T-Zone Tempered Treble

Another unusual Gretsch feature attributed to Jimmie Webster, who patented this in February of 1962. Webster was a piano player and also had his own piano tuning business. He figured that since most pianos are stretch-tuned, with the upper register a bit sharper than the bass to compensate for anomalies in human hearing, the same principle should apply to guitars. Essentially, all the frets above the 12th were angled by one degree so that the tuning was a bit sharp. Did it work? The legendary guitarist, Chet Atkins, confessed that this particular Jimmie Webster concept was, in his words, “a bit far-fetched.”