Gretsch Players Edition 6609 Broadkaster

Writer Neville MarteN Editor, Guitar Techniques

Having not been out of its case for a while due to other guitars crowding its scene, what a pleasant surprise it was familiarising himself with this stunning vision in white, says Nev.

It’s been a while since I wrote about my longterm Gretsch. And to be honest a while since I played it in any kind of anger. That’s mainly because the kind of gig I might use it on hasn’t really presented itself. I was going to have it as my main guitar on a rock ’n’ roll tour late last year but in the end my ES-335 won the day, primarily because I knew it better and it didn’t feel right to test out an unfamiliar instrument on someone else’s dollar.

However, opening the case as I have just done reminded me of why I wanted to do this test in the first place. It’s a staggering looking thing, and the modern tweaks that Gretsch has brought to this range – spruce centre block, string-thru Bigsby, simplified electronics and all-new Americanmade Full’Tron humbuckers – make it an exceedingly compelling stage guitar. It’s a powerful beast, too, these Full’Trons offering huge punch. If fact, that’s another reason the 335 won out as my tour guitar, as I felt this thing might actually be too aggressive. Now when did anyone say that about a Gretsch?

However, for my main gig it works great, as I do need some of that grunt. And of course these Full’Tron style pickups are renowned for their clarity and chime too, so backing off the volume knocks the edge off, leaving a great set of tones that you might even mistake for being single coil. And speaking of which...

A Gretsch feature that bemuses many guitarists is the horn-mounted master volume. My beef with it was always that it’s counter-intuitive to pass the picking hand over the strings and the guitar body to make adjustments. However, once I got over this hump I discovered how useful it is to preset and balance each pickup’s volume, then use the master to take them up or down in parallel. In practice you’d knock the master back to switch between rhythm and lead (neck and bridge?) in a quieter song in the set, then up again (each pickup’s volume still nicely in balance) for a louder number. If you’re not one for riding the controls all night, which I do, you could conceivably run the whole show from this one pot. And if you think about Gibson’s ‘rhythm/treble’ ring on a Les Paul’s toggle switch, that’s a similar idea.

In the old days everyone wanted to love Gretsch guitars but often found them too idiosyncratic to play in an everyday band – top 40, blues or rock, etc. Tuning on Bigsbyequipped models could be an issue, too, as witnessed by the number of bridge types introduced over the years. But under Fender’s governance Gretsch has done that almost miraculous thing: retained brand identity but made improvements and upgrades in every department, including the easy-string Bigsby and quality locking tuners; these are enticing a generation of new converts while not offending the diehards.

If white and gold is a touch on the bling side for your tastes, or the semi look is not your thing, there are mega-cool Jet style models in the range with or without Bigsby, as well as plenty of colours to choose from – including classic Gretsch orange and Cadillac green plus some cool modern colours and flame maple finishes.

Whatever you go for you’ll be assured of a pro quality instrument that quietly does the business while not so quietly exclaiming its presence. What a cool guitar this is!