Opinions on new-ish Gretsch Electromatic Double Jet (G5232t more specifically)

jpttaylor

Looking to canvas opinion on the sort of new Gretsch G5232t Double Jet which came out last year - has anyone played one or something similar with the blacktop filtertrons? It seems pretty much ideal for me and ticks a lot of boxes for a guitar that shines more with distortion and fuzz.

I'm sort of confused by the following;
- It's only £50 more than the Streamliners (with bigsby)
- The difference between Blacktop Filtertrons, Blacktop Broadtrons and normal Broadtrons

I'd been set on a G2622t Streamliner for ages but I'm thinking whether the extra few quid initially will pay off in terms of not having to swap out pickups or electronics at some point down the road. I also have a (probably irrational) fear that the Double Jets are quite small and it'll feel a bit like a toy.

lincolnblue

I have a Gretsch Electromatic Duo Jet centre block which has aba filtertron. I'd not had a Gretsch before but it's a great sounding pickup. It's got a nice warm tone but still has clarity in the top end. Highly recommend

Yorkie

Coming back to this thread after a few years… I have been watching a few videos of these Electromatics — particularly the G5232t OP was interested in — and, while they look very cool, I am not 100% convinced they manage to capture ‘that Gretsch sound’. At least it’s not obvious from the videos. Does anyone have a different experience? 

Full disclosure: I might be in a position to trade one of mine for one of these. 

Jon

jpttaylor

I ended up buying one of these just under a year later, and I've loved playing it. I didn't know much about Filtertrons before buying, but after diving into the rabbit hole, I settled on the Blacktop FTs.

They're slightly less treble heavy than a typical Filtertron but they've definitely still got that Gretschy sound to them and I think they sound better with distortion than the regular type.

There are pages and pages on the Gretsch forum discussing the differences between different Filltertron varieties, but I think ultimately the differences are small, especially compared to something like the Broadtrons, which are very close to PAF-style pickups with a good treble response.

Yorkie

Cool! Which one did you get in the end?

jpttaylor

I went for the sapphire blue one which someone in north London was selling for around £250. It didn't come with a case and they'd done something weird to the strap buttons which I had to get sorted, but it's a fantastic guitar - the fit and finish is superb and it sounds fantastic.

Petepassion

I have the dark cherry metallic one.
a lot of guitar for the money. The pickup switch fell apart a few weeks after I bought it, but apart from that no issues.
   When using with a driven sound it has a lovely gruff sound to it, not like anything else I’ve owned.

TheMarlin

Blacktop filtertrons are excellent pickups. 

Not as chimey or Hifi as TV Jones (perfect if you play 100% clean tones only), but Blacktops sound better  if you use any breakup/OD tones. A fabulous all round pickup.  

OilCityPickups

TheMarlin said:

Blacktop filtertrons are excellent pickups. 

Not as chimey or Hifi as TV Jones (perfect if you play 100% clean tones only), but Blacktops sound better  if you use any breakup/OD tones. A fabulous all round pickup.  

I think Black tops ..... or in the case of my own guitar 'Pearl Tops' are the acceptable and easily digestible pickup option on a Gretsch. If you are going to play more 'modern music', they are a great compromise. They do a very acceptable Malcolm Young, and can do some very White Stripes/Black Keys Lo Fi fuzz shenanigans far better in my opinion than PAF style pickups as they have better clarity going in. 

If you want a classic rock and roll/rockabilly tone - they will do it okay, but rockabilly - and a great deal of rock and roll - pre dated the humbucker by several years and was made with single coils - with either P90s, Dynasonics or  on Telecasters. 


If you want a general purpose, play anything pickup on a Gretsch, you can't do much better than a Blacktop. 

dazzajl

Love the black tops! They’re the more slutty and sleazy side of the Filter family and my favourite 

The Electromatic Jets are not ‘real’ Gretches in my book. I put a pair side by side and wrote some pish to say why I thought the Electros are very excellent but not strictly Gretsch. 

