Gretsch Players Edition & Reissue Edition Guitars

review
GRETSCH PLAYERS EDITION & REISSUE EDITION GUITARS
88
Guitarist May 2016
GRETSCH PLAYERS EDITION & REISSUE
EDITION GUITARS
£1,899 – £3,199
CONTACT Fender GBI PHONE [phone] WEB www.gretschguitars.com
What You Need To Know
More Gretsch guitars? What’s
different here?
Indeed. For this year, Gretsch has
split its Professional Series into two
distinct strands: ‘Reissue Edition’
and ‘Players Edition’. The former are
classics with a few concessions to
the modern player; the latter are
less vintage-specific, with numerous
gigging-aimed upgrades.
I don’t play rockabilly: what’s
the interest?
Many a player has used a Gretsch
outside of its original style, and the
Players Edition models are designed
to ‘rock out’ with thinner bodies,
pretty firm ‘ML’ bracing and, not least,
‘string-thru’ Bigsbys with locking
tuners: a Gretsch without the hassle!
They’re a bit pricey…
The Professional Series are the
top-line Japanese-made models,
but Gretsch also has its mid-price
Electromatic range and the new-for-
2016 Streamliner mini ranges, which
all retail under £400.
caps, a treble-bleed circuit, No-Load tone
pots and thinner 2.25-inch body. These
models start lower, with two colour choices
of the Anniversary and a Tennessee Rose at
£1,899, one 6120 at £2,199 (left-handed at
£2,379) and a flame-maple version at £2,399.
The lone Country Gentleman is £2,249,
while the White and Black Falcons are
£2,799 – the lefty White Falcon topping the
range at £2,899. So, with a pair from each
edition to feast on, let’s get stuck in…
G6120T-55GE Reissue Edition
Chet Atkins
Irrespective of its history, this nitro-
finished beauty is superbly built. It’s
not aged in any way, and has none of the
construction quirks and blips that you’ll
find on an original piece. As with all our
models, it’s entirely built from laminated
maple, the top’s facing slightly flamed, and
there are even a few marks in the wood:
one by the lower tip of the treble-side wide
f-hole looks like an arrow – very in keeping
with the control knob motifs and Western
cattle-and-cactus inlays and headstock
logo. The cream binding around the body,
’board and head is all remarkably clean
and matches those aged block inlays to a T.
The neck is two-piece maple, with a central
thin contrasting veneer and additional
headstock wings, and the see-through light-
orange finish leaves nowhere to hide tooling
marks and the like, though we can’t see any.
It’s perhaps a little heavier than some
early examples we’ve played, although, like
many instruments of this period, variation
seems much wider than today’s more
consistent builds.
B
eing a heritage brand in 2016 can’t
be simple. If Fender strays too far
from its classics, we’re not happy.
Likewise, Gibson – or virtually any other
brand that had a part to play back in the
formative years of rock ’n’ roll. Gretsch is
certainly restrained by its past, even though
its classic hollowbodies have been used in
every mainstream musical genre from the
60s to the present day. So, what to do?
Well, keep that oh-so-classic aesthetic
in place, but make changes under the hood
to keep the modern player in mind. In a
nutshell, that duality is Gretsch in 2016. If
you want a pro-level ‘reissue’, we now have
the Reissue models and if you want the look,
but need something that’s more giggable
and usable for virtually any contemporary
style, we have the Players Edition.
Broadly speaking, the 10-strong reissue
models stick to the various specs of
yesteryear, with subtle concessions to the
modern player: we get TV Jones pickups,
aged binding and inlays, pinned bridges
(where applicable), bone nuts, ‘Squeezebox’
paper-in-oil capacitors with a treble-bleed
circuit (on the master volume only), and
vintage thick pickguards. Price-wise,
the range starts with the Anniversary at
£1,999, moves through the Tennessee
Rose (£2,099), a pair of Chet Atkins 6120s
(£2,599), a trio of Country Gentlemen,
including a 12-string (£2,399 to £2,699),
a lone Country Club (£2,549), and pair of
White Falcons (both £3,199).
The Players Edition models feature
‘ML’ bracing, pinned Rocking Bar bridges,
‘string-thru’ Bigsbys, strap locks, locking
tuners and Tusq XL nuts, those Squeezebox
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GIT406.rev_gretsch.indd 88 16/03/2016 08:09