Post by jml77 on Nov 2, 2020 14:33:49 GMT
I spent a while looking at semi-acoustics to buy, and eventually I plumped for the G2622T from the gretsch streamliner series.
A not so good pic of my new G2622T Torino Green
At first I thought I would go for the smaller bodied G2655, but on reading several reviews neck dive was a common feature of these, even with a bigsby. I also looked at the epiphone Dots and Epiphone es-339, and those Epiphone Uptown Kats looked really nice too, though reviews for those were rather mixed.
I have to say the quality of the G2622 is darn good. Incredible action and setup straight out of the box. There are few cheaper components which are a little naff. The control knobs are slightly skew, and have a weird wobble, not that noticeable, but it's a bit naff really. On this guitar they are black-smoked plastic. It has 16mm pots apparently, I'm not fussy about that but the pots do have a rather on/off taper, so at some point I'll probably set about changing them.
The bigsby vibrato spring was really stiff, so taking some cues from other users I've replaced it with a Reverend soft touch spring. That seems to work really well.
The Adjustomatic bridge is a bit cheap, it has rattled on occasion, but so far hasn't caused any tuning issues with bigsby use, and with a well cut nut, there are no pings in use or on tuning.
The pickups are full sized humbuckers (Gretsch BT2S) with 11-gate slots, looking a little bit like toasters, and 12x M3 fillister head screws on each pickup. They measure out at approx 9.2K resistance. They are not hot though, weaker in output than the pickups that I have in an Epi LP Studio which are a Tonerider AC4 in the neck and a Roswell LVS II in the bridge, which are hardly hot pickups either. As far as can tell these pickups are the G&B brand. Some folks on the Gretsch forums have removed 6 of the screws to brighten them up, I'm not sure I can be bothered, I'll just tweak the EQ to taste.
It will be good to get some Filtertrons installed at some point, but not those Artec mvha6 pickups as they won't fit standard or the modified TVjones style rings. A pity though as they do have a bright punchy tone.
Upper fret access isn't good, I did see this as a downside before buying, but I don't often get up there, I can reach the 21st, on the high e, I did however fall foul trying to play a d shape G chord on the 19th/20th ... actually I just tried it again and it's just about doable if not in a hurry, and the 22nd fret isn't out of bounds either, just a bit awkward. I must be getting used to it.
It came with a set of 10s and it feels very slinky to play, must be all the extra length of string behind the bridge and also the nut. The e string tuners are 1cm further back from the nut than on the Les Paul. The tuners are cheapy generic parts, but are smooth with no backlash, and tune up nicely. Perfectly functional.
So that's just about it. Oh the colour, I was going for the gunmetal blue, but when I saw the Torino green I changed my mind. It's a gloss green, and pretty much the same as British Racing Green, and the cream binding gives it the 'go-faster' stripe look...
A not so good pic of my new G2622T Torino Green
At first I thought I would go for the smaller bodied G2655, but on reading several reviews neck dive was a common feature of these, even with a bigsby. I also looked at the epiphone Dots and Epiphone es-339, and those Epiphone Uptown Kats looked really nice too, though reviews for those were rather mixed.
I have to say the quality of the G2622 is darn good. Incredible action and setup straight out of the box. There are few cheaper components which are a little naff. The control knobs are slightly skew, and have a weird wobble, not that noticeable, but it's a bit naff really. On this guitar they are black-smoked plastic. It has 16mm pots apparently, I'm not fussy about that but the pots do have a rather on/off taper, so at some point I'll probably set about changing them.
The bigsby vibrato spring was really stiff, so taking some cues from other users I've replaced it with a Reverend soft touch spring. That seems to work really well.
The Adjustomatic bridge is a bit cheap, it has rattled on occasion, but so far hasn't caused any tuning issues with bigsby use, and with a well cut nut, there are no pings in use or on tuning.
The pickups are full sized humbuckers (Gretsch BT2S) with 11-gate slots, looking a little bit like toasters, and 12x M3 fillister head screws on each pickup. They measure out at approx 9.2K resistance. They are not hot though, weaker in output than the pickups that I have in an Epi LP Studio which are a Tonerider AC4 in the neck and a Roswell LVS II in the bridge, which are hardly hot pickups either. As far as can tell these pickups are the G&B brand. Some folks on the Gretsch forums have removed 6 of the screws to brighten them up, I'm not sure I can be bothered, I'll just tweak the EQ to taste.
It will be good to get some Filtertrons installed at some point, but not those Artec mvha6 pickups as they won't fit standard or the modified TVjones style rings. A pity though as they do have a bright punchy tone.
Upper fret access isn't good, I did see this as a downside before buying, but I don't often get up there, I can reach the 21st, on the high e, I did however fall foul trying to play a d shape G chord on the 19th/20th ... actually I just tried it again and it's just about doable if not in a hurry, and the 22nd fret isn't out of bounds either, just a bit awkward. I must be getting used to it.
It came with a set of 10s and it feels very slinky to play, must be all the extra length of string behind the bridge and also the nut. The e string tuners are 1cm further back from the nut than on the Les Paul. The tuners are cheapy generic parts, but are smooth with no backlash, and tune up nicely. Perfectly functional.
So that's just about it. Oh the colour, I was going for the gunmetal blue, but when I saw the Torino green I changed my mind. It's a gloss green, and pretty much the same as British Racing Green, and the cream binding gives it the 'go-faster' stripe look...