Got me a Gretsch!

[MWaldorf]

It certainly makes my Gretsch look understated. Of course I love it!

I assume the three toggles are on/off for the pickups, and I'd guess a volume for each pickup and a master, but that leaves an extra knob and that varitone looking thing?!?

[Dennisthe Menace]

I would guess the other knob is a Master Tone control, and the Var-i-tone switch is probably a '5 way select' between the p'ups in
such you could get the out of phase 'Strat tone,' but with a Gretsch sound......But that's just a guess .

[MWaldorf]

I would guess the other knob is a Master Tone control, and the Var-i-tone switch is probably a '5 way select' between the p'ups in such you could get the out of phase 'Strat tone,' but with a Gretsch sound......But that's just a guess .

With an on/off for each pickup you don't need a 5-way selector, and with a master tone, I'm not sure what a Varitone would do, unless the varitone selects one of several types of tone shaping (treble cut, mid cut, bass cut, etc) and the master tone dials in the amount of said cut.

[Dennisthe Menace]

With an on/off for each pickup you don't need a 5-way selector, and with a master tone, I'm not sure what a Varitone would do, unless the
varitone selects one of several types of tone shaping (treble cut, mid cut, bass cut, etc) and the master tone dials in the amount of said cut.

I'm only guessing that Wenzel now has it wired in which the on/offs are serving as Master On/Off for each p'up, and the
Var-i-tone is now just another 5 way switch (like that of a 5 way Strat, but instead of a lever to switch contacts (p'ups), you now have
a potentiometer with the 5 contact selectors. And Mel, I'm only guessing, 'cause other than that, I have no clue....... .

[Sarah93003]

I will try to find the thread if ya'll want to read what he did to it.

[Dennisthe Menace]

Most Definitely

[Sarah93003]

Here is the message back from Chris (Wenzel)

Sarah,

http://gretschpages.com/forum/modern-gretsch-guitars/triple-pickup-country-club-revisited/14055/page1/

I did, but all of the pictures have been removed from the site for some reason. It's not that hard, but you have to understand guitar wiring a little bit. I had never done it before, but was able to figure it out. I basically turned the three way switches to on/off/on, that is up, middle, down. In the middle position, the pickups were deactivated. I added a third switch to do this and I used the standby switch to make the 3rd switch. You have to take the switch apart and convert it from a standby switch to an on/off/on switch, which wasn't that hard to do. Then I used the 3rd pickup to trace an area where I was going to cut the top for the pickup. I put blue painters tape over the top so I wouldn't scratch it. Once it was traced out I used a dremel with a cutting disc on it to make the cuts. I rounded the corners of the cuts with a round dremel bit that's used for sanding wood. Once the pickup fit properly, I wired it all up and put it back together. Once the pickup ring was installed, it worked and looked like it was from the factory! I did also add a vari-tone switch to the guitar as well, which all you need to do for that is follow the instructions and I think I wired that to the master volume knob so I didn't have to worry about the 3rd pickup being installed. I had 3 flavors of TV Jones pickups too. Classic, supertron and magnatron. I loved that guitar, but I parted with it only because I didn't like the long scale length. I hope this helps and let me know if you have any other questions.

[MWaldorf]

And from the linked thread:

" The varitone switch is obviously the black one and the knob closest to it is a push pull pot that adds 5 additional tones for a total of 10. "

So, the mystery of the fifth knob is solved!

[Sarah93003]

I can bring in photos if anyone needs to see them.

[Dennisthe Menace]

That......is a WILD set up!!......