Scottsdale, AZ (November 1, 2017) -- Gretsch announces a handful of new Limited Edition models, including a G6136T Falcon, G5422TG Electromatic Hollow Body, G5435TG Electromatic Pro Jet and a pair of G9500 Jim Dandy Flat Top guitars.
G6136T Limited Edition Falcon with String-Thru Bigsby
The G6136T Limited Edition Falcon with String-Thru Bigsby offers all the classic Falcon elements, in a new arresting Azure Metallic finish. Iconic style and richly robust Gretsch tone cuts through a dense onstage mix, guaranteeing a stand-out-from-the-crowd guitar, both sonically and visually.
A pair of TV Jones Classic humbucking pickups grace the laminated maple body, providing pristine highs, glassy mids, stout lows and balanced harmonics for tone that blends well with other instruments, while retaining its unique voice. The control complement— separate bridge and neck volume controls, three-way pickup switching, no-load master tone and master volume—allows for infinite tonal variations.
Gretsch “Squeezebox” paper-in-oil caps add smooth vintage tone while the treble bleed circuit lets the guitar retain all of its tasty clarity when rolling the volume control down. A 12”-radius ebony fingerboard with 22 medium jumbo frets and striking pearloid Neo-Classic thumbnail inlays tops a maple neck with a comfortably familiar standard “U”-shaped profile for fluidly easy playing. The innovative Gretsch “ML” bracing is specifically voiced for this guitar, and delivers increased projection and airy openness from the thinner 2.25” body. A highly expressive Bigsby B6GP vibrato tailpiece and pinned “rocking” bar bridge combine with the GraphTech TUSQ XL nut for stable tuning. In a uniquely Gretsch touch, the Bigsby tailpiece is now string-through, making it quicker (and easier) to change strings as well as providing increased vibration transfer for enhanced sustain.
The epitome of style, this Azure Metallic Limited Edition Falcon features gold hardware including Grover Imperial die-cast tuning machines and jeweled "G-Arrow" control knobs, white neck binding, F holes and a vintage thick plexi gold pickguard with Gretsch logo.
Coming December 2017.
G5422TG Limited Edition Electromatic Double-Cut Hollow Body with Bigsby and Gold Hardware
No nonsense, Electromatic hollow body guitars are the perfect real, pure and powerful Gretsch instruments. They’re the next level Gretsch—bold, dynamic and articulate, and crafted with essential Gretsch sound, style and playability.
Profoundly stylish, the G5422TG Limited Edition Electromatic Double-Cut Hollow Body with Bigsby and Gold Hardware offers full hollow-body build and true Filter’Tron voice in the classic Cadillac Green Metallic with gold hardware aesthetic. Like all Electromatic guitars, it delivers the fearless and electrifying authenticity that has set Gretsch apart as the quintessential rock ‘n’ roll guitars from the very beginning.
Premium features include dual Black Top Filter’Tron humbucking pickups, versatile upgraded controls including master volume treble-bleed circuit, oversized bound F holes, aged multi-ply body binding, smaller late-’50s G6120 bound headstock, Graph Tech NuBone nut, pearloid Neo-Classic thumbnail fingerboard inlays and a gold Bigsby B60 vibrato tailpiece.
Coming December 2017.
G5435TG Limited Edition Electromatic Pro Jet with Bigsby and Gold Hardware
Electromatic Pro Jet models take on a unique voice and identity—chambered basswood bodies and arched maple tops along with dual Black Top Filter’Tron humbucking pickups and Bigsby tailpieces resonate true to That Great Gretsch Sound!
The G5435TG Limited Edition Electromatic Pro Jet with Bigsby and Gold Hardware is available in a stunning and vivid Candy Apple Red finish. This solid body guitar’s classic features include a rosewood fingerboard with 22 medium jumbo frets and pearloid Neo-Classic thumbnail inlays, three-position pickup toggle switch, Bigsby B50 tailpiece, anchored Adjusto-Matic bridge, "G-Arrow" knobs, gold pickguard with Gretsch logo and threaded/knurled strap buttons.
Coming December 2017.G9500 LTD Jim Dandy 24" Scale Flat Top Guitar
Crackerjack quality at a sober price!
Gretsch introduces a pair of G9500 LTD Jim Dandy 24" Scale Flat Top Guitars in new limited edition finishes—Vintage White with a single-ply tortoise pickguard or Chieftain Red Burst with a single-ply white pickguard.
Faithful to the Gretsch "Rex" parlor guitars of the 1930s, '40s and '50s, the G9500 LTD Jim Dandy Flat Top parlor-style model embodies everything that was great about everyone's first guitar. Everything and then some that is, because the G9520 is crafted with select guitar woods and is fully lined and braced for warm and pleasing tone, with a 24" scale for endless hours of playing comfort.
