Gretsch 6131 Jet Firebird

Mine is a 2005 model - after the Fender takeover, and made in Japan, came with a hardshell case. I paid $1250 from Rocky Street Sounds in NYC. I'm sure most of you know the specs so I won't bother but mine has the filtertrons and bigsby. Strangely, I've read a lot of complaints from people about the strap holders but I think they're fantastic; jut make sure they're tight before you put the guitar on and you won't have any problems. Bigsby is pretty cool looking, although its utility is a different matter, one I'll get on to later.

Ah... here is where the guitar earns its bacon. Sounds awesome, just awesome. You'll read and hear a lot from Gretsch fans who talk about 'that great Gretsch sound.' Personally I initially dismissed this as people just regurgitating Gretsch marketing hype but when I plugged THIS guitar in... I finally understood. It can do pretty much anything. PERFECT for jazz, country, blues, and rock. And that's just when played clean - a bit of distortion and this just screams. It sounds seriously pissed off. The only thing is that it doesn't take much to get feedback so at high distorted volumes you gotta be careful. I don't use any effects with it; although a good reverb pedal might be a good idea.

The action was perfect. As were the pickups. Although there were problems. The nut was far too tight for the strings. Indeed, IMHO the wrong type of strings were on the guitar from the factory. For whatever reason, Gretsch won't say what strings they ship their guitars with, although I believe that this guitar was shipped with D'Addarios. Either way, they were 10 gauge, which is simply too light. Unless you're willing to have the bridge pinned, locking tuners and a Buzz Feitin system installed, you can forget about tuning stability with 10s. And that's before you touch the bigsby. You can't go crazy with it; it's there for subtle use only. Even with subtle use, BANG, tuning is out the window. That's the bad news. The good news is that all of this can be remedied. I brought the guitar to a luthier who opened out the nut slots, gave the guitar a good setup and it improved dramatically. He also put double-sided tape under the bridge. With that, a properly cut nut, lubed contact points and heavier stings (11s) it stays in tune much much better. Indeed it's quite reliable now. I can get through about five songs without having to tune and can use the bigsby. For the life of me I don't know why Gretsch ship with 10s; I can understand them wanting to have their guitars easy to play, but they have to be reliable first and foremost.

I would not gig this without a backup. Structurally it's sound enough. There's nothing flimsy about it, but having said that there's nothing particularly solid about it either. If you dropped it from chest level, you'd likely damage it quite badly. It's certainly not a stratocaster in terms of solidity. Nevertheless, with normal play, I wouldn't expect a problem.

No experience dealing with Gretsch.

I've been playing for over ten years and own and have owned a variety of gear. If it was stolen or lost I don't know if I'd buy it again. I live in Ireland and this guitar is simply not available here. The closest location is England and over there it lists at over 2,000 pounds sterling - about $4000. I got a good deal as far as I'm concerned and am very happy about that. If I could get the same deal again then perhaps, but the guitar is a bit delicate and I don't know if I'd want to go through the trouble of having to have the guitar tweaked all over again. I'd kill the person that stole it, though.

I bought a used 2003 Jet Firebird from Dave's Guitars of Wisconson for $1225. It's in mint condition w case and also a separate spacer bridge was included. A Gretsch solid metal bridge was put on by the previous owner (don't know what it's called but gives more sustain).

All the specs are on the Gretsch website. All Mahogany semi-solid body, Ebony fretboard, bigsby Tremolo system, flame red colour w black pickguard etc. Mine has 2 Filtertrons PU's.

If there's ever been a more beautiful electric guitar made I haven't seen it. Craftmanship and overall attention to detail by Gretsch are simply superb. The Bigsby work very well, no tuning issues and re-stringing is no problem.

Has that great Gretsch sound, the same as the Duo Jet with Filtertrons and very similar to the White Falcon. The sound is unbelievably versatile. I play in a trad Jazz band and a blues/rock combo and the Firebird is great for all. Perfect for Rockabilly obviously, all rock and pop styles. Not so good for heavy metal but who cares, this guitar is for classy players, not head-bangers.

I also have a made in US Fender Strat, a Gibson SG Deluxe and have owned Les Paul's and many other guitars over 25 yrs playing. This Firebird is THE best sounding guitar I've ever played (or heard) and I'm giving it a solid 10 for overall sound thru any Amp & it's versatility for both lead and rhythm work. It growls and screeches like an angry Les Paul on distorted settings, chugs a warm, thick mellowness for Jazz (as good as an ES-335) and can be as twangy and bright as a fender strat.

All fabulous

No problem - everything works great and it's very reliable and durable

Don't know

Possibly the best value for money electric guitar on the planet.
A work of art to look at and a tone that can't be beat.

2004 Archtop, made in Japan. In addition to individual pickup volume knobs, also has master volume, plus pickup select (3 position) and tone-select (normal, treble cut, bass enhance). 2 humbucking Filtertron pickups. Mahogany neck. Standard red finish for the Firebird model. Roughly it's a modified Les Paul body type, single cutaway. Bridge is not attached to body at all, floats, held down only by string tension. Tuners, I believe are Grover. Neck has V-taper on back, and is reasonably narrow at nut. Nice hardshell case included.

My music style is broad. Some pop/adult alternative rock, and some heavier material, basically everything but metal and country. This guitar is super for the clean tones, and very good for the mid-intensity rocking as well. And of course, also good for anything rockabilly. But in the hard rock realm, it lacks a little bit of the bite that my other guitars have, and it also lacks the brightness for music like ska. But that's not what it's built for. The chambered body, and humbucking pickups are suited toward warmer tones. I could really mess with amplifier settings to get back some of this bite, but I think I'd be compromising what it's intended to do.