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/248947/electromatic-vs-a-real-gretsch-jet/p1

OilCityPickups

dazzajl said:

Love the black tops! They’re the more slutty and sleazy side of the Filter family and my favourite 

The Electromatic Jets are not ‘real’ Gretches in my book. I put a pair side by side and wrote some pish to say why I thought the Electros are very excellent but not strictly Gretsch. 

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/248947/electromatic-vs-a-real-gretsch-jet/p1

Lol well my 5420T exhibits all the Gretsch capriciousness - in other words, you buy one, then spend yet more money buying bits to make it play the way you want ... it my well get a pair of Dynasonics to replace the BlackTops as they are a bit too polite for me. :-)

Yorkie

I am all about being polite and stuff. I can sound rude every now and then, but it’s always by accident. 

Yorkie

Do any of the bigger bodied Gretsches have filtertrons? 

OilCityPickups

Yorkie said:

Do any of the bigger bodied Gretsches have filtertrons? 

If you mean the Electromatics like my 5420T ... the Black Top is a Filtertron ... it's just not a 'classic' filtertron, having a different wind level and (certainly in the early ones) magnet size. 

Yorkie

OilCityPickups said:

Yorkie said:

Do any of the bigger bodied Gretsches have filtertrons? 

If you mean the Electromatics like my 5420T ... the Black Top is a Filtertron ... it's just not a 'classic' filtertron, having a different wind level and (certainly in the early ones) magnet size. 

Great to hear, thanks. Do the new blacktops come with larger magnets, or is it that all the blacktops you’ve dissected were early models? 

dazzajl

OilCityPickups said:

dazzajl said:

Love the black tops! They’re the more slutty and sleazy side of the Filter family and my favourite 

The Electromatic Jets are not ‘real’ Gretches in my book. I put a pair side by side and wrote some pish to say why I thought the Electros are very excellent but not strictly Gretsch. 

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/248947/electromatic-vs-a-real-gretsch-jet/p1

Lol well my 5420T exhibits all the Gretsch capriciousness - in other words, you buy one, then spend yet more money buying bits to make it play the way you want ... it my well get a pair of Dynasonics to replace the BlackTops as they are a bit too polite for me. :-)

Yup. The 5420s have all the old school Gretsch foibles that make them a labour of love. 

Yorkie

dazzajl said:

OilCityPickups said:

dazzajl said:

Love the black tops! They’re the more slutty and sleazy side of the Filter family and my favourite 

The Electromatic Jets are not ‘real’ Gretches in my book. I put a pair side by side and wrote some pish to say why I thought the Electros are very excellent but not strictly Gretsch. 

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/248947/electromatic-vs-a-real-gretsch-jet/p1

Lol well my 5420T exhibits all the Gretsch capriciousness - in other words, you buy one, then spend yet more money buying bits to make it play the way you want ... it my well get a pair of Dynasonics to replace the BlackTops as they are a bit too polite for me. :-)

Yup. The 5420s have all the old school Gretsch foibles that make them a labour of love. 

To make or to play? 

OilCityPickups

For those who don't know the ins and outs of Gretsch pickups:
Originally Gretsch hollow body guitars were fitted with DeArmond D2000 pickups, known as Dynasonics. These pickups had been around since the late 1940s and were hot and really quite snarly. Being 44awg wound to around 12.5k 
Pretty much all modern Dynasonics have had their output decreased, though they a

When Chet Atkins became a Gretsch endorsee he wanted pickups both more HiFi than the Dynasonic, and without hum.
Hence the arrival of the classic Filtertron in 1958 that was about 4.5k and had a huge 1/4 inch thick alnico 5 magnet. 

Just like Gibson had it's Norlin years, and Fender had its CBS years, Gretsch was bought by Baldwin ... and the quality went to hell in a handbasket. 

One thing that was done was that the Filtertron was 'modernised' with smaller magnets and it's that pickup that Gretsch says their Black Top Filtertron is based on.   

