Gretsch has added three limited edition electric guitars to its entry-level Streamliner series, with all three featuring a Bigsby vibrato, gold hardware and sweet solid-colour finishes.
Indeed, it’s hard to believe that these will be priced $699 street and yet, here we are – ‘That Great Gretsch Sound’ for less.
The new models include the semi-hollow G2622TG Center Block Double-Cut with Bigsby, finished in Midnight Sapphire, and its smaller-bodied sibling the G2655TG Center Block Jr, which similarly has the double-cut body shape and arrives in Riviera Blue, and finally the single-cut G2420TG Hollow Body in the ever-classy Cadillac Green.
The two Center Block models are closely related, one with a full 16” arched maple body, the other scaled down (Grestch doesn’t list its proportions on the site but 13.5” rings a bell – the difference is considerable when you play them).
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Both take their name from a chambered block of maple at the heart of the body design which is in place to kill feedback and squeal at high volume. You will be especially grateful of this if you have an overdrive or a fuzz pedal in the mix.
The G2420TG is fully hollow, and gain, comprised of laminated maple on top, bottom and sides. And while care has to be taken when playing a hollowbody like this through a cranked guitar amp there is something magical about playing an electric in which so much air is present inside the body, working up a breeze through those f-holes.
This would make a neat first jazz guitar, too. But of course, stick it through an old tube-driven Fender amp, give it some spring reverb, a slapback delay and you’ll be riding the mystery train, so to speak.
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All three of these Gretsch guitars come fitted with a pair of Broad’Tron BT-3S humbuckers, which are hooked up to individual volume and tone controls, plus master volume and tone controls and a three-way pickup selector. Also, there’s a coil-splitter so you can get some single-coil action on all three guitars.
The neck profiles are particularly welcoming for younger players, with ‘Soft C’ Nato necks as standard, and those necks are glued to the body.
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Gretsch has not spared the aesthetic details. Besides the gold hardware, the aged white binding with black-and-white purfling on the top finishes the bodies nicely. There are the pearloid ‘Big Block’ inlays. You’ve got all that old-world rock ’n’ roll style with those G-Arrow knobs and the Bigsby? Well, the Bisgby will seal the deal for many of us, especially at this price.
Other specs include 12” laurel fingerboards (now, that price does exclude rosewood sadly), 24.75” scale lengths and bone nuts as standard, and we have an Adjusto-Matic bridge with laurel base across the board.
Priced $699, the limited edition Streamliners are available now. See Gretsch for more pics and details.
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