Build your DREAM White Falcon for less than $400
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 31 июл 2024
- Use coupon code GUNSNGTRS to save $10 at The Fretwire!
Order this kit here: thefretwire.com/shop/category...
Want a Guns and Guitars shirt? buy one here: teespring.com/stores/guns-and...
Facebook: / gunsandguitarsofficial
Instagram @gunsandguitarsofficial
Support me on Patreon: / danthompson
*Prices mentioned in this video are subject to change without notice. Please check the links below for current pricing.
Here are the links to the parts I used:
Rockabilly Guitar kit:
shrsl.com/13tys
use coupon code GUNSNGTRS to save $10!
Tune-o-matic roller replacement bridge:
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...
Graphtec TUSQ XL nut piece:
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...
Full disclosure: I am an Amazon Associate, and the links in this description are affiliate links, which means that if you make a purchase, it doesn't cost you any more money, but I will earn a commission.
If you’ve ever wanted a gretsch falcon but have been put off by the cost, then watch how I tricked out this kit to play and sound like exactly like a falcon, and I’ll show you a few tips, tricks, and hacks to make it easy and even improve a few things.
Now I know the first thing you guys are gonna say: that thing looks nothing like a falcon! I know. I didn’t want it to. In my opinion, falcons are too blingy and gaudy. I like my guitars to look a little beat up and worn out. But more on that later.
To build this thing I started with this “rockabilly” style guitar kit from the fretwire.com, as of now, they are the only place in the US that you can get this kit. If you watched my review of this kit you know there were a few things that needed fixing, and I’ll show you how I fixed them throughout this project.
I first started out by giving this thing a fret job. Now the frets were supposed to be leveled and crowned from the factory, but it was a poor job. I originally thought I was gonna have to completely relevel them and start over, but when I took a closer look I realized that it was only off in a few places, so I decided to just give it what I call a “fret touchup”. To do this, I use a credit card as a fret rocker to find out which frets where taller than the rest, and marked them with a sharpie. Notice that some of the frets were only partially marked, that’s because the fret was level at one point, but not level at another point. After they were marked, I taped off around those frets to protect the fretboard, then used a nail file and a triangle file to shave off a little bit of the frets where they were too high, stopping to check frequently with my rocker to make sure I didn’t take too much off. Once they are all level, it’s important to check all the frets again with the rocker, since filing down some frets could reveal other high spots. Keep repeating this until all your frets are level with the rocker. Once they were all level, I continued like I would with a standard fret job, and crowned and polished each fret that I had just filed.
...read more on my blog at gunsandguitars.net
Full disclosure: Links in this description may be affiliate links 
Видеоклипы
Thanks for the shout out brother. And don’t worry. Everybody botches my name. And TVJones for $185 is a GREAT FIND. Just so everyone knows I paid over $300 for my set. Great video great kit. I’ve always wanted a Falcon. Might just take this one on.
Gregory Wansink He gave you a shoutout in this vid, bro! (4:35) High five!
+Gregory Wansink thanks again for that tip man, seriously awesome.
Gregory Wansink your idea is gonna make my next build a WHOLE ton easier
Guns and Guitars I’m glad it made your life easier. It really is a time saver and even a better way to do it when switching out electronics. Using multiple tubes to keep everything in order. Thank you again for the shout-out. I am subscribed.
Matt Terrell Thank you! I changed out the pickups and electronics on my Gretsch and couldn’t imagine having to do it any other way. Again, if you use multiple tubes you can do everything in one shot. Just put the tips of the pots in and... BOOM! Done!
5:30 feed the tubing through the washer and nut BEFORE putting it over the pot, then pull through and you can hold the pot in place with the tubing while you screw on the washer/nut.
Great Job, Dan! I love it. I also love Graph Tech. The product, tech support, & shipping have no competition. I put Tusq on all my inferior nuts, saddles & bridge pins, & have made masterpieces out of $200 guitars.
+Dave Monty yes they are awesome!
might be silly but do the tusq also need work on them? or do they come ready to put in as they are?
Great tips, thanks. I already have one of those Tune-o-matic roller bridge in stock. I use oil for some finish and for the Clear coats on gloss finish I use Varathane Diamond Wood Finish which is a water base polymer crystal clear finish. It dries fast and I can water sand after an hour drying time. I can apply 10 coats in a day on a Gold Top I am doing on a New York Pro LP style guitar that was bought as new but the body wasdamage in transport on eBay for almost nothing. The finish after water sanding, compound and polishing is crystal clear, doesn't scratch easy and adds rigidity to the table of a hollow or semi hollow for a brighter sound. Oil tends to give lower resonance to the body and a warmer sound. For pickups I buy Epiphones Pro Bucker online, used or new, and tyhe price is right. Great video as always.
