The metal on the pickups is grimy and encrusted, and the Bigsby needs a good cleaning.

Trying hard to be 'normal' and do normal things, and I've gotten back more than anyone expected...... I've decided that I'm gonna be fine, so I've stopped listening to them.

Scott,
Yeah, I've always used lemon oil on my fretboards. Love the stuff, and it cleans very well.

It is the binding and varnish that I am most worried about.. even too much water could get behind, swell the wood, and there's trouble.

Guess I'll just have to be real careful. I was hoping that something like naptha would be a better choice, less likely to get down into the wood. Oh well, just got to be careful.

Would love to see some "before and after" pictures if possible.

My word! That's just plain beautiful. Congrats!

Scott Fraser

, the back has been well scratched by someones belt buckle,

Nice!

Are you considering having the missing binding replaced?

Still trying to decide upon a polish for the Bigsby, which is dull and ugly looking.

Either live with the (safe) aluminium oxide or be prepared to lacquer the metal when bright.

Geoff

By the way - all your images are being shown (to me) as having been moved or deleted...

By the way - all your images are being shown (to me) as having been moved or deleted.

G.

SOO00oo... How's she sound? Acoustically, as well as plugged-in?

I imagine the playability could benefit from a little set-up work, that's to be fairly expected.

But... how's she sound?

Joe Walsh reciprocated Townshend’s earlier gift of an Arp synthesizer by giving The Who guitarist a fully-formed studio rig: a 1959 Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins Hollowbody electric guitar and a late ’50s Fender narrow-panel tweed Bandmaster 3x10” combo amp (along with an Edwards volume pedal and Whirlwind cable to run between them). This might look like one of the most counter-intuitive setups in the history of rock, far more appropriate to vintage rock and roll or country playing than to the gargantuan crunch and krang that Townshend wrestled from his gear. But a closer look — and listen — reveals just how perfectly the combination worked to achieve the sound that The Who guitarist had in his head, as revealed throughout 1971’s Who’s Next, 1973’s Quadrophenia, and a little of everything else he recorded in the studio from then on after, solo or with the band.

While a medium-depth archtop electric might seem like the guitar least suitable to Townshend’s sonic and physical abuses, a listen to many of the tracks on these classic albums reveals its characteristics loud and clear. The Gretsch 6120’s “FilterTron” pickups provide decent sustain and good punch, but they are also fairly low-output humbuckers, and provide plenty of string definition and harmonic sparkle. Coupled with the hollow guitar, they excel at anything from the musical feedback that Townshend liked to induce as a recording tool, to an enticing blend of crunchy sparkle that helps power chords and arpeggios alike slice right through the mix. The tweed Fender Bandmaster, for its part, is an extremely rare and desirable amp that produces about 28 watts from a pair of 6L6GC tubes through the unusual speaker complement of three Jensen alnico 10”s. It offers enough clarity to present a yield, shimmer soundstage at clean settings, but breaks up early enough to provide chunky tube overdrive at volume levels that won’t send most delicate condenser and ribbon mics into meltdown. Together, they create “a sound from paradise”, as Townshend told Guitar Player magazine in 1993, having just used the rig once again to record parts of the latter-day Who album Psychoderelict.