Retro Rumble - The Gretsch G5265 Baritone
Written: Feb 22 '09 (Updated Feb 23 '09)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: The G5265 mixes great looks with retro rumble with top-notch hardware. Works great as bass.
Cons: Slightly neck heavy.
The Bottom Line: Recommended for retro rockers, guitar players after something different or bass players who wish to add some spice to their playing. Great looks, finish and sound in an affordable package.
|
|
|
| Eutek's Full Review: Gretsch G5265 Jet Baritone |
I am not a bass player. I like to fancy that I am, but the truth is that after 20+ years of playing the guitar, my hands are just used to the spacing and feel of a guitar neck, and whenever I try to lay down a bass track chaos ensues.
For this reason (and the fact that I'm a Gretsch fanatic), when I saw the Gretsch G5265 Baritone guitar, I had to give it a try. I am very glad I did. Despite it's title as a baritone guitar, I was curious to see if I could use it as a bass.
I do not want to go into too much detail about the history and uses of the baritone guitar, I am sure that if you made it this far you have a pretty fair notion of what it is all about. That being said, the Gretsch G5265 is not really a true baritone guitar, but rather more akin to a Fender Bass VI.
This suits me to the proverbial T, as I need a a bright, snappy bass with which to record with in my home studio.
Thanks to the 29.75" scale neck, you are able to tune this instrument E-to-E. This will allow you to play bass lines with ease (less so if you are a true bassist used to proper bass string spacing), as well as familiar guitar chord shapes. The latter can be used to interesting effect. Thanks to the solid construction, chords ring out and have an almost piano-like sustain.
For those of you who do want to use this guitar as a true B-to-B baritone, I advise you to get a lighter set of strings. D'Addario makes them. The stock strings are too heavy, and you risk either breaking them or damaging the guitar if you try to tune them to B.
The G5265 comes with two TV Jones-designed mini humbuckers. I'm a fan of anything that TV Jones puts out, and these pickups are no exception. They are bright, snappy and punchy - without being overpowering. You will most likely have to adjust the pole pieces slightly, as mine came from the factory with them level and straight across the board. A slight tweak to the low E and A pole pieces resulted in a more balanced sound.
The fit and finish on this guitar is very, very good, and the hardware is of a surprising quality. The frets were polished and even, free of burrs. The Grover tuners do a great job of keeping the guitar in tune, and the Bigsby tremolo - a rare sight on a bass guitar - works surprisingly well. Intonation is a breeze thanks to the adjustomatic bridge, like you would find on several Gretsch and Gibson guitars.
The black sparkle finish oozes retro cool. It looks great from whatever angle you view it, and is sure to look the business on stage. I noticed that the guitar is slightly neck-heavy, but this is no surprise due to the small body size and long scale neck.
Through a guitar amp, it sounds like a strange bass/guitar hybrid, like what Godzilla would play if he was a guitarist.
Put it through a proper bass amp, and it does a good job as a bass. Granted, you are not going to get the snap and punch of a proper Fender P-bass, but it is close. Mix in a guitar and some drums, and you will be hard-pressed to notice the difference.
In the studio, it does the job with aplomb. The tone is bright, punchy and has lots of bite. An added bonus are the chords I can throw in now and then, not to mention the Bigsby wobbles.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Eutek
|
|
Location: NY-Dublin-London-Bucharest
Reviews written: 56
Trusted by: 1 member
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.