The guitar sports the classic Gretsch orange finish, Gretschbucker pickups and Gretsch tailpiece. This guitar broke away from the traditional f-holes on most hollow body guitars and went with the cats eye design. For controls, there is a volume and tone knob as well as a pickup selector switch. The guitar has a spruce top with a maple back and sides. The fretboard is rosewood and the guitar features nickel tuners.
This guitar is my favorite instrument that I own. It has a great resonant sound and a nice natural crunch. I play this through a Vox AC30 and have found that I can get great clean tones as well as great overdriven tones from this guitar. By pushing the top boost on the amp I can get a bit extra drive in the amp pulling out a nice sparkle in the high end.
I picked up this guitar used in 2007 for around $550, which in my opinion was a steal. I have never been disappointed in this guitar from the moment I picked it up in the store. In fact, I bought the guitar before I bought the amp to go with it I liked it so much. I tried it out on several different amps, all of which sounded great, before I settled on the British Vox AC30. I felt that the guitar/amp combo really worked the best together. The AC30 brought out all of the best characteristics of the guitar and really made it shine.
If you are looking for a sound sample of how this guitar sounds recorded, check out the audio clip in my previous post. I used this while recording the song Destruction of All We Have Known for the rhythm guitar. I like the sound of this guitar for indie rock music, but it is also great for rockabilly when you get some twang out of it. I just love getting the speakers to sparkle with this thing and get some drive behind it to hear that nice full body. I will try and put up some samples in the coming days of just the guitar so you can get a better sense of how it sounds.
What is your favorite guitar? Do you prefer hollow, semi hollow, or solid body electric guitars? Post in the comments and let me know. I would also like your thoughts on the Gretsch Historic Series guitar. It is definitely one of my prized possessions. Also, be sure to check out the poll I put up to the right. Put in your responses by tonight at midnight!
I really enjoyed reading this post this week. I personally have never used a gretsch guitar before or even a hollow body guitar electric guitar. I listened to the link you have with the recording and I really like the song in general and as well as the tone that the gretsch G3161 produced. I’ve always used solid body guitars before but I think I might plan on purchasing a hollow body now, I doubt I will find another one of the G3161 since they aren’t manufactured anymore, do you have any recommendations on other hollow body guitars brands that sound good?
ReplyDeleteI have a discontinued Gretsch at home as well, although its a different model. I absolutely love it, but have a minor gripe with the presence of low-mid mud when the volume is rolled back. Apparently there's an easy capacitor mod to take care of it, but outside of that, the shimmer and fullness of a Gretsch is hard to beat!
ReplyDeleteThis guitar is gorgeous, Ryan! I have played what I believe is the Gretsch G5420T Electromatic who a friend of mine owns and I instantly loved the tone. I prefer solid body electric guitars but when I played my friends hollow body gretsch it blew me away. His tone reminded me of Wes Montgomery.
ReplyDeleteAnthony: I've seen a lot of Epiphone Dots, Casinos and Sheratons around. A Fender Thinline is a great guitar too, its a semi hollow that has a lot of twang and brightness to it. That is another one that sounds great through a British amp. I don't have a lot of experience playing on Epiphones, so I can't really critique them as much.
ReplyDelete