Fast forward to Gretsch being made in the Far East and the first Electromatics were fitted with basically a generic Far Eastern PSF style pickup, but 'Gretchified' with an H gate cover and twin rows of screw poles. These became known to Gretch aficionados as 'Dumbbuckers' and were also fitted to other far eastern hollow bodies like the Peavey Rockingham. 
These were the precursors of the so called Broadtrons fitted to Gretsch Streamliners ... in fact I have had both on the bench and can't find much difference. 

Yorkie said:

OilCityPickups said:

Yorkie said:

Do any of the bigger bodied Gretsches have filtertrons? 

If you mean the Electromatics like my 5420T ... the Black Top is a Filtertron ... it's just not a 'classic' filtertron, having a different wind level and (certainly in the early ones) magnet size. 

Great to hear, thanks. Do the new blacktops come with larger magnets, or is it that all the blacktops you’ve dissected were early models? 

  Not had a new Black Top apart ... but to my ear they lack the growl of the larger magnet size. 

Yorkie said:

dazzajl said:

OilCityPickups said:

dazzajl said:

Love the black tops! They’re the more slutty and sleazy side of the Filter family and my favourite 

The Electromatic Jets are not ‘real’ Gretches in my book. I put a pair side by side and wrote some pish to say why I thought the Electros are very excellent but not strictly Gretsch. 

https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/248947/electromatic-vs-a-real-gretsch-jet/p1

Lol well my 5420T exhibits all the Gretsch capriciousness - in other words, you buy one, then spend yet more money buying bits to make it play the way you want ... it my well get a pair of Dynasonics to replace the BlackTops as they are a bit too polite for me. :-)

Yup. The 5420s have all the old school Gretsch foibles that make them a labour of love. 

To make or to play? 

To play ... first of all the standard bridge rattles like a s--t house door in a force eight gale, and strings zing and ping behind it with all sorts of ghost harmonics ... hence the reason mine has a leather thong woven through the strings just in front of the Bigsby ... stops the ping. 
So ... usual form is to replace the bridge with a Tru-Arc or similar, some do a zero fret conversion that helps the Bigsby stay in tune better ... and that's before we get into swapping pickups ...  

TheMarlin

Early G5420 models were troublesome. 

Crappy buzzy bridge, nut the grips strings like a gorilla, pickup mounts that made it difficult to get the pickups close enough to the strings, crappy pots and wiring.  They took a lot of work to get them to play well reliably, but once done were good. 

The new ones are waaaaaaay better. Better bridge, great nut, better tuners,  better bridge, great quality pots and wiring, plus treble bleed. Proper pickup mounts. They just a good setup and you’re all set 

I’m my opinion, the pick of the Electromatic range is the Korean built Rat Rod G5410T.  Fantastic guitar, very similar to a Gretsch Anniversary in feel, and they play exceptionally well. 

They later moved production of the Rat Rod to China, but the Korean ones are better quality all round. I’d buy another in a heartbeat. 

OilCityPickups

TheMarlin said:

Early G5420 models were troublesome. 

Crappy buzzy bridge, nut the grips strings like a gorilla, pickup mounts that made it difficult to get the pickups close enough to the strings, crappy pots and wiring.  They took a lot of work to get them to play well reliably, but once done were good. 

The new ones are waaaaaaay better. Better bridge, great nut, better tuners,  better bridge, great quality pots and wiring, plus treble bleed. Proper pickup mounts. They just a good setup and you’re all set 

I’m my opinion, the pick of the Electromatic range is the Korean built Rat Rod G5410T.  Fantastic guitar, very similar to a Gretsch Anniversary in feel, and they play exceptionally well. 

They later moved production of the Rat Rod to China, but the Korean ones are better quality all round. I’d buy another in a heartbeat. 

Lol mine is a latest model ... well 2023 ... has a  bridge which buzzes and zings, tight nut slots, and both my pickups are 'up' as far as they go and the neck one is still 1/4+ inch shy of the strings. So the more things change, the more they stay the same :-) 
Tuners are good, electrics are good - and the action goes down to as low as my Gibson Les Paul. 

Deft

Any recommendations for a non-zingy bridge? I got a (very) cheap electromatic so don't want to throw money at it, will the £30 Gotoh be an improvement?