Jet Packed

A Gretsch guitar that’s a little bit country but a lot more rock’n’roll.

While many rock fans will be aware of Gretsch guitars, the models that will most probably come to mind will be the big, flash semi-acoustics sported by old-school players such as Chet Atkins, Eddie Cochran and Duane Eddy. Equal parts country and rockabilly, the tone of those instruments is unmistakable, and even when used in a harder rock sphere they always sound as good as they look.

It was never just about flashy hollow-bodies, though. By 1955 the company was producing a number of solids under the Jet banner, including the black Duo-Jet, the oriental red Jet Firebird and the beyond-cool Silver Jet. Malcolm Young, who went on to be the best-known out-and-out rocker to favour Gretsch, played a 1963 Jet Firebird during AC/DC’s formative years.

This latest version of the Jet, the G6228 Players Edition, is slightly different from previous Jets in that it boasts a pair of new

Broad’Tron BT65 pickups. Designed by Tom Shaw, who has applied his lauded soldering iron to a number of notable innovations used by Fender, they are intended to be fuller in voice and more balanced in tone than the more customary FilterTron or Dynasonic units.

With a chambered mahogany body capped with a laminated maple top that sports a V-style stoptail and anchored bridge, the G6228 is better suited to rock workhorsery than Gretsch guitars of a more traditional spec, and what it might lack in traditional twang it more than makes up for in fatness of tone. The slinky, U-shaped mahogany neck ensures that it’s immediately comfortable to play, and, best of all, tuning stability is assured thanks to that hard tail.

The UK RRP is £1,899, but if you’re quick you can enter a competition to be in with a chance of winning one signed by The Cult’s Billy Duffy at Ramblin’

Man Fair (see boxout below).

More info at gretschguitars.com