The only dislikes I have about the guitar are the lack of coil-tap capability (I've added this function to other instruments, but I don't want to mess with this guitar, or have it altered in any way). And I had a minor issue with the bridge slippage, but that will be addressed below.

Set up is very good. Not sure if it's factory or not because I bought it used, but less than 1 year old. The action is a little low at the nut, making low-note pulloffs a little less snappy than optimal, but there is no string buzz or anything unpleasant like that. The finish is great, looks perfect.

The only complaints I have fall into this category, and they are not major. The bridge, which is held by string tension, requires a slightly softer touch than I previously had. If you rest your palm too heavily on it, you might cause slippage which will a) mess up your tuning, and b) mess up your intonation. This is a simple fact of Gretsch guitars, and not a flaw. But you must get used to it. If you've been playing a Telecaster where you can be driving your palm into the body, you might need to adapt.

Also, compared to my other instruments, this one does not stay in tune as well. I believe that a couple of factors contribute to this. Foremost is the Bigsby tailpiece. Even if you do extremely subtle vibrato with it, the result is usually that the guitar goes a little bit sharp. The second factor is that because it is a chambered body, I think that it is more sensitive to temperature than my other instruments, and there could be drift from this. I am a bit surprised about the Bigsby issue, and maybe there's some simple service that could be done to improve its performance.

For the most part, I don't like to gig without a backup. Especially with this guitar, because it is not a rapid-restring configuration, I'd prefer to have a backup.

Haven't dealt with them at all.

My other gear includes G&L Legacy, USA Strat Plus Deluxe (heavily modified electronics), Heritage 535, 1978 Fender Telecaster, Ibanez Gio (all new electronics and tuners). Playing through Mesa Mark IV, Mesa Maverick (both with Celestion Vintage 30s), Fender Twin Reverb (silverface, with blackface bias mods, and Philips 7581A tubes).

I am content with the purchase. Especially feel like I got a decent price for the quality of the instrument. I'd replace it if necessary. My favorite features are the feel of the neck, and the clean-to-moderately overdriven tones. The thing I like least is the tuning issue, which hopefully can be addressed. It's very minor, but still takes 5-10 seconds between songs to check, which I don't need to do as often with other instruments. I compared it with all of the Gretsch models. The reasons I chose this one were for the playability of the neck (other Gretsch models have thicker Les Paul-like necks which I don't like) and for its sound.

Guitar was made in 2004. I believe it is Japanese made. Archtop.

This model comes with the 3-position tone selector, and has the Filtertron humbucking pickups.

Red finish, as is the case for the Firebird model.

It's is essentially a stock 6131.

Only negative to say about it is the lack of built in coil-tap.

I play rock, pop, and some heavier alt-rock as well. The 6131 is something I've always wanted to have, and it has a great feel and a great sound. But this guitar could not be the *only* one I'd use because it does not attain the Strat/Tele sound. I didn't expect it to, and I am not displeased with it. But there are limits to the range of tones that it can produce. I play thru a variety of Fender and Mesa amplifiers, mostly small combo amps. And I use a standard array of effects including the Tube Screamer, RAT, Boss Compressor, and Line 6 Delay Modeler.

The place this instrument excels is in warm clean and moderately overdriven tones. Harder to get any bite out of it. But again, that's not what it's intended for.

The guitar didn't come from factory, but previous setup was decent. The action is a hair low, even with 11-49 strings on it. No buzzing, but pulloffs on low frets are a little hard.

No noticeable flaws.

The only negative thing I can say about the design of the instrument is that the bridge is not fixed. This is standard for Gretsch, but I'd never played a guitar like that before. I appreciate why they do this. But now I've discovered just how heavy handed I am, tending to like to rest my hand firmly on the bridge. I need to back off a bit with this guitar, because I've moved the bridge once or twice by accident, which needless to say causes many bad things: loss of tuning and loss of intonation :)

But intonation is overrated anyway, right? :)

Seriously, with a straight bridge guitar such as this, you can't have perfect intonation anyway, compared with individual saddle adjustments that you get on a Stratocaster, for example.

No experience with this.

Been playing 25 years. Mostly Fender type guitars, but I've started getting into humbucking tones lately too.

My Jet Firebird is one of the early re-issues from 1989. It is solid mahoghany with a maple top and rosewood fretboard. It's as beautiful to look at as it is to play. It has a bright "orient red" top and gold hardware and dark transparent laquer finish on the back and neck. The "humped block" inlays and bound fingerboard and headstock also add to the beaty of this guitar. This guitar has "That Great Gretsch Sound" thanks to two Filter Tron pickups. It is great for every kind of music especially rockabilly! It plays smooth as silk with a wide and thin neck with a sweet low action.

As I said before this guitar screams out "That Great Gretsch Sound" thanks to the Filter Trons. I play alot of rockabilly and blues. This guitar is best for good ol' rock and roll and the rockabillyish stuff. I definetly like Strats and Teles better when it come to blues. I play my guitar through my Cyber Twin and it rocks! I wish this guitar had individual tone knobs for each pickup instead of one master tone knob. That is about my only complaint with it.

Since I bought this guitar ten years after it was made I dont know how the factory setup is, but man is it great the way it is now. For this baby to be almost fifteen it is still in perfect shape and no flaws that make it less playable.

I have played this guitar live many of times and have named it old faithful because I never break strings with it and it always stays in tune. This guitar also has never been taken to the repair shop for anything other than a setup or two since I bought it. The finish, hardware,switches,pots,etc are still great.

Never used Gretsch support.

This guitar gets an all-around two thumbs up. I would definetly be broken hearted if it were ever stolen or lost. I have been playing for about seven years and have had all the popular names and styles and my Gretsch suits me the best of all.