Brady’s AstroJet-Tele-Thing

Proof that you don’t have to spend big bucks to get a mojo machine…

Here’s an awesome axe owned by Brady, who put it together using various bits and pieces to his taste and playing needs. The outcome is a guitar that does the job, looks great and is definitely unique.

This is my main woman, she may be ugly but she sounds like a hooker after a few too many nangs, in the best way possible…

The body is a NOS Gretsch Astro Jet from the 60’s which I got on ebay for a steal. After I received it I realised that you need a neck to build a guitar and that I didn’t have the tools/skill/patience to put it all together myself so I enlisted the help of John from the Guitar Repairers in Red Hill to help me out. The neck is from a 70’s Japanese Tokai telecaster copy and has some nice wear on it, I’m not into all the technical terms regarding tone/feel. I prefer to use “good” or “shit” and this neck is “very good”. It’s a pretty standard tele shape but has been nicely worn over the years. John did some work on the neck pocket and it is a bolt on instead of a set neck which I don’t mind at all.


The neck pickup is just a cheap lipstick that I had in another guitar and got the idea from Tony’s SG. It sounds just bullshit good, you can get that twangy chime when the volume/tone is fully open or some pretty nice jazzier tones with the tone knob rolled back. The bridge pickup is a Billy Gibbons signature TV Jones Powertron + and it just growls. I like to have a lot of different tones/weird pickup combinations and I love Gretsch so this was a no brainer, it is hotter than a normal Powertron and this through my fuzz munchkin into my fender blues junior is just mean.


I’m not too concerned about the finish/lack thereof because this was meant to be my work horse and I can’t have nice looking guitars because I don’t treat them very well… but yeah this is my main woman at the moment, and I don’t see myself getting rid of it any time soon. It’s heavy, unconventional and looks like a guitar cross breeding project gone wrong, but I love it. You can see it being abused if you live in Brisbane with my band foster&lucifer. We suck.

Thanks to Brady for sharing his guitar with guitarnerd. If anyone out there has a guitar that they think is as cool as this… send in your story and some pics & I’ll post her up!

•••update: Brady has recently resprayed his Astro Jet and added a scratchplate… and I gotta say, it looks spectacular!