Guitarist | 1 decade ago
Bigsby-equipped electro-acoustic demo'd
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Undoubtedly one of the 'hits' of this year's NAMM gear-fest, judging by the amount of social media interest it generated, this Gretsch Rancher is clearly designed to get you noticed. It might seem like a pretty daft idea, but perhaps surprisingly it involved a serious amount of hard work to get it right...
"It really did start with, 'Hey, let's put a Bigsby on an acoustic!'" says Gretsch's Adam Bowden-Smith. "But what followed was about a year and a half of extensive R&D to get the guitar top correctly braced so it was strong enough to make the Bigsby usable without the whole thing collapsing!"
There's not a shortage of pickups for acoustic guitars, but Gretsch was having none of them. Instead, the firm developed the Fideli'Tron humbucker specifically for this guitar (although due to the prolonged R&D time, Fender got to use it first on several more conventional guitars, including the Cabronita). "The 'Fideli' in the name gives the clue," adds Adam. "We wanted the pickups to have clarity and a clear response, with minimal distortion (i.e. low output), suited to acoustic guitars. They do necessitate using nickel or steel strings, of course."
Here, Guitarist editor Jamie Dickson gives the Rancher's electric and acoustic tones a spin for your listening pleasure.
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