If anyone is interested, I stopped by Flores Music in Peoria this morning for my clarinet lesson, and they had a "Super Chet" sitting in there that someone had traded. They were asking $1,600 for it. Obviously, this was before Gretsch got the Chet name back, so it doesn't actually say Super Chet on it. It looked good, and played well, and you don't see many of the reissues floating around. Not my cup of tea, but I know some of you like them. Anyway, here are some photos I snapped.
Splitting hair here, but that's more like the "Deluxe Chet" which was less expensive.
Main difference was the Super had the controls in the pickguard I think and the deluxe had your regualr gretsch knobs
...that's how it looks to me...The opinion expressed above is my own and does not necessarily reflect the views of this station. Your mileage may vary...
It's almost like a cross between the two Norm. It has the fancy inlays like the Super Chet instead of the thumb print inlays like the Deluxe Chet. But the fancy inlays on this one is plain white pearl instead of the colorful abalone. It has the extra binding on the sides like the Super Chet, but it don't appear to have the several mulitiple layer binding on the rest of the body like the Super Chet had. Of course you mentioned the pickguard/knob configuration. The Deluxe Chet had 5 knobs on the body, this guitar has 4. The Super Chet had 5 also, but on the pickguard. So this guitar is not a real reissue of either guitar that I can tell. Nice looking guitar though.
I might be wrong, but I think the 'nut width' on these reissues are not 1 3/4 but 1 11/16ths--thats too bad, or I would try and get one of these at this kind of price--nice looking guitar, but the plain inlay is not up to the quality of the original abalone inlays--but I bet the bindings and other features are better than the original--especially having the control knobs on the guitar like the Deluxe Chet--Bob
speaking of the 'super chet' pots on the pickguard--I have some in my parts cabinet that are new, if any of you 'super chet' owners would like a 'spare'---two are perfect, but one has the outside knob cracked and a piece missing--the pot itself is new though--let me know--I won't part with them for pennies but I would be reasonable as they are almost impossible to obtain--