Cool or what?

[40Hz]

Corvette Cool! Totally splitback!!!

 

[OldSchool50]

THanks for the lead, scourgeofgod. I could find no signature but I did look at the inside label and foure handwritten on the Gretsch are the words "Custom 1-10" which means there might be 9 others of these out there, though I've never seen one. (Didn't notice the label before) Also written in skakey letters looks like the initials JW, which could be Jimbo Wallace. I"ll try writing to Walt and Jimbo and see if either can shed light on it. But the more i'm learning, I'm thinking I might have to keep this bass. It's pretty darn unique.

Hope others can contribute some leads that might help me solve the mystery.

 

[DDXdesign]

Might also mean January of 2010? (Not trying to devalue this cool bass cause I totally want it; promise!)

 

[OldSchool50]

YOu might be right, Jamma Dave. That would make more sense than 1 of 10. I can't figure out how they would get that note written in after the guitar was made so it might have been custom work done by one of the artist Gretsch uses while it was being assembled. Actually, it would be rarer probably if you are right. Until a few more of these surfaces I'll start thinking this is one of a kind.

 

[DDXdesign]

One of the local guitar shops around here had the green similarly-striped guitar for $689 last month, and the pinstriping was almost identical, so if it was a limited run or one-off then they had to have been made as a set, or striped by the same guy, or something. I'll see what I can find out on the guitar and maybe we'll find out something about the bass?

EDIT: Oop, now I don't know - found some pics and the guitar has a much busier striping treatment than the bass, and it's symmetrical, so it might be one of Gretsch's models done by Hot Rod Walt.

 

[OldSchool50]

Thanks Jamma Dave. Yes, do check it out and let me know. You can find plenty of the Gretsch Electromatic 6 string online for about $1200, so that green one might be a steal, a second or just green and not that desirable. The ones I found were either Hot Rod Walt or Jimmy C. Mine is definitely not Hot Rod Walt (I asked him), and it doesn't look like Jimmy C's work. The mystery continues.

 

[DDXdesign]

Ha! I just asked him too - oops! I simply must know! (I'd almost guarantee the guitar is his though, based on all the other shots of his work I'm finding)

 

[bholder]

I'd hit it.

 

[scampbassNZ]

there is one of these in a shop where i live, well, same colour without the graphics, and i am tossing up trying it. do hollow bodies do growl? my other choice atm is a Ray 34, but this is sooo pretty.

 

[OldSchool50]

I wouldn't say there are growling basses. Nowhere in the same league as a Ray. Think country or rockabilly thump. Great for what it does, but not a growler.

 

[Feral Feline]

I bet a TV Jones ThunderMag would make it growl.