NAMM 2016: Grestch Streamliner and Players Edition Guitars
A tour of the new Gretsch guitars lineup at NAMM 2016, including the new Streamliner and Players Edition guitars.
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Hi, we're here with Long and McQuade looking at the new Streamliners for Gretsch guitars. This is a brand new collection of guitars. What we're looking at is a series of guitars which have a great deal of detail, which comes from Gretsch history, the long legacy over the last 60 years, all brought together now in this brand new series.
Let's start with this one. We'll have a look at this. One of the biggest new features of these guitars, is the whole range with a new pick ups. These are the Broad'Tron pick ups. You'll find them on all the new stream liners. They've been developed especially for these guitars by the Gretsch team, headed up by Chris Fleming.
Tonally speaking, what you've got is somewhere between the classic Gretsch Filter’Tron sound and the classic Humbucker sound. You still have the clarity and the bite and the smooth top end but with the fullness and sound of a classic Humbucker. Makes really great for a high distortion modern over -rive sounds. These are really great guitars, to really crank up and rock out with.
What else have we got? On this guitar, you see the other common features. For example, these knobs are based on the knobs you'll find on Gretsch Electro one and two back in the early 50s. The pick guard is the classic sort of Georgette Teardrop shape on there. We've got the secured bridge. We've got on the fret board on here, we have the big block inlays that you find on Gretsch's from the mid, early 50s. Really, loads of stuff from the history of Gretsch brought together here on this particular guitar, in this beautiful sunset finish, which is reminiscent of the colour we introduced in 1958 on the Tennessee Rose.
This particular one is the hollow body version, 2420T classic Gretsch shape. 16 inches across the, this is really the quintessential Gretsch in terms of the shape, the hollow body. We have 3 versions of this. 2 with Bigsby, 1 without. We have the flagstaff sunset, we have the new color, the gold dust, just over here. It's a metallic gold finish. Again, with the Bigsby B60 on there.
Then we have the new sunburst, an aged Brooklyn Burst. With this one, you get the option, the Hardtail version, which is the chromatic tail piece. Again, a new design for the Streamliners but a classic design. You can see the influence there from the old chromatic tail piece of the 40s, the g cutout tale piece that we still do on many other guitars. That's the hollow body, the 2420T and 2420.
The next part of the Streamliner collection is the double cut center block guitar. 2422. What you have is a double cut thin line model and this has a center block going all the way down the middle here. It's what we call the trestle block. Reason being, it's a solid piece of spruce that goes all the way from top to tail but has a big chambered section in the middle, which really helps to relieve the weight of it, gives it a big resonant tone that you'd expect from a semi hollow guitar. It also helps to focus the sound and resistant to feedback, so when you're playing really high gain sounds, when you're really playing a rock gig heavy loud noisy, you can really control any feedback that you get.
The other features are common with the other guitar. The thin knobs, the same pick guard and the same broad drawn pickups. This one of course, has a Bigsby B70 on it to get that right tension from the bridge. This color is a brand new color again, Torino Green. Really cool color, kind of reminiscent of the original Streamliners, it's from the late 60s, those particular brands of Streamliners. The Streamliner name itself has a heritage in Gretsch history as well.
On the Hardtail version of the 2422, we have a new tail piece. This is a brand new Gretsch V stock tail piece. Again, it's a new design, it's new for these guitars but it has legacy in Gretsch history. The V-shaped design is reminiscent of the Cadillac tail piece from the Faulkens and from the Penguins. Also, you can see that sort of v shape in the Gretsch branded Bigsby's where they have the v cutout on those. The inspiration and influence with this tail piece is certainly Gretsch but it's a brand new thing for these guitars at the same time. This one finished in this beautiful trans walnut stain.
The 2422 also available in the flagstaff sunset with Bigsby option. We also have down here the left handed version. If you're a southpaw, you get the option of having this one with the Hardtail and the flagstaff sunset.
Finally, in the Streamliner range, the 3rd model … you can see it's a bit more compact, 13 and a half inches across, just like the Jets. That sort of Jet size but still the semi hollow construction. Still with that Spruce center block with the trestle style, sorry, trestle block racing which has the chambering in the middle to keep it really nice and light weight. The small size, light weight, you can throw this guitar around the stage, you can jump around with it, do whatever you want. You can wang the Bigsby and you can go places. Same thing, big block inlays, a classic Gretsch head stock. Walnut stain on this one, the Bigsby also comes, the Bigsby versiona also comes in classic black. We have the non Bigsby version right here in the flagstaff sunset again. Again, with that v stop tail piece.
