Gretsch G5222 EMTC D. Jet BT V-St. NAT

I purchased this Gretsch G5222 Electromatic Double Jet Black Top Broad Tron V-Stoptail in Aged Natural (short name) a month ago mostly for the Malcolm Young-y look and the G6131MY being way too expensive for my budget to buy "just for fun".

To summarize: I am VERY happy with the look, feel, sound and playability of the guitar and the G5222 is VERY much bang for your buck. I will dig deeper into details for those who are interested.

I already had two "South East/Far East made" and three US made guitars before and I am sorry to say this but this China made G5222 shows better craftmanship than my US made LP Std and US made Strat Spl! The wood works, finish, joints and bindings are pretty much perfect! The guitar set up was close to perfect after unboxing and my only concern with a bit too low action is probably just my personal preferences.

When ordering I was hesitant regarding the laurel fretboard, which, according to me, sometimes can be greyish, a bit rough and "tiger striped". The delivered G5222's fretboard is silk smooth, warm dark brown somewhere in between rosewood and ebony! It looks and feels great – no need to sand nor dye. The frets are a bit rough like brushed stainless steel in look and feel. Easily fixed in an hour with micro mesh pads or something similar.

The sound and feel of the (no name) vol and tone pots are very convincing and again actually better than some of the US made parts mentioned above.

When investigated through a magnifier some of the chrome hardware, such as the bridge, the stop bar and pot knobs look a bit cheap. The chrome layer seems to be very thin.

The tune knobs look a bit cheap but feel very convincing and the guitar stays well in tune. No problem with finish as with earlier mentioned chromed hardware.

When looking into the cavities in the guitar the wood work is somewhat rugged, which definitely is of less importance and pretty much as my US made guitars as well. The wiring and electronics seem proper and old fashioned, in a good way. The pots are of no known name but definitely do the trick. All wiring is "tidy" and properly soldered and there are no printed circuit boards as on my way more expensive Gibson's.

The guitar is somewhat "front heavy" (causing neck dive), actually more than my SG, which depends on where the front strap button is mounted. I have tried with several different straps but have hard do get rid of the problem. The system with threaded secured strap buttons is by the way very smart.

Finally, and probably most important. What is the sound like? The sound is great but I was a bit disappointed because the difference from my Burstbucker Pros and '57 Classics in my Gibson's aren't significant – which may be a high rate of the Broad'trons in the G5222. (I have ordered TV Jones Power'trons…)

To summarize: VERY much guitar for your money!

I was looking for a guitar for my AC/DC tribute band. I'm playin' as rhythm guitarist (Malcolm Young). This Gretsch, with a beautiful natural painting, is exactly what I wanted. Original sygnature of Malcolm is too expensive for me at this time, but Gretsch G5222 EMTC D. Jet BT V-St. NAT have as good presence as original guitar of Malcolm Young. Very good choice and purchase for me!

I'd like to thank Thomann for having a lot of guitars and other stuff. Are you looking for something that you can't find? Check thomann's website and I'm sure that you'll find what you are lookin' for!

First of all the service one gets from Thomann is second to none. The Gretsch wasn’t in stock when I ordered it and the communication from Thomann customer service was spot on. The guitar arrived ahead of the date anticipated and was perfectly packaged, detuned by half a step and had perfect intonation. The action was a little high for me but adjustment on the G5222 is simple so not an issue.
The guitar itself is not perfect, but for the price it is remarkably good value.
I found that the G string tuner was not as tight as the others, the tuners are ok, but not top quality, so I found that with some string bending the G string would fall out of tune quite quickly. Hence the 4*.
I elected to replace all the tuners for some locking tuners, which has totally cured the problem. Now it holds it’s tune not just through a gig but for weeks. Intonation has never been a problem and it’s been spot on since it came out of the box, even with the height adjustment and tuner swap.
The only other issue is the ‘nose dive’ that this style of guitar suffers from. I have fitted an additional strap lug to the base of the neck. Which does sort the issue, but out of the box this caused some discomfort when playing stood up. Hence the 4*.
The only other thing I’ve had to do is a slight fret dress to the ends of a couple of frets which were a bit rough, but not really an issue, just me being fussy. The frets got a polish when the strings got changed out and the fret board was given a wax to help with string bending, but this can be said for guitars three times this price. So not an issue.
The pickups and potentiometers are bloody brilliant. Something I would have expected on a much more expensive model. So top marks there. There nothing else but positive comment for the G5222. It sounds brilliant, the pickups can be pushed really hard to give a real rock sound (ala AC/DC) or kept very clean, enough to rival almost all single coils.
The guitar looks the part and sounds the part. It has that great Gretsch sound and versatility, so you can sound like George Harrison or Malcolm Young and everything in between if you want.
Worth the money? Hell Yeah. Worth a lot more money to be fair.
It’s a brilliant guitar and at this price it’s a no brainer. Getting it from Thomann just makes sense.