Gretsch Guitars

Okay folks, I've lowered the reserve, don't miss this!

Here we have a really special guitar. Unlike the current offerings under
the Zemaitis name that are made in Japan, this beauty was handcrafted in
the John Birch workshop in the UK. This guitar is absolutely beautiful and
made with the highest quality inside and out. The mermaid engraving is
totally unique, I guarantee this to be the only one in the world, truly
one of a kind. This guitar is in as-new condition which I'll call near mint,
just in case there is some tiny mark on it somewhere that I didn't see.

The guitar plays like a dream, and the sound is totally amazing. This one
has the full Jimmy Page style wiring, with all push-pull pots allowing
coil splitting and phase in and out for both pickups.

I apologize for the pictures, they are the best I could do, but photographing
the metal was very difficult with my digital camera.

The Eaton was reviewed in the British magazine "Guitar." I am going to reprint
the review here in order to provide you with all the details:

"Handmade right here in the UK, these metal plated lovelies recall the
oh-so-desirable Zemaitis axes that hung heavy from the shoulders of
70s rock gods.

Eaton guitars are a sideline of another famous British luthier called
John Birch, who built guitars and pickups for the likes of Slade's
Dave Hill and Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi back in the 70s. While
Birch himself passed away in 2000, the company is still very much in
business today.

Perhaps Zemaitis' most celebrated body shape was his interpretation
of the Les Paul, with a narrower waist and deeper, pointier cutaway.
The Eaton LP reviewed here recreates this look, but it isn't a
slavish copy.

The body is made from a weighty slab of solid Brazilian
mahogany with a thickness falling somewhere between a Tele and a Les
Paul, topped with a well-applied cherry lacquer finish. A sheet of
satin chromed brass attached by 11 screws all around its outer edge
covers the flat top, and it's been engraved with a stylized foliage
reminiscent of a William Morris pattern. The name "Eaton" appears in
an elliptical space between the two pickups, while the metal beneath
the tune-o-matic bridge and Gibson-style stop tailpiece is left blank.

The deep cutaway and beautifully carved heel around the set-neck
joint allow easy access all the way to the 24th fret. The neck itself
is mahogany with a scarf-jointed headstock, and it extends into the
body past the neck pickup for stability and strength. The rosewood
fingerboard has pearl dot markers and cream-coloured binding with
small black position dots. Unusually, the Eaton has a zero fret, like
a vintage Gretsch or Hofner, with a graphite nut set in behind. The
John Birch Magnum 2 humbuckers are a development of his original
Magnum design, this time with all 22 polepieces concealed beneath
smooth, chrome pickup covers engraved with the maker's name.

Sounds: I really like the neck on the LP. It's slim and fast and
should suit most players - it has more of an SG feel than a Les Paul.
With its light action and short scale, the LP is also very easy to
play. I associate all-mahogany guitars with a fat, gutsy, mellow
tone, but the big question here is whether the brass front influences
the sound. I think it does, because the acoustic tone is much
brighter and clearer than I would expect. Add to this a shed-load of
sustain, possibly assisted by the extra mass of the headstock plate,
and things look promising.

Firing up the trusty Vox AC10 provided a rare treat. These pickups -
high output units that push the valve front end of the amp into
distortion with ease - are awesome. Most high output pickups sound a
little two dimensional and lacking in dynamics, but these Magnum 2s
are amazingly flexible and playable. The clean tone is articulate and
full bodied with a weighty punch in the low mids, and both pickups
produce a slight but lovable growl on the wound strings. The bridge
unit has a thickness and sustain that is more commonly found on
middle pickups, and the neck position sounds full while retaining the
sweet, chiming harmonics of the acoustic sound. As you might expect
with a solid mahogany guitar, the low end separation is a little
blurry when playing chords, but this clears up with both pickups
combined, perhaps as the result of a little friendly phase
cancellation.

Coil tapping the humbuckers produces another range of interesting
tones. Often coil tapped humbuckers provide a sorry excuse for a
single coil sound, but the Magnums only lose a little it of the low
mids and drop just a touch slightly in volume, leaving the
fundamental voice of the guitar intact. Think "graunchy Gretsch"
rather than"funky Fender."

Enough of this clean nonsense:does it rock? It does. Cranking things
up with the bridge humbucker, the sound is classic 70s rock: fat and
clear, with buckets of tone, and I was soon banging away at my best
Marc Bolan and Jimmy Page impersonations. This is one of those
guitars where you can switch straight from rhythm to lead without
feeling the need for pedal assistance. Flipping over to the neck unit
puts you straight into Paul Kossoff territory - pure, bluesy, and
infinitely expressive, and also somehow very British. The Eaton LP
also has real bite and attack at the front of every note, allowing
the edge of the pick to cut through.

I know it sounds corny, but I've got to say it - the Eaton LP rocks
my world. Why? Because it's one of the best sounding guitars, vintage
or modern, that I have ever played. Like a great acoustic guitar, the
LP reveals new sounds and subtleties every time you pick it up and
you feel totally connected to the instrument."

FACTFILE:
Handbuilt solid body electric guitar. Made in the UK.
Price: 2,950 pounds ($4000 US)
Build: metal fronted mahogany body, glued in bound mahogany neck, 24
fret rosewood fingerboard, pearl position dots, tune-o-matic style
bridge, zero fret, Schaller machineheads
Electrics: two John Birch Magnum humbuckers with individual volume
and tone controls plus coil taps and three-way pickup selector switch
as well as phase in and out
Finish: see-through cherry
Dimensions: Scale length: 620 mm
Width of neck at nut: 43
at 12th fret: 52
Depth of neck at first fret: 20
at 12th fret: 21
String spacing at nut: 35
at bridge: 52
Action as supplied: at the 12th fret: 3 mm

Weight: 5 kg

Well, there you have it. As I consolidate my collection due to unemployment, I look forward to finding this awesome guitar a good home. I'll pack it well in a guitar box. Thanks for looking, good luck!
Please write with any questions. I ship normally on Friday but try to get things out as they sell. Paypal only, US only. Shipping is flat $25.00. Please don't bid if you have no or negative feedback. Thanks for checking it out!