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gretch 5850 bo diddley 3 stringer mod by swamp witch guitars

“gretschen “ 2 stringer . GRETSCH MOD BY SWAMP WITCH GUITARS
Was conjured up from an original gretsch bo diddly 5850 body . (The rare single pickup version . ) of the bo didley jrs , these are now obsolete and very hard to find, and pricy if you do find one . I lucked out and found the body on ebay .
Gretsch does not make this model anymore , and they are super rare . (unlike the double pickup jr. model that gretsch outsourced to china and you can get on ebay any day for $400 . )

Anyway , the knobs and pots are original gretsch ,, I replaced the pickup with an original gretsch LAP STEEL pickup instead . to give it a cool slide sound . also, in keeping with the raised design , I kept the pickup mounted low and raised the 2 poles .. thus omitting the mag field and going only off the poles .., resulting in a nice clean sound . you really gotta hear this in person . it’s a real cool tone .

The stiff mount whammy bar is made from cabinet parts screwed together and fitted to the original bridge bolts (thanx reeds ). with a wooden painted vine base from the same stock I make my swamp witch fretboards from. The whammy is not like a spring whammy .. and needs very little effort to get a “wow “ effect “ without the need to slam or pry . and it stays in tune!!
!
The fretboard is a new tooled and colored leather belt , just dripping with sexiness .
Set up for slide only .
the nut is actually a cut tuner shaft . it fits this 2 string design nicely .
there is a metal topless woman figure , sitting on a skull , that covers the truss rod hole from the rough German made “shadow “ neck that I repurposed . (the back of the scarf joint is rough and looks like the excess was grinded roughly away with a hand grinder .. I left it like that to give it character . )

I added a block under the neck to fill in the original neck cavity to allow a top mount body design .
the body is kept all original , no extra screw holes or anything that can’t be removed and still have the original body unmolested . I used all existing screw holes and or . bolts . etc.. even the black rose vinyl decal is removeable . (I hand cut that from sign vinyl )

24 inch scale . side markers , 2 stringer slider .

Antique brass , leather , chrome , silver , red , black , a topless women , a skull , a black rose ….. , How can you go wrong with that ? ;-)

She’s for sale folks ;-) check ebay .

swamp witch guitars .
grab yours here ;

site http://swampwitchguitars.weebly.com

ebay http://stores.ebay.com/Swamp-Witch-guitars

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Comment by the anonymous pick on May 23, 2013 at 9:46am: thanx calim ;-)

Comment by the anonymous pick on May 23, 2013 at 9:40am: http://www.cigarboxnation.com/photo/cbg-hardware?context=user

heres his link

Comment by the anonymous pick on May 23, 2013 at 9:39am: thanx ,, i got the cabinet handels from reeds he has these as a supply .

Comment by Bluesheart on May 23, 2013 at 6:39am: Woooooo, that thing is just all kinds of awesome with a bit of magic thrown in for good measure!! That wammy bar idea is so , well, stolen now! Freaking greatch!

Comment by Calim on May 23, 2013 at 4:15am: awesome

Comment by the anonymous pick on May 23, 2013 at 12:47am: thanx jim j ;-)

Comment by Jim Junksville Sharkey on May 23, 2013 at 12:43am: Very nice work Mr Pick...love it

Comment by the anonymous pick on May 23, 2013 at 12:30am: ;-)

Comment by Maddog on May 23, 2013 at 12:28am: Looks great! Something Bo Diddley would've sat down and had a lash at, it's got that cool long box feel to it ;-)