Gretsch has expanded its mid-priced Electromatic range with a pair of baritone guitars, reimagining a ‘60s cult classic played by Rory Gallagher and Jack Antonoff and the single-cut Jet as low-end machines capable of twang, rock ’n’ roll and, y’know, being a straight-up metal guitar.
Metal is not the first thing we think about when we think about Gretsch guitars – but then check out the demo video below. The Electromatic CVT Baritone, in its muted Bristol Fog finish, sounds pretty metal in the hands of Loathe’s guitarist Erik Bickerstaffe – as does the Jet for that matter.
Which came as a bit of a shock to us. The Baritone Jet has been one of our favourites over the years. Play it through a tube-driven Fender amp with a splash of spring reverb and it’s got that early rock ’n’ roll rumble to it, a rubbery, elastic twang. But brutal riffing… that was for the Jacksons of this world, surely.
Apparently we were mistaken. This one comes in Imperial Stain with a pair of PureVolt Twin Six humbuckers, which are not your granddaddy’s Filter’Trons. The 29.75” scale length is nigh-on a short-scale bass guitar and it will absolutely eat up those lower tunings.
Elsewhere, it is, reassuringly, very on-brand, very recognisably a Jet, with the chambered mahogany body, the glued-in mahogany neck (carved into a Performance C shape, again, alluding to its metal aspirations) and 12” radius rosewood fingerboard with Pearloid Neo Classic inlays.
It’s got binding. It’s got a GraphTech NuBone nut. It’s got an Adjust-O-Matic bridge and stop-tail and a lot of class for £609/$699.
The CVT Baritone is quite different; different for Gretsch, a different feel from the Jet. It’s got the same pickups, the 12” radius ‘board, etc, and it too has an all-mahogany build, with that heavily contoured solid-body a very distinctive shape.
With a 27” scale we might imagine it to be a little more manageable than the Jet. It shares that Performance C neck shape, too, perhaps an invitation to shred.
It completes what is quite a remarkable comeback/reinvention for the Corvette, a model that was played by Rory Gallagher back in the day, and brought back as the CVT as Jack Antonoff’s signature guitar, the “Princess Antonoff” CVT.
With its vibrato, its Vintage White finish, its FideliSonic P-90 pickups, it was a more gentle beast.
This CVT’s vibe is big riffs, doom, sludge, alternative, whatever you like, and we’d say that Gretsch might well have a hit on its hands, because it sounds – and looks – killer. It’s also priced very attractively at £/$599.
For more details, head over to Gretsch.
