After a great gig at our local blues venue on Friday for which I used my two remaining 5420s, a gentleman approached me and asked me about the guitars - they are both stock apart from a Compton bridge on one. He seemed puzzled that (his opinion) that they sounded better than his 6120. I can offer no opinion on why that might be but I have to say that they both sounded MASSIVE!
Armed with the confidence that such an encounter brings, off I went to my local pusher on Saturday morning to try out a newly stocked guitar.
Surprise - another Gretsch. The 5410T Rat Rod. It’s very like a 5420 but the body has slightly less depth. Finished in a lovely papery white with black/white/black binding, white headstock, chrome hardware and standard black top Filtertrons with red inserts (yes I know but that’s what they are!) I understood that Electromatic production is moving to China but this proudly proclaims itself Made in Korea.
It’s a killer! I’ll be putting a Compton on it but otherwise, ready to go. I love the pickups - just the right amount of power and tone. I’ve found the 5420s to be really useable on gigs - not particularly feedback prone and easy to control - I’m anticipating this to possess the same characteristics.
I guess that that means another 5420 will be on the market!
Now - what about getting this pinstriped...?
Comments
ps. Did you really shoot your baby?
Pinstriping... many styles and variants
Happy NGD!
Solid, not good for you if you are particularly intonation fussy but generally an improvement in tone and reduction in rattle over the standard tunomatic style bridge. Similarly, the Truarc bridge.
Korean vs Chinese... hard to say. It used to be simple - USA Custom Shop - beautiful, brilliantly made, staggeringly expensive. Japan - Proline - very high build standard, great feel, great tone, absolutely proper Gretsches. Korea - Electromatic - good build standard, proper Gretsch pickups (mostly the Blacktop Filtertrons but some others including Dynasonics). China - Streamliners - good build, slightly less attractive (to my eye but others will differ), generally Broadtron pickups (Filtertrons but Gibson humbucker sized) still a decent pickup but a bit less Gretschy.
I have recently seen some Electromatic that were built in China, played fine, sounded fine. Time will tell whether standards are maintained.
My feedback thread is here.