Gretsch releasing a limited edition Penguin is always something to write home about – maybe also an occasion to check the bank account – and this summer’s release is no different.
This one dresses the classic singlecut electric guitar in Pale Blue Pearl and gives it a host of top-tier appointments that speak to the brand’s history.
The G6134T-58 is the kind of guitar that will look good in any lighting but we can’t help thinking how it might look in the spotlight, with that pearlescent top and the silver sparkle binding the kind of aesthetic largesse that pretty much only Gretsch guitars can get away with.
They have the golden era class to pull them off (revious limited run Penguins have given the singlecut a paisley finish with a gold edge burst, Champagne Sparkle, or with a quilted maple top).
Gretsch signature flourishes abound. This has the classic chambered mahogany body with a maple arch top. Be glad of that chambering because there is a Bigsby B3GP string-through vibrato tailpiece, and that can put the weight on (expect this to weigh between the 8 and 9lb mark).
There’s a glued-in mahogany neck with a Standard U profile. We have the 24.6” scale length, the Space Control bridge with its pinned-ebony base, mother of pearl Neo Classic thumbnail inlays on a 12” radius ebony fingerboard. This being a Japanese-made Professional Series instrument, you can bet the build will be tip-top.
But once you get over that finish and just how good it looks, it’s probably the pickups that are the star of the show. Gretsch has fitted this with a pair of TV Jones Ray Butts Ful-Fidelity Filter’Tron pickups, which are made to Butts’ original specifications and sound…
Well, they sound ridiculously good whenever we have heard them – and Jason Harris gets them to sing in the official Gretsch demo video.
These are the kind of pickups many of us wish we had in our Gretsches but you can’t simply buy these for an Electromatic or Streamliner and drop them in. The bridge ‘bucker has a DCR reading of 4.2K, the neck a reading of 3.8K. They sound like a TV Classic but have a tighter low end and you’ll find more detail in the high-frequencies.
This guitar does not come cheap. It’ll set you back £3,699/$3,799 street. But that price includes a hard-shell guitar case – and one of the coolest guitars we have seen this year so far. Just add a nice tube combo and you’re good to go.
See Gretsch for more details.
