Gretsch G5222 EMTC D. Jet BT V-St

BODY: Mahogany
NECK: Maple, bolt-on
FINGERBOARD:
Indian laurel
FRETS: 22
SCALE: 29.75”
PICKUPS: 2x Gretsch
Mini-humbuckers
CONTROLS: 1x
volume, 1x tone
SW ITCHING:
3-Position Toggle
HARDWARE:
Bigsby-licensed B50
Vibrato, anchored
Adjusto-Matic bridge,
chrome
FINISH: Black [as
reviewed], Airline
Silver
CONTACT: 0845 305
1122 / GretschGuitars
.com
AT A GLANCE
TOTAL GUITAR APRIL 2020
102
B
aritones might have enjoyed
a surge in popularity in recent
years with metal players
looking to put them into the
service of high-end, low-end
chug but they are nothing new, and
were originally designed for less
musically-destructive applications.
Hitherto their destructive potential
would have been restricted to
demarcation disputes with musicians’
unions; are you a bassist or a guitarist?
Well, using this you are kind of both.
Picking up the G5260T, that’s the fi rst
thing that hits you. It’s a six-string,
the geometry seems in proportion,
familiar, and that neck profi le,
a shallow C, is never going to fool
you in a blind taste test with a P-Bass,
but it sure does feel like a diff erent
instrument; like a bass. This is how
baritones were originally intended.
Duane Eddy, a man whose tone should
be listed in all good dictionaries under
‘twang’, used a Danelectro Longhorn
4623 liberally – most famously on
1959’s The Twang’s The Thang –
and his signature tone was faithfully
transposed to the longer 30-inch scale
instrument. You’ll fi nd the same
experience with the G5260T. It has
a solid mahogany body, a big ol’ slab
with a similarly-scaled maple neck
with a four-bolt heel, and once you
catch your breath after hearing the
low sixth-string – here tuned to A –
rumble for the fi rst time, you’ll be
struck by how much of that Gretsch
elastic growl is in its tone. The musical
possibilities soon stretch out in front
of you. As Gretsch guitars go, the
electronics are simple. There are two
mini-humbuckers, G-Arrow master
volume and tone controls, and
a three-way pickup selector. Clean, dry
tones reveal a baseline piano-esque
bass tone, ideal for sitting under the
hurdy-gurdy clang of a modern beat
combo, but dial in some spring reverb,
some tremolo and slapback delay and
you’re back in the orbit of 50s rock ’n’
roll tones. Here, the G5260T truly
excels, with the Bigsby-licensed
B50 vibrato on hand to provide a little
wobble to those oh-so-dreamy chords.
If you liked Vinnie Bell’s playing on the
Twin Peaks soundtrack then the G5260T
is a fun entry-point into that world.
G5260T JET
BARITONE
That twang is back in style
TH
E G
AS
S
T
A
T
I
O
N
£659
“THE GEOMETRY SEEMS IN PROPORTION,
FAMILIAR, BUT IT SURE DOES FEEL LIKE
A DIFFERENT INSTRUMENT; LIKE A BASS”
G5260T JET
TGR330.gear_test.indd 102 27/02/2020 13:39