Great video man. Gretsch White Falcon has been my dream guitar since the 70's, but at $3,500+ bucks it will continue to be my in my dreams. So I just ordered the Rockabilly kit from the Fret Wire and the bridge and nut you mention in your video. I have some wood working skills (I build scale wooden ships) so I will follow your videos on how to do things when building this guitar. Thanks you very much.
I love it, honestly I think a guitar company should make you a custom series because your style of designing them is different and actually quite innovative
+Marvin Hanson Drumming wow thanks man, that’s the best compliment I’ve ever gotten!
Guns and Guitars no problem mate anytime, I actually showed the band venom your stuff on Friday and they loved it
Hey Dan, been watching you this last few months and you are doing terrific stuff here...love your attitude and brevity.....and you are entertaining....thanks SO much....keep it up.
You inspired me to mod my 2001 MII Squire Affinity bass....I did it all, fret levelling, Seymour Duncan pups, Emerson electrics, Schaller tuners (I put a Schaller bridge in 2001), zero-fret, & pick-guard etc.
I now have a great sound, great action and totally accurate intonation everywhere on the fretboard. You gave me the courage and I did a perfect job. It took a lot of hours but I loved it.
Again, THANKS, from David on Crete
(I just might do this Gretsch Falcon, maybe even a 12 string)
Dan, I am actually looking to get the Pit Bull Guitars RCM-12 Kit (mahogany), or the RC-12 kit (basswood). Do you have an opinion between these two, and what hardware mods.....maybe better tuners/pickups? You know how 12 strings can be. Cheers
Im impressed on how well you got it to stay in tune.
Beautiful, could you maybe improve the Rickenbacker kit? I'd love to see that
Bruxxy he will
+Bruxxy yep that’s the next project. Hopefully will have that video up in a week or so.
I NEED TO SEE THAT
I was just about to ask!
Bruxxy iii
YES I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS THANK YOU!0
+1 for those roller bridges, they are awesome. Also, I love how you show all the different settings and pick vs fingers. Really helps get a good idea of how it sounds in different circumstances
+Zach Smith thanks. I was trying to keep the demo genre compatible with the types of music this guitar is used for
That finish is awesome! I absolutely love the way it looks. I like darker, less "gaudy" finishes myself. Beautiful build.
Thank you!
You're actually really good at playing rockabilly/jazz licks
+Jack Docherty well...you didn’t see how many takes it took me to record that...haha
It's probably the bassist in him. Most bassists I know are good at jazz
Notif. Squad!
Hey, the pickups I were gonna suggest are the Carvin s22BG s and the carvin allan holdsworth pickups
+Joe Kazadi thanks for the suggestions, I’m still happy with my choice
Hell yeah, dream guitar, you got these build formulas right on the money, I am inspired again like I was when I was 16, and am finally persuing my luthiery dreams at 30 with a child on the way, because of creativity like yours. Thanks very much for the inspiration.
Love the roller bridges, I use them a lot on my builds.
A great tip about the aquarium/surgical tubing.
8:05 isn't that the 3rd fret? Did I end up in a parallel universe? Oh my god! the Mandela effect!
Teho 0 I see what you mean and that is the 3rd fret. I hope he clarifies it later on.
@@LosRockson Well he fretted in between 2nd and 3rd so he definetely pressed down the 2nd fret - while also on the 3rd.
RYVERS I had to see the video again and I was able to understand your logic. Thanks for your input.
I think he means the second fretwire.
OMG this guitar is beatiful!
Thanks!
I absolutely love how you do your reviews. A lot of time and thorough thought!
I like it.The finish looks great and I like the pickup choice.Great build man
Best Channel Name EVER!
for dying your pick guard or pickup covers use tea bags in water
psiklops71 or brushing with coffee.
I believe tea bags in water are called...
tea
shit sidetrax made my day here :D
+Sidetrax lmao
+Luc Lo sidetrax for the win!
Sweet!
One of the best qualities of those TV Jone pickups is that you can roll off lots of tone before they start to sound muddy. Your upgrade made a world of difference
Beautiful work Dan! Always love to see what you come up with.
+Joy Benko thank you!
Wow. Those kit pickups were muddy
+TheCardKing39 yeah they were junk
+Guns and Guitars those TVJones sound amazing, and for $185 they're a steal. Great job with the axe and can't wait to see more.
sounded like they farted out half the time
Great job on the build! I love the final result, but...
does it djent?
lol
@@GunsandGuitars that's not a "no"
My GOD! Your finish work looks KILLER on this guitar!
