5/14/2003: CAT scanned guitar

If you've ever seen Brian Setzer, and chances are you have, he was playing a Gretsch guitar. All of the Stray Cats records were done with a 1959 Gretsch 6120. This particular model with a specific kind of bracing was only made from 1959-1961, and there aren't that many of them. When Setzer asked Gretsch to build a new one with the same kind of bracing as his old favorites, they figured they would have to tear one apart to figure out to see exactly how it was built.

OR, they could just do a CAT scan on it. So that's what they did.



A Stray CAT scan?

So, how is this different from an XRay? I thought a CAT scan was for taking internal "slices."

A CT scan does use X-rays. (manufacturers dropped the "A" for Axial some time ago, probably when they added spiral). But it uses them to generate a 3D dataset representing the scanned object, not a simple 2D image. For some reason they've done a projection through the dataset to produce an image which looks like a regular X-ray, but you can actually slice it any way you want to.

To paraphrase The Joker to Batman. Where Do you find these items, UT.

There was a violin maker who did the same thing a few years ago, trying to remake the sound of the old Stradivarious instruments.

Kind of hip.

-sm

This one came from the Yahoo! News picture section, and then I did some research to "add value".

I like the GE logo and the microwave controls on top of the scanner. When can I get one for home use? I guess I'll need to get a USB 2.0 card soon ..

I wonder if he could claim the guitar as a dependent and have the procedure covered under his health insurance plan?:p

Bored techs will scan just about anything. At a previous job we had a scan of a rubber band ball.

If you're waiting for a CT, at least around the Philly area, it's not for any valid reason; it's insurance company/hospital nonsense.

I'm told they routinely do a head CT on anyone who is taken to HUP emergency room, so if you REALLY want one...

They probably paid out of pocket!!

So was it successful? Did they learn anything useful to aid them in building a guitar?

Why does the guitar in the photo have no hardware but the "x ray" have a whammy bar, knobs and pick ups?

Cat scan On A Hot Tin Roof

Maybe they did an MRI by accident, and all those hardware pieces were violently ripped out by the enormous magentic field?