FEATURE > BRIAN SETZER
Setzer rocks a bolo tie, a signature Gretsch G6120SSL (with dice-topped neck- and bridge-pickup Volume knobs), and an Opry-approved suit at a September 2008 gig in Paris. Photo by Andi Hazelwood
How would you compare your new guitars to their vintage
counterparts?
The new ones are ready to go right out of the box, but the old ones
take so much to play right. It’s not like you can just drop ten grand
on a ’50s guitar, plug in, and away you go. In order to make it playable, you have to make it so unoriginal as to ruin the value of the
guitar—just as taking apart an old car and putting in a new engine
might improve the performance but makes it worth much less.
What sort of mods does it take to get an old guitar up to snuff
for you?
Take 1959 Gretsches: I’ve got them and I love them, but they tend
to be unplayable in original condition. First of all, you’ve got to
take the frets out, because they’re useless—they’re just these tiny
little tacks. The neck is usually just a mess and has to be planed
and straightened by a good luthier. Often, it has a reverse-bow so
bad it has to go in a steamer. The bridge is just no good and will
fall right off the guitar if you play too hard, so it’s best to pin in
a Gibson-style Tune-o-matic. The zero fret is also no good—it
doesn’t really improve the intonation like it’s supposed to—so
you’ve got to yank that out and fill up the empty slot. Honestly,
sometimes it just isn’t worth the aggravation—just pick up a new
guitar. It’s hard to exactly replicate something that’s five decades
120 PREMIER GUITAR MAY 2011
Guitarists tend to
romanticize vintage
instruments, but the
old ones are really
so hit-and-miss.
old, but the new ones come pretty close—you can dial in a sound
that’s not very far from a vintage one.
To your ear, how do vintage and new guitars compare?
Man, the best ’59s have got a really warm crunch that’s great for
really straight rockabilly—probably because the wood has been
sitting around for so long. You plug those things in, and the
sound is just huge and woody. The new ones actually sound pretty
similar, but a little less magical, which is why the best old ones are
so expensive.
Setzer Goes Instru-MENTAL! is filled with impressive jazz blow-
ing. What is your background in that idiom?
Early on, I learned how to read and write music through a teacher
who taught me the rudiments. We went through all the Mel Bay
premierguitar.com
