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Might be a silly idea, but I wonder if a tribute Malcolm young jet might be fashioned from a dm1 with a quilted top and a bolt on lp neck? Sure it needs more hole and different binding and parts, but how similar is the body? The shape is close…
Just a thought
Not a set neck tho’
Those 'solid' Gretsch guitars are almost hollow inside, so regardless of the shape, you'd end up with quite a different guitar.
They are all rather like this inside:
Attachment 41609
So it really depends if you just want a look-alike or a fairly close replica.
Fair enough, that’s not going to work….. shame!
Well, you could rout out the cavities and stick a new piece of wood on for the top. I expect the Gretsch is a bit deeper in the body than the DM1, though the JRM-1 might be a better candidate as it has a mahogany body and neck (like the MY Gretsch), so just needs a maple top adding. The horns can be cut back a bit and made more rounded. The body is probably going to be a bit smaller overall than the MY Gretsch though, but would probably look OK if it wasn't put up against the real thing.
The neck then becomes the hardest bit to get right in looks, as it needs the Gretsch scallop edge fret markers. This might be possible with a custom order, as I'm sure I've seen some PBGs with that style of fret marker. Also best to order an an undrilled paddle headstock, so you can get the Gretsch shape right. You can of course glue the neck on and shape the heel to a more convincing copy of the original, though they won't be dissimilar.
The MY Gretsch has a bound top, neck and headstock. You'd really need to get the neck bound at the factory, but you could bind the body and headstock yourself.
Then you need some some convincing hardware - the cost of which will depend on how closely you want to mimic the guitar.
Food for thought, thanks!!!
The DM1 and JRM1 look very similar shapes, at least the body does? The headstock is better on the DM1.
The correct fretboard markers are on the TL1-TB (or close enough!) Just the 12th is wrong.
Do you think I could get away converting a bolt on to set neck? Perhaps I could recess the 4 bolts into the timber and fill, as well as gluing the joint (after making sure it works OK :))
The only thing I really have no idea how to do is gluing a new top on it, and doing the binding. I have used a router, but I think there must be a special tool for the binding...
And the shape of the hole inside. I'm assuming it is solid under the roller bridge, but the extent of the void is unknown (and I'd guess important to the sound...?), the info might be out there somewhere...
It might be easier to cut the body from a piece of mahogany and get the shape 100% right, if i can find the dimensions, that wouldn't be the hardest bit of the project.
Is the Jet a curved or flat top? it is hard to see in the photos...
Hardware's the least of the worries at this stage, if it came out well I'd happily save up for the right bits.