I just used this kit for a build for someone who normally plays a 1958 Gretsch Country Gentleman. This is was a pretty tall order! I found that this kit is absolutely nothing like a real Gretsch 6120. The body depth is 3.37", whereas a Gretsch is 2.75". That makes a huge difference when buying a case. You have to buy a dreadnought case. The spacing of the pickups are more Gibson/humbucker, so Filtertrons won't fit properly and even with the Filtertron to Humbucker rings from TV Jones (or eBay) there are small gaps. Another consideration regarding the humbucker spacing is that you need to buy a Gibson/Epiphone LP or 335 pickguard. Gretsch won't fit properly. The Trem on this works as good as a real Bigsby, although I recommend buying a smaller spring. Actually, stringing up this trem is much easier than a Bigsby. BIG thing to note - the string spacing on the nut is 33mm. Keep that in mind when buying a new nut. Seems most nuts you might try to buy are Epiphone or Gibson, which are around 35.5mm. That puts the strings way out toward the edges of the fretboard. I originally bought a Zero Glide for it but the string spacing was too far apart. I ended up making/shaping a nut from scratch for the zero fret. I ended up building pickup cavities to reduce feedback. Not sure I would do that again. I also put in a tone switch instead of using the tone knob. Again, not sure I would do that again. Overall, and in hindsight, the kit was good quality. The first one I received had a bad neck, but The Fretwire had a new kit to me in 2 days. Awesome customer service. I found the new kit/neck to be pretty good, with not many frets needing to be filed. The neck fit was excellent. The only real issue was major cracking around the body bends, which required lots of filling and sanding. The pickups in the kit weren't actually all that bad. I ended up using them on an ES 335 build. I would consider them for a stock build on this kit in the future. For this build, I ended up using CTS 500K pots for the individual volumes, a Bourns low-friction for the master volume (I relocated it to the pickguard), and Switchcraft for both switches.
I think you should changed the tuners to some grover one or hempshot
Chris Games And the Trem.
He doesn't need to as long as you wind it correctly, and have proper lubrication and loss of friction. graphite nut helps a ton too. Roller saddles and the nut help so much more than the tuners you wouldn't believe.
Beautiful guitar! I'm a mountain biker....Holla! Went for it.
+Cobra Kyle yes! Haha
Same!! Lol
I dig what you did with the headstock...very cool shape. I want this kit for sure.
after watching so many videos I finally subscribed love ya vids dude
The build came out great and sounds incredible! I'd love to know the stenciling technique you use to get the gun or vine design on the strat. Do you just use tape?
+Scott B I trace the design on in pencil, then engraved it with a dremel
Guns and Guitars stealing that idea. Thanks!
Holy, fucking, shit. I'm not even 30 seconds in and I'm sold. Guitars? Guns?! White Falcons?!?! Fucking YES.
+Enki Ea haha we could be friends I think
Very nice setup. Love the stain job, looks awesome.
+Michael H thank you!
Man, that guitar sounds great! Awesome video. I always look forward to your new videos
+WantedPeak thank you!
When God was handing out talents you definitely got in line more than once, lol. Great workmanship and very nice playing as well.
Way better sounding
Wow, all your builds always come up so good
not even building this kind of guitar but got some good gems out of this video. thanks for all the tips
Do a les Paul junior !!!
+Joeva10 hmmm...maybe I will
Or an sg?
Damn bro, your parents must be very proud!
Great video. Love the look of the guitar. Super cool
Wow what a great idea. Turned out gorgeous Thanks for sharing. It
Do a les paul kit next please
+Jon snuuur not a matter of if, just “when”
I can justify a falcon, but my wife cant. 😂
Hahahaha
Lovin’ this channel! Great video and gorgeous finished product. You’re definitely a talented guy. Keep the good videos coming!
+Nick Austin thanks for the compliments!
Wo! Massive upgrade! I've lost a good chunk of hearing working construction so for me to notice it's huge!
There is a difference between " building " and "assembling " a guitar. Love the finished product....no doubt...I just need to start from the beginning.
you mean like you build a car? or build a house? or build a computer? I think I'm justified in my terminology...
Guns and Guitars I build all my computers from scratch, spending a lot of time traveling the world mining elements and in labs. Only takes me 35 years per machine.
