Gretsch G6134T-58 Vintage select Penguin
beef than you’d find on, say, a Gibson
R8 Les Paul reissue.
But what’s the deal with that extra
quarter inch in the body depth? Well, we
were taken aback by how the Vintage Select
guitars beat our own 10-year-old ’57 Duo Jet
1.75-inch deep reissue in acoustic volume
and twang. Plug in, crank the reverb, flick
on the neck pickup and manhandle the
Bigsby arm, and it sounds like someone
just dropped your amp down a well. The
chambered two-inch body gives you a
semi-acoustic tone that’s bigger than,
say, a Gibson ES-335. It’s almost like they
managed to squeeze a big ol’ G6120 into
those little bodies.
Like the DeArmond-made DynaSonic
originals, the TV Jones T-Armond
singlecoils on the ’57 Duo Jet are bright,
lively and give their best through a clean
or lightly driven amp. The middle position
on the pickup switch is just wonderful for
50s country jazz and rockabilly picking.
The neck pickup is warm but there’s still
bags of definition. Again, it’s much happier
with cleaner tones.
The ’58 Penguin offers much more
grunt. The Filter’Tron humbucker is
Professional Series guitars, which includes
our Vintage Select Editions. In recent
years, it’s the sub-£1,000 guitar sector
that has seen the biggest shift in build
quality, and bang for your buck, with the
Electromatic range playing an important
role in that growth by offering iconic
designs at affordable prices. Our G5435T
Pro Jet features the same scale length,
fingerboard radius and fret count as the
Vintage Select guitars. Costs are kept in
check with a chambered basswood body
but you get the laminated maple top, a
pair of Black Top Filter’Tron pickups and
a licensed Bigsby.
The question is, how well will our Pro Jet
hold its own in this illustrious company?
There’s only one way to find out…
SOUNDS & FEEL
While the Electromatic Pro Jet has a super
slim neck that’s obviously aimed at modern
players, the Vintage Select guitars are
packing a bit more meat. That said, we were
expecting them to be a bit fatter given the
spec list’s boast of a ‘U’ profile. You actually
get closer to a chunky ‘C’ feel with a bit less
one of the great rock pickups. It’s the
rhythmic backbone of AC/DC, the sound
of Beatlemania-era George, Steve Marriott
on Small Faces 45s like All Or Nothing, Pete
Townshend’s tone on The Who’s mod opera
Quadropenia and almost everything Brian
Setzer ever recorded.
The TV Jones in the bridge is bright and
punchy. It jangles on a clean setting, and
thrives with a touch of valve compression.
Dish the dirt and you get some of Malcolm
Young’s immortal rhythm tone from
It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna
Rock ‘N’ Roll).
Thanks to Mr Setzer the FilterTron has
become to go-to pup for rockabilly hound
dogs despite the fact that original cats
like Cliff Gallup, Chet Atkins and Eddie
Cochran did the business with Dynasonics.
Gretsch has almost become typecast by
the rockabilly thing but the truth is that
Penguin absolutely kills at that stuff.
Despite its more modest price tag, the
Pro Jet can swing from classic 50s rock ‘n’
roll to hard rock and just about anything
else. These Black Top FilterTrons are not
just generic humbuckers. You actually
get some Gretsch mojo wrapped around
review
GRETSCH SINGLECUTS
92
GUITARIST NOVEMBER 2017
review
92
GUITARIST NOVEMBER 2017
VIDEO DEMO http://bit.ly/guitaristextra
1
2
3
GIT426.rev_gretsch.indd 92 05/10/2017 17:21