Quote:
Originally Posted by Mich Novice
Seems Gretsch back in the day was to electrics what Yamaha is to acoustics. Affordable, legit guitars that many began on.
I vow to get a Gretsch. And for some reason I have always felt it should be orange. They just feel right. And gotta love that Gretsch sound...
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As an ex-Brooklyn boy (my grandparents lived three blocks from the old 60 Broadway plant, and just down the block from the warehouse) who cut his musical teeth in the early/mid-60's - that time period when Brill Building/Phil Spector "Wall of Sound," late doo-wop, and surf were intermingling with first-wave British Invasion and the homegrown soul of Motown and Atlantic/Stax/Volt - Gretsch was far and away the first "good" guitar you owned in those days, as Epiphone had been a generation before during its New York era; as you said, affordable and legit, and like no other on the market
if you got a good one - in 55 years I've probably played a good few hundred, and let's just say that some models from some periods of production are better than others...
That said, if you're after "that Great Gretsch Sound" you'll be pleased to know that you don't have to pay an arm, a leg, and a couple other vital appendages
for a cherry-picked vintage original or the current Professional Series. Check out the new Korean-made Electromatic 5400/5600 Series of hollow and semi-hollow instruments (not to be confused with the Indonesian/Chinese 2000-Series) - I'll go on record here and state without reservation that in terms of fit/finish/QC/tone/playability, they're some of the finest guitars ever to bear the Gretsch name,
period, and the fact that they're all priced under $1K street (
well under in some cases) is just icing on the cake. FYI I bought a 3-PU 5622T-CB (now discontinued) in May '16, and whoever is responsible for the Korean operation really did his homework - close your eyes, plug into a nice tube amp, and you'll swear you're playing one of the better Brooklyn boxes in both feel and tone; BTW they've also got the entire gamut of classic Gretsch cosmetics covered - White Falcon (single- and double-cut), Country Gent, "Mike Nesmith" Viking 12-string, 6120 (single- and double-cut), Double Anniversary, the rare '64-66 6117 cats' eye (recently discontinued but still available as new-old stock), Duo-Jet, and even the Fairlane Blue Brian Setzer - so unless you just "gotta have
that one" (and some folks do) I personally see little if any reason to spend three times as much on the Japanese-made Professional Series, or more for a well-maintained (and playable) original...