'if you pick the string at the 2nd fret' - pinches 3rd fret
Frets are the metal wires, not the wood in between
Jakob Jappe Yeah but he still pinched the 3rd. Each fret is named based off the fret wire closest to the bridge
+Robert Potter-Irwin pinching between the 2nd and 3rd frets pinches the string on both frets
yea but its backwards because he is looking at the first fret from the second. I thought the same thing, but you have to realize he is talking about the metal
Technically you're correct but you're looking at it from the wrong side. In this specific case he's checking for string clearance to the frets looking in direction of the nut - in which case he's actually fretting the 2nd since everything in bridge direction is irrelevant. I had the same thought for half a second and then realized what he meant.
peace
dmt
Holy crap that sounds great after your modifications! I'm going to try this out, wish me luck!
Looks amazing and sounds great!
This looks better then the white Falcon
Thank you!
Guns and Guitars no problem
Not saying it sounds bad, but it really dosn't have the compressed gelling sound of a gretsch, I know it looks like one but the sound doesn't do it justice, for $400 buy an electromatic
+AyC I respectfully disagree. While tv Jones pickups don’t sound exactly like gretsch filtertrons, they are widely accepted as the better option for better tone. Lots of people still buy a $3k falcon, and then pay extra to install tv Jones. I’m with the crowd that thinks it’s an improvement.
Those also aren't the most "Gretsch" TV Jones. The Classic and Classic plus would give you a much more "Classic Gretsch" sound. These have more PAF-style push
Hey Dan, have you tried the reverend guitar soft touch spring for bigsby? I've heard so many good things about it and it's only around $10. I think that might be worth a try for waaaaaaay better feel and tuning.
I'd really like to see it in a build.
Great, I really enjoyed the videos on this project.
+Craig Fish good! Glad you liked it
Loved how it came out, great job
Tung oil
Hmmm, some people probably still say "Holla"... It's "I'm retarded" that no one says anymore...
I'm retarded
I'm retarded
stellar job man, love this channel . always great content
thanks!
that thing looks sweet... one tip though just if you ever want something similar to this color again but show more grain. All you gotta do is buy some tannin... (unless you are using redwood) mix you some wire wool and vinegar... also you might try using over the counter iron pills. (iron pills will give you a grey color, the wire wool will give you are dark/close to black type of grey) You just dissolve some wire wool in some vinegar... maybe overnight (i forget how long) but different amounts of wire wool/level of rustiness will determine the color to an extent but anywho, paint your object with the tannin (just disolved in water... I got my tannin on ebay for like 3 bucks it said it was used for wine making) That will not have any effect but do that all over and let it dry, then go back with your wire wool/rusty concoction and it will look cool... I do advise testing the color on scrap... and once you get your color right you want to remove any undissolved wire wool because as it continues to dissolve it will probably change the color a little.
I stained my studio desk that I built by using this method... I almost got that same ebony stain that you used here... and it looks fine but I have curly walnut for my desk top and wanted all those "tiger stripes" to shine through and boy did it turn out nice... looks black but you can see every bit of grain and its like this fine light between black and grey. Any how I thought I would share that because it worked so well for me.
Thank for the tip, that sounds interesting!
A DIY black stain I have used for many years is super simple _ soak used teabags (lots) in tapwater, add a couple of handfulls of old nails preferably rusty. Soak for 3 to 4 days or longer if necessary. Strain mixture & voila...black water based dye. This is an old saddlers trick. I heat the nails to cherry red which initiates quicker oxidation.
You realize "tung" is the correct spelling, right? It comes from the Chinese tung tree. Not tongues.
Yes I know. Clearly you didn’t watch the captions on my other video...it REALLY messed up the translation.
finally he stoped the obnoxious snapchat editing
And by “finally” you mean “the same day I uploaded that one strat Video and saw everyone crying about them” 😂
Guns and Guitars idk man that was the first video i saw from you , and
I didn't watch any other , because i thought all of them are like that. Ignoring that tho , ur making some good stuff here
I love the look of that guitar. I like the look of the aged black finish. Good work on the build.
Man, you are an absolute wizard!
Awesome work my friend 👊🏻
Amazing how it improved the sounds!! I just bought a kit for a warlock guitar, to improve it later and those tips for frets, bridge, nut really give some ideas on how to improve my own later!
+Hugo Prudente yeah man, check out some of my other videos, they are full of tips on how to make a guitar play and sound better
This kicks major ass!!! Excellent work!!!
That turned out great love this build and the finish/sound is great!
+Jay Gore thanks!
Great job and great picking!
