"Sax and Trumpet Friendly…"

This six-string 'C Melody' Spectra Sonic Baritone (tuned down four steps to C: F: B flat: E flat: G and C) guitar features a single-cutaway thinline chambered alder body with a triple-bound laminated spruce top. Three-piece maple neck with a 29.50 inch scale and a very wide nut width of just under 1 3/4 inches. African Paduak fretboard with 22 medium frets and pearloid dot position markers. Headstock with Gretsch "T-roof" logo in white. Individual (three-a-side) Sperzel USA closed back tuners with hexagonal metal buttons. The serial number "2 0079" and "Made in USA" stamped into the back of the headstock. One TV Jones Alnico Magna-Tron pickup in the neck postion and one TV Jones Alnico Classic pickup in the bridge position. Two controls (one volume, one tone) plus three way pickup selector switch. Gretsch "G" through Arrow metal knobs with cross-hatched sides. Three-layer white/black/white pickguard with nine screws. Adjusto-Matic bridge with metal saddles, aluminum Bigsby B11 Vibrato tailpiece. A mint (9.50) example of this very unusual instrument housed in it's original Gretsch black hardshell case with deep red plush lining (9.50).

"As a guitar maker, [TV] Jones had built a few of his Danalectro flavoured Spectra Sonic models for players like John Fogerty, but decided to build a baritone version - that's one tuned down a couple of tones - for Rich Modica, who in turn introduced Brian Setzer to the instrument. Setzer, who by now had gone beyond rockabilly and into swing, liked to play in keys that suited the brass players in his big-band. A sax-playing friend told Jones that C tuning for guitar would work well for this. Setzer loved the Jones Bari and used it on his 2000 tour. Fred [Gretsch] lll saw Setzer play that guitar during a show in Atlanta and wondered if it could become a Gretsch model. He and Jones and Modica devised a baritone and a bass to add to Jones's guitar design, resulting in the new US-made Gretsch Spectra Sonic line launched in 2002." (Tony Bacon. 50 Years of Gretsch Electrics, p.101).

"These stylish guitars were originally hand made by Tom "TV" Jones for guitarist extraordinaire, Brian Setzer. Tom collaborated with Rich Modica, Brian's long time guitar technician, to create these supremely playable, innovative and aesthetically engaging guitars. Tom then worked with Gretsch to determine how these instruments could be put into production and still maintain the unique qualities that make them so special.

The Gretsch Spectra Sonic C Melody Baritone - despite having a longer scale than any guitar in this roundup except the Danelectro - is actually intended to be tuned C to C, a half-step higher than typical baritones. This raised tonality makes the guitar "horn friendly," which is why if you pick up the Spectra Sonic and play shapes that would be in E major on a standard guitar, your licks will come out in the sax-and trumpet-friendly..."