Gretsch | Leadbetter Rabid Dog Relic | Electromatic G5230T | Gretsch HiloTron Single Coil Pickups | Battle Relic Olive Drab | Bigsby

This guitar came to us as a brand spanking new Gretsch G5230T Electromatic Jet BT in Firebird Red. 

It was selected as a candidate for the Leadbetter Guitar Co “Rabid Dog Relic” treatment by workshop manager Joel Wheeler. 

The Process

We hand sanded as much of the original poly finish off as possible, added some battle wear and tear and refinished the top in our custom Battles Relic Olive Drab finish. 

Gretsch HiloTron pickups are essentially a single coil version of the famed FilterTron pickups. They are bright, detailed, very defined and full of chime. There is almost an acoustic guitar style top end to them. The sound of 50’s rock’n’roll. Hell yeah! 

We minimised the electronics down to master volume and pickup selector to simplify the signal path and maximise the tone. 
As with all of our relics, we upgraded the Pots and Jack sockets to US made Switchcraft/Dimarzio parts. 
heavy gauge cloth braided wire was used through out. 

All other hardware has been hand relic’d. 

Precision setup with Ernie Ball Regular Slinky’s by Joel in the Nepean Music Workshop.

This release of “Rabid Dog Relics” for June 2022 is unique in that there is only one of each guitar.

Available from Friday 2nd June. 
On display at Nepean Music Mornington now. 

Shipping within Australia is $59.