, they sound fine but are made kind of cheaply.

[Pilgrim]

You did what I had in mind!  I was going to put my spare 2202 pickup in a Lyle hollowbody, but it went into my Bronco instead.  I'll bet those sound fantastic in that Hofner.

[daan]

I think the neck pup sounds more or less like the unplugged bass, just louder if that makes any sense. I also think I spent less $ gutting the Gretsch to fix the H. than if I had just bought real Hofner pups. Did you  just add the G pup to your Bronco or did you replace all of the circuitry?
And the Gretsch wasn't plywood, but it was definitely veneered for the "Black-burst" finish. I can't say for sure if the all-black ones GC had when I bought mine were ply or not, they were cheaper than the burst ones.

[Pilgrim]

I think the neck pup sounds more or less like the unplugged bass, just louder if that makes any sense. I also think I spent less $ gutting the Gretsch to fix the H. than if I had just bought real Hofner pups. Did you  just add the G pup to your Bronco or did you replace all of the circuitry?
And the Gretsch wasn't plywood, but it was definitely veneered for the "Black-burst" finish. I can't say for sure if the all-black ones GC had when I bought mine were ply or not, they were cheaper than the burst ones.

I just dropped in the pickup...no electronics replacement - yet.

[Droombolus]

Just this week I was out-bid on a G-1112 Junior Jet II, the early Korean version with two of those PUPs, on evilBay.DE. I was really curious how that baby would sound but it was not to be ......... 

I was kinda bummed out because I was outbid ( again  ) on the SG Supreme Fireburst yesterday. The cosmos must have had pity on me and decided I needed a serious pick me up because this morning I got contacted by the seller of this baby, asking if I'm still interested. The winner of the auction has problems in transferring the money from Australia and has bowed out ....... so now it looks like I'm gonna get her after all ..... 

[PhilT]

That Hofner looks stunning.

[Pilgrim]

I was kinda bummed out because I was outbid ( again  ) on the SG Supreme Fireburst yesterday. The cosmos must have had pity on me and decided I needed a serious pick me up because this morning I got contacted by the seller of this baby, asking if I'm still interested. The winner of the auction has problems in transferring the money from Australia and has bowed out ....... so now it looks like I'm gonna get her after all .....  

YOWZA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Epic WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you get bored with it, let me know.  Looks like something I could give a good home to.

[Lefty SSB]

^ x2, Congrats! Let us know how she sounds! =)

[Droombolus]

She arrived last week thursday. The seller never bothered with maintanance so she was covered in about 10 years of goo and the strings were completely dead, so it may have been the set she came from the factory with. She carries no serial number or marking to determine orgine, but according to the info I found on the web this model was produced in Korea between 1998 & 2003.

I got the neck straight in 2 days and used the hours between other activities in the weekend to clean her up, oil the fretboard and put on some fresh strings. She plays real OK for such a cheap bass. I played her with band practise last wednesday and was quite surprised.
Even though she's only got 1 volume pot ( which is to be amended this weekend   ), so there's no way to locate the sweet spot between the PUPs, she's got a really snappy sound which cuts through the mix even at a relatively low volume. Precision-like aggressive mids, a respectable lo-end and enough hi-end to give her an excellent definition. Long story short, she sounds like no other bass in my collection and probably will be a welcome addition. Yes, me thinks me gonna like this baby ........  

[daan]

Just putting quality pots & switch in that thing will really make the pickups come alive. Just keep an eye on the neck and don't let it get too dry, mine warped so bad the neck needed to be replaced after a year, and I live in Minnesota, not the Gobi Desert or something...
Hope you keep enjoying your new bass!

[Droombolus]

Post-op ............ Drilled a new hole for a second volume pot, put in CTS pots with Witch Hat knobs and a Switchcraft toggle & jack-ouput.

[Pilgrim]

Those basses are so simple they're elegant.  NICE work!

[daan]

So now you have a vol. for each pup, and a master tone? Does the switch then allow neck/both/bridge independantly from the volumes?  How does it sound to you now? When I moved my Gretsch pups over to my Hofner, it now has more or less "Les Paul" wiring (2vol/2tone/3way). I was wondering if the wiring changed the tone on mine or was it being in a hollow body, or some of both... anyway cool bass, enjoy!