TV Jones is a renowned pickup maker, but the American company is no slouch when it comes to electric design, either. Chris Vinnicombe takes the Spectra Sonic for a spin…
TV Jones is a brand name synonymous with aftermarket reproductions of vintage Gretsch pickups, but the company – headed up by Thomas V Jones – is responsible for a line of electric s, too. Hang on a minute, though… doesn’t the Spectra Sonic Supreme look a little familiar? That’ll be because the design has been around for a while.
Back in 2000, taking inspiration from a Kay Tuxedo that someone had brought to him for repair, Jones collaborated with the Gretsch company and Brian Setzer’s tech Rich Modica on a line of Spectra Sonic instruments that included a six-string electric, a ‘C Melody’ baritone and a four-string bass model.
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Although early Spectra Sonics were manufactured Stateside in the Hamer factory, production quickly shifted to Japan. However, by the end of 2005, the Spectra Sonic was dropped from the Gretsch catalogue altogether.
Happily, the story didn’t end there, with Jones taking up the baton following the end of his licensing agreement with Gretsch. Production continues today in the respected Terada factory in Japan in which many Gretsch-badged s are still made.
All new Spectra Sonics are shipped back to the US and set up by TV Jones before leaving his facility, which was previously in California but is now near Seattle.
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The Supreme is joined in the range by a Standard model with a more stripped-down aesthetic. TV Jones Spectra Sonics have been available direct from the company for some time but they are now much easier to get hold of in the UK thanks to The North American in Hoxton. Time to remind ourselves of what all the fuss is about…
With its chambered alder body and maple top the Spectra Sonic Supreme weighs a healthy but manageable 8.2lbs. The body width of 15.25 inches means that it’s on the large side but it certainly doesn’t feel unwieldy and it balances superbly when strapped on. Those of us with larger frames will appreciate the extra girth – it’s nice to play a without f-holes that doesn’t look like a ukulele when worn by a tall person!
As the bridge posts are screwed into the top and the neck join is rather Les Paul like in construction, there’s more of a low-profile feel here than you’d typically get from a vintage-style Gretsch. The Spectra Sonic is very player friendly as a result – throw in a comfortable, medium-depth maple neck that sits in the ‘just right’ zone for the vast majority ists and it’s a compelling proposition.
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Unplugged there’s a balanced response with a lovely, complex high-end and long sustain from open chords. Fire up your amp, dial in lashings of spring reverb, fret some spacey chord shapes, give that arm a gentle wobble and listen to those shifting harmonics. The Spectra Sonic Supreme is a on which you can play fewer notes yet somehow fill more space and sound better in the process.
Although an ABR-1 bridge isn’t everyone’s first choice in combination with a Bigsby, the brass-saddled unit here works superbly well in practice. Aided by that slippery Delrin nut, even with a robust right-hand approach to the B12’s whammy bar, the tuning remains stable with the supplied set of D’Addario 0.010 to 0.046 strings. The B12 is a lesser-spotted member of the Bigsby family, but performance is very similar to a B7, the one practical advantage being that the strap button sits proud of the hinge plate rather than low in a cutout, so attaching your strap is less of a faff.
When comparing the Spectra Sonic to our 2013 Gretsch Center Block Panther fitted with High Sensitive Filter’Tron pickups and manufactured in the same Terada factory, the Gretsch’s voice proves thicker and throatier. The Spectra Sonic has an extra layer of glistening high-end harmonics and offers a slightly more comfortable ride in higher registers when it comes to playability. That said, high bends on the plain strings still have that slightly plinky, fast decay akin to tapping the keys on the cobweb-covered upper reaches of an old piano. It’s all part of the vibe!
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Overall, the Spectra Sonic experience is much more like playing a scaled up Jet than something like a Falcon or 6120, and that includes how it responds when you add some gain into the mix. When played with overdrive, that high-end sparkle and definition helps to stop chords turning into mush when you cruise past Malcolm Young and in to Billy Gibbons territory.
