Rockabilly Guitar

marlboro-dan

Aloha,

Looking at buying a new guitar, primarily for playing rockabilly and psychobilly.
I'd love a Gretsch, but they're a bit out of my price range (looking to spend between R3-5K).
Any suggestions on alternatives - I've had a look at the Ibanez Artcore series, as well as some semi-hollow body Cort's, but most of the guitars I've seen seem to be cheap imitations of thee ol' gretsch (which is basically what I'm looking for, but quality is important).
Also, I'd love one of those old vintage vibrato arms, which I've seen Ibanez are using.

Finally, how would a semi-hollow body hold up using overdrive or distortion? I've heard that thinner bodies produce less feedback, but should distortion be avoided all together when playing on a hollow body?

Thanks all,
D.

AlanRatcliffe

Hi Dan

The Ibanez Artcores are your best bet in that price range. The pickups are a bit too "Gibsony" to get the Gretsch sound, but that's fixable with a set of TV Jones or even some of the Budget GFS Retrotron range. The tremolo tailpiece you are looking for is a Bigsby, BTW.

Finally, how would a semi-hollow body hold up using overdrive or distortion? I've heard that thinner bodies produce less feedback, but should distortion be avoided all together when playing on a hollow body?

Ted Nugent does OK with a Byrdland at insane levels and lots of overdrive. Generally, the deeper the body the more resonant it will be, the more resonance, the more chance of feedback. The thinner bodies often have ES335 style centreblocks which make them more stable too. However - part of the Rockabilly and Rock 'n Roll sound is a full, deep hollowbody (with a slapback echo). Fortunately it's not a loud or high gain style of music, so even these guitars are manageable.

marlboro-dan

Thanks for the response Alan.
Will definitely consider one of the Artcores.

The tremolo tailpiece you are looking for is a Bigsby, BTW.

For some reason I thought it was a Gatsby, no wonder my google searches weren't returning results :-[

Cheers,
D.

AlanRatcliffe

marlboro dan wrote For some reason I thought it was a Gatsby, no wonder my google searches weren't returning results :-[

LOL! I can see how that could cause confusion. The Bigsby vibrato is lighter than the Gatsby (the Great variety), but heavier than the takeaway (depending on where you get your Gatsby of course).