Gretsch 6149 Reverberation

This is a very easy unit to use, however I did not buy it for it's reverb capabilities. It was a vintage tone monster all on it's own. After I bought it and had my tube tech check it out, he explained it's function, of which I cared nothing about. The other review explains all that. What he did was re-solder some loose joints, and replace only two pre-amp tubes, telling me all else for fine.

As that I am running only the amp portion: I run an amp modeler through it, turning off the amp portion, and keeping the delay, reverb, and tremolo going from my amp modeler. Tone? It's pure 60's Cream up to AC/DC, inluding Tweed break up for blues hounds. I love it, even with nothing infront of it...just plugging in alnico loaded strat, or my Dean LP with the factory zebra pickups, or my 63 Melody Maker with Seymour's in it...crunch time baby! My love to come over and try early Clapton stuff through it at bedroom volumes...not Wife volumes mind you...it's still too loud for her(whatever).

Hell yea! It's been going strong since the 1967(the year they change the 10" driver to a 12"), and still the same power tubes!

None - Fred Gretsch ain't taking service calls. Fender owns them now, what else need be said.

No need for a low-volume 3-Watt, Zevex or other boutique amps that cost over $1500, this does all I want and more. It brings my ears into a happy place, that before I only dreamed. My dealer gave this away...but hey you can still buy Fender Princeton II, or the Reverb Deluxe II, both Paul Rivera design, from his stint at Fender from the early 80's on *bay, for: $550-650, point-to-point, all tube, no printed circuits, so vintage is not necessarily pricey or risky. The Rivera stuff is early 80's and built like a tank. I just needed the Gretsch to round out my stable, run at full volume without loosing my hearing or my neighbor's good will.
I plays blues with my buddies with my vintage gear, and use solid state stuff on my churches worship team. I listed most of my guitars above: I also use a 82 Fender Bullet(US Made), all vintage parts fender pulled out of bins to build em, 3 Teles made by myself with: one with Fender Noiseless, one with Seymour/Antiquity, and one with factory Mex. ceramics. Also use one 1987 MIJ , 62-Reissue with the Squire logo, and a parts Mex. std. stat. My amps include a late 70's Acoustic 60-watt combo, 1979 SF Princeton Reverb loaded with a vintage 12" JBL, all original chassis, a 70's SF Champ, Crate Acoustic combo(church), this Gretsch, and many moore that have come and gone including a great, but very heavy Peavey Delta Blues 2-10 combo, cool, but it never left the house do to the weight.

Ha! I wanted to be the first to submit a reveiw for this rare and ellusive piece of guitar equipment. This is the Gretsch Reverberation "The Magic of Concert Hall Sound", as it says on the panel. Cool... This thing is so rare, hardly anyone knows about it, and when they're mentioned, the info isn't correct. The Gretsch Pages website says it can be used as a regular amp?please let me know how, since I haven't figured that out yet (thier photo is wrong, too). Basically, this is like an external speaker reverb unit. Easy to use if you know how. If you've got an amp with a second speaker out, say like a blackface Bassman, you connect a speaker wire from the second speaker out to the input of the Reverb unit. It has a switch for intensity (min and max), and a knob for reverb intensity, as well as a footswitch jack to turn off the reverb mounted on the top panel. The rear panel has an on/off switch, a fuse, and a pilot light. Inside the amp you'll find a 10" speaker, 2 X 12AX7s, 2 X 6973 power tubes, and one 5Y3 rectifier. Also, mounted on the bottom of the cab is the spring reverb unit. The outside has that early 60s grey Gretsch covering, with a gold grill-cloth that is shaped like a TV-front fender amp. It's also the size of a small amp, say an old Deluxe or Super, maybe slightly smaller. I paid $150 on ebay, and $40 to get it working. $190 total... not bad for something that I've seen go for anywhere between $300 and $700 (check the Trading Musician?they have one for $699).
This is super easy to use, as long as you have an amp with a second speaker out. If not, don't bother?you won't be able to use this. But, if you do, and you have one, you know how AMAZING this sounds (more on that below).
No manual, and the web won't help either?nobody knows anything about this...

Okay, as for the sound. Holy cow! First, let me say, that I've had other reverb units, like a Lafayette Radio solid state one, and a Multivox Reverb 90 tube unit, and they 1) were noisy as all hell, and 2) made whatever you did sound like you were ready to play "Pipeline". It colored the tone imensely, and made you sound like Dick Dale no matter what you did. This, on the other hand, doesn't go between your guitar and amp, so it won't change the amp tone at all. AND, if you have a long speaker cord, you can put this unit in the corner somewhere so it sounds like the reverb is coming from someplace else, instead of your amp. One MILLION times better than any reverb unit I've ever tried, although, I've never had the priveledge of trying the creme de la creme, the tube Fender Reverb unit. I have a feeling that after hearing this, I, and a lot of others, might be enlightened... As fof the reverb, it sounds fantastic, but what would you expect from a nice, long spring reverb tank and tube drivers. A little noise at full reverb, but since it's remote and can be placed further away, who cares. It's less noise than inline reverb units, that's for sure. And, it is the reverb only. As far as I can tell, no actual amp tone comes from this?just reverb, so it sounds like an echo bouncing off the wall, or something.

Well, I gotta say. I got this of ebay, and it looked like it was in somebody's basement for the last 40 years. It has some rust to the face panels, etc., and was filled with dirt and dust in the cab and chassis. It even has the original tubes, that, believe it or not, were tested still good by the amp tech who fixed it. All that was wrong where a few bad connections. Not damn bad for something that old, and at that price... I feel like a thief, getting it at that price.
I don't really gig, but who can say about the future. I wouldn't take it out, since it can only handle about 17 watts output, but for home/basement playing, that's more than enough, especially since it's only the reverb coming through the speaker, and not the guitar/amp tone.

Gretsch made amps?!?!
Fender now owns Gretsch.

Since I have to save the ten for something handed to me by the ghost of Jimi, I'll give this a 9. It sounds AMAZING, and I LOVE that it's not inline between the guitar and amp, so it won't affect your tone like every other reverb unit. The only drawback is that it is a bit large for an effect, the size of a larger practice amp, but it is powered and has a speaker, so, not a big deal. It would be cool if you WERE able to use it as a regular amp the way the Gretsch pages mention, but, I think the guitar signal isn't strong enough to drive it?it needs more signal, like the signal from the speaker transformer, to drive it?at least, that's what I THINK... Putting a pedal inline for boost didn't do anything.
If it were stolen, I'd hire a bounty hunter to bring me the thief's carcass, as replacing this would be costly. I own mostly vintage stuff, and try to play when I have the time just for fun right now.