It also features an agathis body, nato neck, rosewood fingerboard with 18 vintage-style frets and pearloid dot inlays, rosewood top-load bridge with compensated saddle, single-ply pickguard with “G” graphic and a 1950’s Gretsch 3x3 headstock.
The Vintage White model will be available in November 2017, while the Chieftain Red Burst will be available in December 2017.
For more information:
Gretsch Guitars
EBS BassIQ Blue Label Triple Envelope Filter Pedal
The EBS BassIQ produces sounds ranging from classic auto-wah effects to spaced-out "Funkadelic" and synth-bass sounds. It is for everyone looking for a fun, fat-sounding, and responsive envelope filter that reacts to how you play in a musical way.
Reverend Vernon Reid Totem Series Electric Guitar - Shaman
Silos features six presets, tap tempo, one full second of delay time, and three voices—two of which are styled after bucket-brigade and tape-delay sounds. In the $150 price category, it’s not unusual for a digital delay to leave some number of those functions out. And spending the same money on a true-analog alternative usually means warm, enveloping sounds but limited functionality and delay time. Silos, improbably perhaps, offers a very elegant solution to this can’t-have-it-all dilemma in a U.S.-made effect.
A More Complete Cobbling Together
Silos’ utility is bolstered by a very unintimidating control set, which is streamlined and approachable. Three of those controls are dedicated to the same mix, time, and repeats controls you see on any delay. But saving a preset to one of the six spots on the rotary preset dial is as easy as holding the green/red illuminated button just below the mix and preset knobs. And you certainly won’t get lost in the weeds if you move to the 3-position toggle, which switches between a clear “digital” voice, darker “analog” voice, and a “tape” voice which is darker still.
“The three voices offer discernibly different response to gain devices.”
One might suspect that a tone control for the repeats offers similar functionality as the voice toggle switch. But while it’s true that the most obvious audible differences between digital, BBD, and tape delays are apparent in the relative fidelity and darkness of their echoes, the Silos’ three voices behave differently in ways that are more complex than lighter or duskier tonality. For instance, the digital voice will never exhibit runaway oscillation, even at maximum mix and repeat settings. Instead, repeats fade out after about six seconds (at the fastest time settings) or create sleepy layers of slow-decaying repeats that enhance detail in complex, sprawling, loop-like melodic phrases. The analog voice and tape voice, on the other hand, will happily feed back to psychotic extremes. Both also offer satisfying sensitivity to real-time, on-the-fly adjustments. For example, I was tickled with how I could generate Apocalypse Now helicopter-chop effects and fade them in and out of prominence as if they were approaching or receding in proximity—an effect made easier still if you assign an expression pedal to the mix control. This kind of interactivity is what makes analog machines like the Echoplex, Space Echo, and Memory Man transcend mere delay status, and the sensitivity and just-right resistance make the process of manipulating repeats endlessly engaging.
Doesn't Flinch at Filth
EarthQuaker makes a point of highlighting the Silos’ affinity for dirty and distorted sounds. I did not notice that it behaved light-years better than other delays in this regard. But the three voices most definitely offer discernibly different responses to gain devices. The super-clear first repeat in the digital mode lends clarity and melodic focus, even to hectic, unpredictable, fractured fuzzes. The analog voice, which EQD says is inspired by the tone makeup of a 1980s-vintage, Japan-made KMD bucket brigade echo, handles fuzz forgivingly inasmuch as its repeats fade warmly and evenly, but the strong midrange also keeps many overtones present as the echoes fade. The tape voice, which uses aMaestro Echoplex as its sonic inspiration, is distinctly dirtier and creates more nebulous undercurrents in the repeats. If you want to retain clarity in more melodic settings, it will create a warm glow around repeats at conservative levels. Push it, and it will summon thick, sometimes droning haze that makes a great backdrop for slower, simpler, and hooky psychedelic riffs.
In clean applications, this decay and tone profile lend the tape setting a spooky, foggy aura that suggests the cold vastness of outer space. The analog voice often displays an authentic BBD clickiness in clean repeats that’s sweet for underscoring rhythmic patterns, while the digital voice’s pronounced regularity adds a clockwork quality that supports more up-tempo, driving, electronic rhythms.
The Verdict
Silos’ combination of features seems like a very obvious and appealing one. But bringing it all together at just less than 150 bucks represents a smart, adept threading of the cost/feature needle.
EarthQuaker Devices Silos Multi-generational Time Reflection Delay Pedal
