Gretsch Guitars G5422G-12 Electromatic Hollowbody 12-String Electric Guitar Black

I played the Rickenbacker 360-12, Fender Alternative Universe VII, and this guitar as comparisons before purchasing the Gretsch. While I enjoyed playing all 3 guitars, and had a difficult time making up my mind. The action, shape of the neck, string spacing, and incredible sound of the semi-hollow body of the Gretsch sold me on this guitar. Not to mention the price.

I own 3 other Gretsch guitars but this has the maj ical sound I've been looking for.

I am very impressed with the quality of this guitar.

I use it in my small studio along with recorded music from a sound system.

This guitar is wonderful. This is my second Gretsch. I have a g5423 Red, which I love. This guitar is black and the gold hardware against the ebony finish is striking. The bridge pickup is bright and the strings just ring and chime. The neck pickup is warm. The middle position just brings it all together. Guitar is light as it does not have the center block of the six string electromatic. The finish is perfect. The action is great. I played quite a few electric 12s in my search. The Fenders neck was too narrow for me. I tried, I wanted the Rickenbacker to be the one as it just evokes my youth, but I kept coming back to this Gretsch. I have had it out gigging a few times with my Fender Blues Jr. amp and it just stays bright and clear in the room. If you are precise, you might even be able to bend some notes clearly during leads. Still sounds great. Ok, my only issue and I do not know how Gretsch could have dealt with it. All 12strings are headstock heavy but this one I felt I was holding up while I played. I had to put some non slippery material on the inside of the guitar strap so that the guitar would not shift while I was playing. It should not deter someone from purchasing and enjoying this awesome guitar. Buy one!

[Appearance]Elegantly beautiful, exceeded my expectations-after close scrutiny the guitar was flawless from top to bottom,stem to stern. This guitar craftsmanship exceeds or rivals any guitar on the market. [How The G5422G-12 Decision Occurred]This guitar is no one trick pony. I needed a 12 string for a project. I was ordering a D'Angelico EXL-1, and their 12 string acoustic.A fluke ad moved me to spec a G2622T 6 string against the EXL-1, and put the G5422G-12 in the cross-hairs. I played her little sister the G5422-6. The specs of these two Guitar Systems forced me to buy Gretsch over D'Angelico.[Play-ability and Action]The G5422G-12 action was lower than her 6 string sister.Her sound was acoustically as robust as her sister, and is very fast.It could be used for lead work. But, 12 string bending is not uniform on any 12 string, although you could easily bend.They just doesn't sound uniform.[Sonics and Electronics]The G5422G-12 is very diverse out of the box, with a large scope of tonal options. It's extremely quiet through the amp,line recording is quieter.[meat and potatoes] My multi-track rig uses unbalanced line level from a Mackie profx12 mixer Main Outs (L&R monitors), to a 1,000 watt Crown amp, to a pair Klipsch Kp-201's monitors.The Mackie Main Balanced recording outputs go to a Tascam DA-88, with follow-on unbalanced output to the Tascam DP24Sd safety net (very quiet).The G5422G-12 is a colorful beast with a variety of elegant tones. It puts out elegance leaving you big choices for production. It offers fat, clean, clear, crisp tones with a wide variety of options: choice of pickups and tone control, all of which are clean, with great signal strength. The sound is pure.So, the amp and fx processing do the overdrive work to "dirty up" the signal. Putting aside its elegance,the guitar is a high quality tool, with a full range of studio capabilities. As for Beauty? You have to say,"Wow." The guitar is truly a beautiful work of craftsmanship and art!