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"Anybody can play. The note is only 20%. The attitude of the motherf*cker who plays it is 80%" - Miles Davis
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Comments
You will be fine with 10s with no messing about but remember the scale length and these make 11's feel more like 10s anyway.
I also had assumed they were 25.5" scale, now I learn they are 24.6" I like them a little less!
My Gretsch 2620 is floating until later this year when I'll have it pinned but it's not too difficult to use masking tape to hold it in place when strings are off.
I use 10-52 so I get a slightly heavier feel on the bass strings but I can still play the treble strings easily and I can easily bend a tone and a half on them just like the solid bodies.
After I had a bone nut and a set up by @SteveRobinson it plays like a Les Paul with a big hollow body.
Hope that helps.
https://i.imgur.com/X4RqL97.jpg
And because it has a Bigsby it will only ever be approximately in tune anyway .
(Actually not true, but someone would say it sooner or later .)
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
It's a bit of a minefield of pros & cons, intonation in general's never perfect anyway, solid bridges do sound great, tradition & looks, all of that. With these big-bodies there's only so far high you can easily reach which probably helps make them more usable. But yeah I'd say usable if not totally ideal.
To me the Compton bridge is great, it's solid (or a chambered option) but pretty well compensated, makes a big old Gretsch sing. I've fitted them on other archtops as well. Intonation was good, I could reach up high (relatively) & do chords, was all good (though better when the exchange rate was nice and USPS post used to mostly slip customs!). But with these mostly the base wants to be movable for intonation.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein