Gretsch for sub-$200? 2025 Jet collection first look

Guitar World

INSANELY affordable Gretsch guitars: 2025 Jet collection first look

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00:00Hi guys, Matt from Guitar World here. We're at Guitar Summit 2025 with Tris from Gretsch.

00:06Tris, we've got some new Jets Electromatics here. They've not been released yet.

00:11Can you tell us what's going on here? There's some cool guitars here.

00:13Yeah, absolutely. So we have basically refreshed our Jets range and it goes across the Streamliner

00:20and the Electromatic range. The Streamliner is kind of really our sort of more entry-level range.

00:26There's pretty much something for everyone. So we have, starting at the end, this is the

00:32Streamliner Jack Club. So the Jack Club is a flat top, pre-compensated saddle, one humbucker,

00:39which is a hotwire ceramic. So it's a brand new pickup for us. It's got loads of sort of comfort

00:45features as well. So we've got a belly cut. There's also a carve around the neck heel as well.

00:50We really wanted these to be super, super comfortable for newer players or even intermediate

00:57players that just want to get into a slightly different style of guitar. And it's got everything

01:03you need, nothing you don't. So no frills. It's designed to be a slightly more spartan approach

01:08to things, but they look killer and they sound amazing.

01:12And you were saying that these are new pickups, right? And these ones that have been developed?

01:16Kind of what's the thinking behind them?

01:18So there, I think typically when people think of Gretsch, they think of filter trons,

01:23filter trons for some of the more contemporary electromagnetic stuff. These are hotwire ceramics.

01:29They're quite aggressive. So if you are, this is very much like a rock guitar. Obviously you can do

01:36anything on them. You can do blues, do jazz. You can certainly do metal. That's kind of the world

01:41that I tend to live in and these definitely do it. So they do pretty much everything. Super,

01:47super flexible. But when you have that, uh, that extra output, then you can kind of dial it back

01:53and do whatever you need to get in North London. So then there's a double humbucker version of that

01:58as well. And then you have the jet, which has got blue carved top. Um, and this is a, has an adjustable

02:04wraparound bridge. Uh, these are cool as well. Yeah. So they've very kind of, um, retro sort of

02:12sixties inspired sort of, uh, foil tops knobs. Um, we do them in, do in black as well, which is my

02:19personal favorite, but they, they're great. Um, and again, got that belly cut and the curls around

02:24the heel bolt on neck. So it makes them a little bit more affordable as well. And then moving on,

02:30we've got this one, which is a double double humbucker version. Yeah. So we, so we've got

02:34single humbucker and double humbucker version of most of these. Um, so that's the, uh, the

02:39streamliner stuff. And then we move up to the Electromatic. Cool. So on these, you have, um,

02:46the pure vault, um, high output humbuckers, um, which are again, pretty aggressive, great mid punch,

02:55amazing for rock. Um, this is the jet club. So again, it's flat top, um,

03:00and then, uh, adjustable, uh, wrap around bridge. This time we've got a set neck. Cool.

03:07So, um, and again, there's the carve and a bit more of a rounding on the, on the heel of the

03:13heel of the neck there and a double humbucker version. Um, and these also have coil splits

03:21on them. So when you, when you come up to Electromatic, you get the extra little bits

03:25of electronics, so treble bleed circuit, um, uh, coil splits on them. And then we have

03:33the jet. So this is again, because it's the carve top version. Um, we don't currently do

03:38a single humbucker version. Um, so it's just the, the double, but this is the sort of top

03:44end of it. And yeah, again, belly car. And there's a knee car on these as well. Um, just

03:51to save you from digging into your fire. And these are new pickups in these ones as well.

03:56Yeah. So they're all the, so these are all the pure volts, pure volt six. Um, yeah, they're

04:03great. Amazing pickups. And in terms of price, what are we looking at from under the, the

04:08bare basics to top of the range? Yeah. Yeah. Basically. So you're kind of looking at around

04:13about sort of the, um, the two, um, roughly the 200, 250 range, all the, all the way up

04:20then to, um, about five, 600 thereabouts. So there's kind of, there's a, there's this, there's

04:27an option for everybody. If you're on a bit of a budget, you're kind of can pick the one

04:32that is within your budget and that's with, that has the bits that you need and none of the

04:35bits that you don't. So it's kind of something for everyone.

04:38So how long have these been in the works for? Is it like kind of been like a passion project

04:41for like a while? Yeah. It's, yeah, it's been a, been a few years. We've, um, they've

04:46kind of been designed from really from scratch. Um, the, the jets have been with us for decades.

04:53Obviously it's, it's not a new thing, but we really wanted to refine what the jet was

04:59and make it for today's player. Okay. And do you find that, cause I mean, Gretsch is a

05:05brand that's like quite associated with big hollow bodies and kind of jazz boxes and rockabilly

05:10and stuff. Do you find that these kind of guitars that you're putting out are having

05:14as much of a response with players today? Absolutely. You're kind of spectrum. Yeah,

05:17absolutely. So obviously that, you know, the, the sort of archetypal Gretsch that people

05:22think of is the, is the Orange Nashville or the White Falcon. Um, but there's very much

05:27been a big move over to the solid body stuff. You can be far more aggressive with these than

05:33you can with, um, with a lot of, um, the sort of the hollow body stuff, um, obviously cause

05:37they're solid, um, there's less susceptible to feedback. So you can use a higher gain stuff.

05:43We've also changed the, the chambering on them as well. So that's another, another big

05:47difference, um, from the old jets. They've kind of got, um, it's almost like a sort of fan

05:52sort of pattern as opposed to what we used to do was have almost like two larger chambers

05:57and that there was a tonal choice, but also a weight distribution choice as well. So they

06:02are, they sound better, they're more comfortable, better perform better. And there's more variety

06:08of them.

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