Gretsch Electromatic SparkleJet
This guitar, that was purchased at Guitar Center in 2000, was part of the Korean made Electromatic line that Gretsch introduced in the late 90's. This was their lower end line intended to compete with Epiphone and other lower to mid end brands.
The reason I bought this guitar is that I wanted something that would capture the Gretsch sound on a budget. Since I started playing guitar regularly again in the 90's I've been getting into playing more rockabilly, punkabilly and country/roots rock. I was attracted to this guitar because it has a sound that lies between the full-size/price Gretsch semi-hollows and the solid body Gretsches. It does a credible job of getting that Gretsch sound. While it doesn't do it anywhere near as good as White Falcon or Duo Jet, it didn't cost thousands of dollars either.
The body has a very sparkly silver finish on the front and is black in the back. It attracts a lot of attention on stage because of this. The body material is sort of a masonite that brings to mind some Danelectro models. It also sports a single F-hole and there are access panels to the electronics in the back.
The frets are a little on the thin side, but the fret work is very good for the price range. There are no rough edges or problem frets. The bolt-on 24 3/4" scale neck fits tight on the body and feels sturdy. The tuners are die cast and the tuning stability is good. The nut was cut well, something that's often lacking on guitars in this price range. The feel of the neck isn't quite like the top end Gretsches, but it isn't as thick feeling as Gibsons nor as wide as Fenders. It's sort of an in-between feel.
Electronically, the Sparkle Jet has two Gretsch Filtertron style humbuckers with a master volume as well as individual volumes for each pickup and a master tone knob. The knobs are Gretsch style with the stylized "G" on them and there is a 3 way selector switch. These 4 knobs and the selector switch feel as comfortable and as solid as those on Gretsches costing much more. The pickup selector switch is a bit flimsy though and I had to fix it up a little to keep it from cutting out occasionally.
The tone isn't terribly versatile but it does a twangy rockabilly and retro-rock thing pretty well. The pickups are fairly low output, but they are well balanced. The middle setting with both pickups provides my favorite sound, although the bridge alone gets some good twang. The neck pickup isn't particularly outstanding by itself, though. Blending different volumes on the pickups can also provide some interesting tones. Playing it through a cleanish tube amp with a dash of reverb or slapback delay really brings out its best tone.
Sounds
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The sound clip for this guitar is a short rockabilly riff. It was done with the bridge pickup and I used the "Tube OD" setting on my Korg AX1000G with a bit of "Echoplus" slapback delay.
My Performances on SoundClick that Feature This Guitar
