Norm wrote:"...Chet didn’t play his Super Chet all that much. I think he was photographed with it on the Guitar Monsters album to give it some advertising for it. He would play it on TV for the same reason.
He didn’t play the Super Chet too much because it didn’t have a vibrato on it. The pitch on the necks on most of them isn’t steep enough to use a vibrato. You don’t have enough down pressure on the bridge. Still, Chet always said he thought the Super Chet was the prettiest guitar Gretsch ever made..."
__Paul Yandell cgp (excerpt)
I always thought the Super Chet was, if not the "prettiest", the "flashiest" guitar Gretsch ever made! I think Chet even mentions (in Me and My Guitars) that was his goal, to have the most beautiful guitar there was!
In regard to the Super Chet and vibratos, I believe that this guitar
WAS available with a Bigsby tailpiece for about a year or so, and then that feature was dropped, (possibly for the reasons Norm mentions!)
Personally, I always thought that the
original 1958/59/60 Gretsch Country Gentleman's were the prettiest guitars ever made!
Different strokes...
David