I had always coveted these guitars as my holy grail, and to be honest, it was largely due to their looks, they're really pretty guitars! However, I borrowed one of these from a freind for a gig (I play garage rock-ish kind of stuff), ans it was just a bit dissapointing. The look, feel and make of it were immaculate, it was a really well built guitar, but the tone... I just couldn't work with it. Maybe it's because I'm so used to the tone of my Fender Jazzmaster - an very different sounding guitar - but I couldn't find any sort middle ground between clean and super distorted that didn't sound honky and lifeless.

I purchased a Gretch Diamond Double Anniversay in 1966. At the time of purchase I also ordered from Gretsch the upgrade Syncro Sonic Chrome Bridge to replace the standard bridge (and it is permanently mounted to the guitar, bolted not floating). I also purchased the the Gretsch Bigsby tail piece with vibrato bar. I cut the pickup cover height down a little and reworked the original fret height down for a little lower and smooth fingering action. I still have and play this guitar today. It has been and still is a fabulous sounding and playing instrument. I've had may other top notch guitar players tell me how awesome this Gretch sounds. I've also played the newer one as shown above. It is a quality guitar also and would play as well as my original with a few minor modifications as I did. But for most it would be great as is. I have three other noted brands of guitars, but this Gretsch Anniversary is my baby. I have the original tuners on it. I have never had any problems with it slipping out of tune even when using the Gretsch Bigsby vabrato bar.

I know, it should be "That Gretsch Sound", but you do not have to play this guitar to know, that it is amazing - just touch it's neck and it will tell you "I am good!" The quality is outstanding - before I bought it, I subjected the guitar to detailed inspection, could not find a single flaw. I have the Anniversary with a bigsby, which trully adds another dimension to the sound of this guitar. You will also appreciate main "tone" switch, which lets you choose (except the pick up selector) the lower, middle or high roll-offs. To play this guitar, you must be very gentle though - push your fingers hard on the strings and the tune will be higher and you can make sound pitchy all over the place. It would take too long to describe all the sounds you can get out of this guitar, so just let me tell you, that you can play Chet Atkins finger style with "clean" amp, or rip metal solos, and anything in between on this guitar. The color is also much more impresive in real life than on picture. Overall beauty is accented with two-tone green and if you are like me, you will display this guitar in your living room for averybody to admire - and everybody will! We have 10 guitars at home, Fenders, Gibson, Epiphone, antique Cremona and Jolana, but if the house is on fire, I grab this Gretsch in one hand, my father's guitar in second, and run for safety. Than I'll come back for a wife.(Just kiding; I love you, honey!)

I purchased MY Anni about 5 months ago and it has unleashed a whole new spirit in me to play and play more. The guitar is a beautifully crafted machine. The build Quality is top notch and the paint finish and end package is superb. I work as a touring Guitar tech so i have handled hundreds and hundreds of guitars in my job and so far I have been hard pushed to find another guitar round this price that is so well put together. The Filtertrons have a great tone and with the simplicity of the tone knobs you can get your way round a variety of the guitars tones n a matter of seconds. I've been playing mine through a small 15 watt class A hot rodded Tube head and Cab, and have had it used by one of my bands on tour and it has really matched well to a number of amp's. I myself have replaced the tuners with a set of grovers just as i found with the constant workout the Sta-Tites were getting on the road the new grovers felt more stable. but for any home player the originals will hold out. The guitar came with 10-49's and set up beautifully, I switched to to 10-52s the guage i play on my Fender jazzmaster but quickly reverted back to the 10-49s as they so well suited the shorter neck and the speed you can get around on it. I cannot think of anther guitar i would ever buy to beat this. if it were ever lost i would replace it with the exact same model. Some players may want to look at adding a more high gain pick up like the TV Jones Powertron, I might look into this in the future as I've heard great things from my buddy Billy Gibbons who spechs these on his signature model Gretsch Billy-BO Jupiter, but for the time being the Filtertrons are cutting it just fine.

I have owned a number of these through the years and will tell you this is my favorite guitar. I currently own a mid 90's PRS McCarty and a newer PRS Single Cut, both American models. But this is the one I play the most. My current one is a new Japanese model. Due to that I replaced the the tuning keys and installed a Bigsby tail piece. This solved all the tunning issues I have had with these guitars. If I owned a vintage Americian Model I would never alter it , but since it is not I did it and am glad I did. This guitar is very versarile and a joy to play. If you are considering getting It I say, DO IT!!!