As long as lead acrobatics aren’t your bread and butter, for retro-pop, roots, indie or raunchy rock ’n’ roll the Spectra Sonic Supreme delivers the goods and looks fantastic in the process. Inevitably a with so much Gretsch in its DNA invites you to travel down familiar roads when it comes to playing style, but the elegant simplicity and refined nature of the Spectra Sonic design give the its own identity. ‘That Great Gretsch Tone’ in technicolour? You’d better get hip to it, daddy-o.
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We take some of the world's most exciting ists to our favourite stores, and explore the racks and pedal cabinets to learn about their gear highs and lows, the instruments that have defined their journeys and the s that they just can't live without.
The Unique Guitar Blog: The Gretsch Spectrasonic Guitars And The Tv Jones Spectrasonic Supreme Guitars
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More Originals coming soon, featuring your favourite artists and gear - sign up for our newsletter to always be in the know!If you’ve had the pleasure of seeing Brian Setzer in concert in the last 10–12 years, one of the coolest moments—from both musical
A gear-nerd perspectives—was probably when he busted out a long-scale guitar with a oddly shaped pickguard and proceeded to twang the crud out of “Mystery Train.”
Spectra Sonic C Melody Baritone
That guitar is a baritone based on a prototype built by Tom Jones from TV Jones. Setzer has long been an ambassador for TV Jones—he uses TV Classics in nearly all his Gretsches—and he’s played a huge role in the popularity of Jones’ larger pickup line. In addition to being stock on many high-end Gretsches, Jones’ pickups are stock in the Fender Custom Shop’s La Cabronita line, and are a highly sought-after upgrade item for many tone freaks.
But while Jones is primarily known for his kick-ass variations on vintage Gretsch Filter’Tron pickups, he also offers custom-order instruments such as the Model 10 solidbody and Spectra Sonic Supreme semi-hollowbody. About 10 years ago, Jones also sold baritone guitars based on the original prototype that Setzer debuted at his June 29, 2000, gig in Kettering, Ohio, where he used it to perform “I Won’t Stand in Your Way” and “Mystery Train” (check out the fantastic video of Setzer playing the latter during his 2006 Japan tour on YouTube). Now, a decade later, Jones has brought that guitar—the Spectra Sonic C Melody baritone— back into the fold.
From top to bottom, the 29.4-scale C Melody is an impeccably built instrument. Its 1.9-thick, chambered alder body is topped with a beautifully figured (but not gaudy) maple cap finished in nitrocellulose lacquer and bound with white-and-black celluloid. The TV Jones Classic bridge and Magna’Tron neck pickups are governed by aluminum-knobbed volume and tone controls, as well as a 3-position Switchcraft toggle. The U.S.-made Bigsby B11 vibrato is paired with a Tune-o-matic-style bridge featuring notched brass saddles.
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The 3-ply, U-shaped maple neck joins the body at the 16th fret and features a bound, radiused ebony fretboard with 22 medium frets and classy little popsicle-shaped inlays. The bound headstock features a 14-degree string-break angle, a 44 mm Delrin nut, Sperzel tuners, and a mother-of-pearl logo inlay.
To test the C Melody’s tones, I plugged it into a Goodsell Valpreaux 21 with a ceramic-magnet Jensen Falcon 12, as well as a 12 extension cab loaded with WGS ET-65 speaker based on a 65-watt, Rola-era (pre-1970) Celestion. For tonal variety, I also augmented the Valpreaux’s clean and overdrive tones with a Pigtronix Fat Drive and a 2-knob Keeley Compressor.
From the outset, the C Melody—which was designed to be tuned C to C in order to be more horn-friendly with Setzer’s big band—was a dream to play. If your primary experience with twang-oriented baritones is with the face-slappingly affordable models Danelectro has been putting out since the ’50s, playing the TV Jones will feel like moving
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