Great range of guitars, great price. You get a lot of guitar for the money. This is the sort of guitar that if you have never tried a Gretsch before, this is a great way to enter into the Gretsch world, try out what we do. If you're already a Gretsch fan or a Gretsch player, you can get one of these as a backup guitar or second guitar. Every guitar collection needs at least one of these pieces because they're just great for the money. That's the Gretsch Streamliner collection.
We're going to go talk about the Players Edition next. Let's go and look at them. We're looking now at the Gretsch professional collection Players Edition. Brand new line for the professional collection. These are the contemporary Gretsch, these are the modern Gretsch for the modern player. This is a guitar you can use every night, every gig, every song. It's not just a one song guitar anymore. You can play the full gig on these guitars and not have to worry about anything to do with tuning, any of the issues that you might expect. I'll tell you why.
We'll start at the top here. This is of course a flagship model for Gretsch, the Gretsch White Falcon with that classic big old head stock on there and those Imperial tuners but on this particular model, we're looking at locking tuners. We start the whole recipe with these locking tuners. From there, we go down through to the nut which is a Graftec Tusq XL nut. It's self lubricating and also because it's artificial ivory, it has great tone, great sustain. Strings go down the ebony flat board over the … pick ups to the locking bar bridge. This is the next part of the recipe for tonality and for tuning stability. We think this bridge is the best one you can use. It's solid brass, there's no moving parts, great sustain, great tone, full sound. That's sitting on a pinned ridge base so that's not sliding around anywhere. No matter how hard you strum it, that's not going anywhere.
Then, that goes down to this new feature as well. This is obviously a Bigsby B6 but it's the new, string through Bigsby version so the strings now, instead of going onto pins, they go through holes in the bar there and round and up to the locking tuners. It's the quickest restring on any guitar you'll every try. Just put it through there, up there, tighten up, and you're done. Obviously it also has tuning stability that is pretty much unparalleled. Really excellent tuning stability. These guitars are also slightly thinner. A classic Falcon is 2 and 3/4 inches thick, this is 2 and 1/4 inches so it's a little bit more manageable to get your arm around so you don't get fatigued throughout a long gig. That's all the visual stuff from the outside but we've got more secrets on the inside of these guitars.
I have to say, by the way, that on the Players Edition guitars, we have all the classic Gretsch models that everyone loves but they all share these same features, all the features I'm telling you about are on all these guitars. The Nashville Anniversary, Country Gent, Tennessee Rose, they all share these same features. To continue with those features, the secret stuff.
On the master volume control, and by the way, we have that classic Gretsch layout of master volume, volume per pickup and a master tone. On the volume control, we have a treble. Now, you turn that down, you're not going to lose your tone, you can maintain that nice high end that Gretsch are known for, but just adjust the volume accordingly. Then, on the tone control, and this is a brand new feature for Gretsch, again, this is a no load tone control. It has a slight indent so when you turn it up to 10 completely bypass the tone control. Then, go through the indent and then you've got a classic tone control, except with our new paper and oil squeeze box capacitors, you have a really smooth transition down that tone. You're never to get muddy, you just get great tone all the way down.
Finally, on the inside of these guitars we have ML bracing, which is a modern variant on our classic trestle bracing. It has 2 feet that joint the guitar top to the back so you really have a solid feeling guitar. You have better sustain, you have some feedback resistance, but you also, because it only has 2 features, instead of 4 like the trestle bracing, you have a big, open hollow bodied sound, a lot more air moving through this guitar so you really get the full sound that you've come to love from Gretsch and hollow body guitars.
As I've said, that's the White Falcon. We also have the Black Falcon which is missing right now and we have a Country Gentleman, we have the Tennessee Rose, we have the lefty Falcon, we've got something for everyone up here. Over this side, we have another new colour as well, just to talk about that. This is an Anniversary model. Anniversaries of course, introduced in 1958. It's probably the longest running anniversary model in history but we have the classic two tone finish that anniversary models are know for, but this one has a new colour scheme.
This is lotus ivory on the top, and charcoal metallic back and sides. Again, with all those features that I've just mentioned to make it the most playable Gretsch that you'll ever see. This one, because it's an anniversary doesn't have the binding on the flat board and the air folds, makes it really cool work horse guitar. You can really thrash this one out and you know it's not going to go wrong. You know it's just going to serve you well through every song, every gig, every night. That's the Gretsch Players Edition. I hope you enjoyed it and I think, yeah, go and check them out. Go and check them out Long and McQuade great guitars Namm 2016. Thanks very much.
