GGJaguar
Reverential Member
One of my Covid lockdown projects was to change strings on my Artist Award in hopes of getting better acoustic tone, but ADD kicked in and I got side-tracked on this comparison so the AA will have to wait a bit longer. Way back in 2003, I wrote an article for 20th Century Guitar magazine that compared a 2002 Guild X-160 Rockabilly to a 1998 Gretsch 6120 Duane Eddy Signature model. The verdict was split as the Gretsch had a punchier rockabilly sound but the electronic components were cheap and subject to failure. Plus, it was a mashup of parts from different Gretsch eras rather than a copy of Eddy’s famous ’57 Gretsch. The Guild had better build quality with a bright and chimey sound. In that article, I mentioned that Gretsch had just released a newer and more accurate version of a ’57 6120 called the 6120DSV and a comparison of that model to the Guild could be more interesting.
Well the time has come for that comparison. Both guitars share the same basic specifications: 16-inch laminated maple body, single coil pickups, and Bigsby tailpiece. And they are both orange, too: Tennessee Orange for the X-160 and “Deep Maple Stain” (the modern name for Gretsch Western Orange) for the 6120DSV. But that’s where the similarities end.
The Guild’s laminated maple body measures 15-15/16 inches across the lower bout and is 3 inches deep. The top is a 4-ply laminate and thicker than the Gretsch’s top. The neck is 3-piece mahogany with a bound rosewood fingerboard and 20 medium frets. The 1-11/16 inch nut is plastic and 24-3/4 inches down the scale you’ll find a chrome plated Bigsby bridge (compensated for a plain 3rd string) on an aluminum base (note some X-160s have a wooden bridge base). The strings are anchored by the traditional Guildsby. The controls are spartan: master tone, master volume, and a 3-way pickup selector toggle switch. The controls are wired to a pair of DeArmond 2000 single coil pickups which are not the same as the DeArmond Dynasonics on the Gretsch. I highly recommend GAD’s X-160 review with its excellent description about the different DeArmond pickups. Sidebar: The DeA 2000s in this guitar measure 7.4K and 7.5K ohms for the neck and bridge pickup, respectively. This DC resistance is what is expected for a pair of DeArmond 2K pickups (the ones that are really like P-90s). I have measured only one other set of DeA 2000s and they were 8.8K ohm for the pair which agrees with Bill Turner’s description of 8.85K ohms. So, do I have a weak pair of pickups or did the specs change? Maybe that should be the subject of a separate post.
Back to our show: The X-160 weighs 7.2 lb (3.3 kg) and lives in a quality TKL-made 4-latch hardshell case replete with a Guild badge on the side. If you don’t like orange, Guild also offered this model in metallic blue, black and even Fiesta Red. The appointments are modest in keeping with the X-160’s mid-line price tag. The lightly flamed top and back are wrapped with 3-ply binding and the fingerboard is adorned with pearloid block markers. The f-holes are unbound, but I have seen some X-160s with the f-hole edges painted black to produce a strong outline. The headstock sports a pearloid logo and Chesterfield inlay, and is fitted with chrome Grover Rotomatic tuning machines. Fit and finish of this Corona-made guitar are top notch. The polyurethane finish is thin and glass smooth. Fretwork and binding is clean.
The Gretsch measures 15-7/8 inches wide and is shallower than the Guild at 2-3/4 inches deep. Like the Guild, the 6120DSV is fully hollow but it has thinner 3-ply top and a small soundpost under the bridge. The 3-piece maple neck has a bound rosewood fingerboard fitted with 22 vintage-size frets and a 1-11/16 inch brass nut. The scale length is a Gretschy 24-1/2 inches. The strings pass over a plain-G string Bigsby aluminum saddle that sits on a rosewood base. As an aside, I really like the Bigsby saddle on a wooden base combination and switched to this set up on my Starfire III and X-160 Savoy (the other X-160). A wide-handle, vintage style Bigsby B-6 tailpiece takes care of vibrato duty. The strings are kept in tune by a set of “reissue” 18:1 Grover Sta-Tites. The controls are typical mid-1950s Gretsch: master tone, master volume, volume for each pickup, and a 3-way pickup selector toggle switch that controls a pair of DeArmond Dynasonic single coil pickups. The Gretsch weighs a bit less than the Guild at 7.0 lb (3.2 kg). It comes with a nice 5-latch TKL-made case with a big, gold Gretsch logo on the lid. I wish Guild had used a 5-latch case on the later Westerly and Corona models.
While the Guild has chrome plated parts, the Gretsch has gold plated hardware, except for the Bigsby parts. The topographic grain maple top and back lack flame and are triple bound, and the bound fingerboard is fitted with Gretsch’s famous pearloid “hump block” markers. The oversize f-holes are double bound and the headstock sports a bound flame maple veneer inlayed with a pearloid logo and horseshoe. Fit and finish are much better on this FMIC era 6120 than on the Fred Gretsch era Duane Eddy model and matches that of the Guild. The polyurethane feels similar to Guild’s thin finish.
Playability of both guitars is excellent though their neck profiles differ. The Guild has slightly thicker neck with a nice C-shape. The Gretsch neck is also C-shaped and thinner than Guild neck, but a little bigger than most of the vintage 1957 6120s I’ve played. It does have smallish vintage-style frets so that’s something to consider. Really, playability is a toss up with these two guitars and I think it comes down to personal preference for neck shape and fret size. Even strung with 11 or 12 gauge strings, both are excellent players, but I’d give slight edge to the Guild.
Acoustically, the Guild is nicely resonant and relatively loud for a laminated archtop with steel strings. Yet, the guitar is not overly prone to feedback or wolf tones. This is impressive considering that guitar is fully hollow. Plugged in the X-160 has a bright and snappy sound. The low end is decent although it doesn’t have the cannon-like punch produced by the Gretsch Dynasonics. Neither does it have the ultra-twang or nasal highs of a Telecaster, but the player is rewarded with good mids and glass-shattering upper end. The overall tone has strong fundamentals with fewer overtones than the Gretsch. Note separation and articulation is very good. Pure nickel wrap strings helped to tame some of the top end brittleness, but at times I have roll back the tone control to smooth the high end. The neck pickup has satisfying blues tone. With both pickups selected, the sound has the characteristic nasal honk, but the amount of “quack” is not adjustable since there isn’t a separate volume pot for each pickup. Nevertheless, the Guild is a very competent guitar, but I can see a set of TV Jones T-Armonds in its future.
The Gretsch’s soundpost deadens the acoustic tone of the guitar quite a bit. While acoustic tone is lost in favor of feedback resistance, the Gretsch is more prone to feedback and wolf tones than the Guild. My guess is because the Dynasonic pickups are so much hotter than the DeArmond 2000s. Sidebar: one other thing I noticed is that the fingerboard extension begins floating above the top starting at the 16th fret on the Gretsch and at the 18th fret on the Guild. Back to the guitars’ sound: plugged in, the 6120DSV is a bright guitar, but one with a thicker sound. The low end is focused, powerful and hits like a sledge hammer. The guitar produces a lot of overtones which thickens up the sound, albeit at the expense of note separation when really pushing it at higher volumes. A good description of the Gretsch’s tone is “woody”. That may be cliche, but when comparing it to the Guild, it’s the first word that comes to mind. The neck pickup tone is impressive, especially for blues and jazz. The two-pickup setting has good quack-tone that is fully adjustable thanks to the separate volume controls.
Overall, they are both very fine archtop guitars. Vive la différence!
