Super Chet!

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Super Chet!

Postby jdrpicker22 » Fri Feb 15, 2013 9:41 pm

I personally think the Super Chet was the #2 next to the 1959 if not equal to. Alot prettier, but im not sure better sounding. They say the pickguard knobs were super delicate; and im wondering what were the switches for on Chets personal Super Chet? the one on the cover of Chester and Lester, the pups also had no screws or blades they look similar to the low impeadence on Les Pauls recorder guitar (also on Chester and Lester)
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Re: Super Chet!

Postby Norm » Fri Feb 15, 2013 10:31 pm

"...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.
That Super Chet (photographed on the Guitar Monsters album) had extra switches on it. Ray Butts put those switches on there when he first got that guitar. They were phase switches and coil taps on each of the pickups. I don’t think Chet ever used them. I never saw Chet use them because I think they thinned out his tone. I believe that particular guitar was left to one of his secretaries.
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)
...that's how it looks to me...The opinion expressed above is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of this station. Your mileage may vary...

Audio samples: http://www.youtube.com/user/acountrygent/videos
That should do it.
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Re: Super Chet!

Postby cettyboy » Sat Feb 16, 2013 5:40 pm

I played one at the CAAS in Palmer's room.It was really nice.Beautiful looking guitar.
Mark
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Re: Super Chet!

Postby Greg Butler » Sat Feb 16, 2013 6:28 pm

I went to see Chet in concert at Stone Mountain Park near Atlanta around 1973 and he played a Super Chet. It was a beautiful guitar and sounded really good, especially that evening as he played his patriotic medley with the accompaniment of the Atlanta Pops Orchestra. Sure would like to have one of those guitars. In the early 2000s Gretsch made a few more of them; I played a couple of them belonging to some friends in GFGA and they were quality guitars.
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Re: Super Chet!

Postby albertgen » Sat Feb 16, 2013 11:43 pm

I had a Super Chet for a long time, it was OK, and very pretty but not as good as the Country Gentleman IMO. Al
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Re: Super Chet!

Postby PhilHunt » Sun Feb 17, 2013 1:32 am

I always wanted a Super Chet ever since I saw him and Jerry playing Jerry's Breakdown on Pops Goes the Country. And it's funny, for the longest time I thought Chet used it on the album with him and Les because he's holding it on the cover.....he wasn't.....it was the '59.
I think he did use the Super Chet on Superpickers album if I'm not mistaken.

I really wish Fred Gretsch would re-introduce the Super Chet just as it was....knobs on the pickguard and everything. They had another model called a Deluxe Chet although I think that one had knobs on the body.
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Re: Super Chet!

Postby guitarchuck » Sun Feb 17, 2013 10:37 am

I had a Super Chet for a while and I really liked it. It had a similar tone to the Country Gentleman of that era. The body is thicker, so the tone was slightly different. Those knobs on the pickguard did have problems because they were small and not as good as the full size pots. It was a good playing guitar and it sounded good to my ear. (I do think the new G6122-1959 CG/NC & the 6120-CGP are the best guitars that Gretsch has ever made for the buying public though.)

Chet had a lot to do with the design of the following guitars during the Baldwin Gretsch era: The Super Chet & the Super Axe. Then Gretsch came up with the simplier versions of each: The Deluxe Chet & the Atkins Axe.

I also read somewhere that Chet had Ray Butts add all of those switches on his Super Chet so that his guitar would look like it had more electronic wizardry than Les Paul. I don't know if there is any truth in that or not, but it was done not long before the Chester and Lester album and Chet wanted it on the album cover.

I think the Super Chet is a beautiful guitar. Jay Scott hurt the Super Chet's image with the comments that he made in his original Gretsch guitar book, in my opinion. The worst thing about the Super Chet was those tiny pickguard pots. They made some with a Bigsby from the factory, I never played one with the Bigsby, so I really don't know how well that worked. I still would like to own one again, but like any old original Gretsch, you need to be careful, there are good ones and bad ones.
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Re: Super Chet!

Postby guitarchuck » Sun Feb 17, 2013 10:49 am

Here's one of my favorite album covers:

Image
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Re: Super Chet!

Postby Greg Butler » Mon Feb 18, 2013 12:33 pm

Chuck, I agree with you...that album cover w/ the Super Chet was one of the best of all that Chet did.
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Re: Super Chet!

Postby David Elliott » Mon Feb 18, 2013 1:18 pm

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
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