Love this. Hoping to get that kit in the near future and was wondering what I could do about the inevitable "kit" hardware it would come with. This video couldn't have been more helpful for me ;-)
Nice video, Dan. Useful as always, thank you! What a difference in sound! And yes, the nut adjustment video would be very good to see. I personally would do a glossy finish for such a dark stain but that's just me.
+Pavel Novozhilov thanks for the compliment, and the suggestion. I’ll probably do a video on slotting and fitting nuts the next time I do one.
Bloody hell! great playing, great guitar and great all round!!
+Sam Birch thank you!
Sounds wayyyyy better man, such a sick build. Subscribed
+jaeden martinez thanks for your sub!
I've built loads of guitars and only after four goes did I start building really good ones. This guy knows his shit. This is awesome.
Very nice Dan! Looking forward to the other side of “Guns” & Guitars in the future. Need some BANG with the TWANG!
+jcmcclain57 haha yeah it’s been a while. I’ve been working on an AR15 build Video but I keep delaying it due to the recent mass shootings. Plus, gun videos are hard because I can’t buy and resell them as often without an FFL license. So that pretty much makes this channel 90% Guitars are 10% guns...unfortunately
Amazing build and so lovely body work! Wish I could build such a masterpiece by myself
+TheDimaSomov you’ll never know if you don’t try
I really enjoy your videos! Keep up the great videos!
glad you're guitar came out nice . I also agree about the roller bridge I have the same exact ones on a fee of my guitars
+Jay Thomas yeah I’ll probably pick up a few more to have on hand for future builds
great job man, looks killer
That jam at the end is killer!
This thing came out great. Awesome work.
+Mrkupsable thank you!
I like this just as much as an actual white falcon. I might consider getting that kit.
Man you are impressive. I’m sixty years old so even though I’ve been playing for many years, I don’t have the God given talent that you have. Sadly, I don’t have the skills nor the time left to learn to build such a nice guitar. So I will just keep plucking away at my old Woods acoustic with a smile on my face. Love your work, and enjoy watching.
Looks amazing dan. Great job.
+Covered Gamer thank you!
Dude. Thank you. What a rad video.
Dude bro buddy man first time watching your channel and I am excited that I found you and also the tubing trick would have saved me quite a few gray hairs over frustration so after that thank you for that I will subscribe keep it live
+Robert Gotcher thanks for your sub!
Wow I Love this Guitar! Great job man!
Nice...i actually love the color of the guitar and the tone is delightful!!
Excellent work man. You deserve way more subscribers
+Red Machine Kieran thanks! I’m more concerned about the quality of subscribers than the quantity, so thank you for your compliments!
Love the channel dude. Keep it up!
That is a bad ass guitar. Looks beautiful and rocks. Great job.
sounds and looks great man, nice
You gave me great ideas especially for the bridge. I bought a semi hollow LP on Fret Wire and haven't looked at the neck yet. I'm thinking a Chris Cornell Duesenberg type build, when it warms up to paint. Thanks.
That sounds awesome man and looks great.
Those Wilkinson roller bridges are such wonderful pieces of hardware.. regardless of price! I've installed them on a number of my own guitars, and clients' guitars as well. You didn't mention one other huge bonus to them, that I think many people aren't aware of. You can adjust the radius! If you remove the button head hex screws that hold the saddles in place, you can cut up pieces of an aluminum beverage can to match the saddle size, and drill a small hole for the screw, and shim the saddles up to the desired height. It's been invaluable to me having installed these on a number of Fender offset guitars, where the radius is either 7.25" or 9.5", as opposed to the stock 12" radius that the bridge is manufactured with.
Oh, btw, HOLLA! Fellow mtn biker in the HIZZY! Lol. ;)
Dang, great tips from a another mtb’er! That’s good to know about shimming the radius, I’ll be building a jazzmaster soon, good to know I can use this bridge!
Guns and Guitars Wow, awesome to hear its helping someone already! Always happy to share some knowledge when I can!
I really enjoy your videos. Good job man.
Really nice looking guitar man, great job!
beautiful guitar!! It looks like an artifact! I wish i had a golden handslike you. Great video.
+젠틀멍 thanks! Glad you liked it
Wow. So glad I stumbled across you/your vid.s!
Nicely done my man!
👍Thumbs way up and I immediately Subscribed.
(You also play very well, love the style...rock on brother🤘)
Thanks for your sub!
Great sounding thing, wanna grab myself one of this kind
Cool Videos, keep rockin, man
+Роман Соколов thanks man!
Man I stumbled on your channel and dude I'm so glad! I think I might be getting into a new hobby! Awesome channel!! Keep up the awesome work!
go for it man! it's so fun, and addicting!