A review of the Gretsch 5420T 2 Tone Green 'Anniversary' model
As the 6118 Anniversary gets hard to find, this is a suitable
alternative with great build quality and playability.
Pictured from the official Gretsch site.
The Gretsch 5420T 2 Tone Green 'Anniversary' model is a new edition of the 5420T in the popular Electromatic series guitar range. So lets give it a review.
I was looking to buy a 6118 Anniversary 2 tone green guitar but they are hard to find so I thought the 5420T would fit the bill, having previously owned a 6118 in green.
Nice smoky green back and sides with a minty ice cream top
The 5420T harks back to when the Gretsch 5120 kicked off the move to provide a popular Gretsch 6120 style guitar in an affordable format around 2008. Like Fender with Squier, this was a genius move by Gretsch.
It immediately put an affordable Gretsch 6120 style guitar in your hands, without breaking the bank. And effectively impacted the marketplace presence of similarly Gretsch looking guitars made for boutique companies such as Alden, Vintage, Hutchings and Eastwood.
Building on this success, the 5420T guitars emerged around 2012 and were refined over the years with small detail changes, including a number of limited edition special colour editions being released onto the market.
The game changer for the 5420T was the Fairlane Blue model made in Korea that really took the guitar world by storm in 2016. Recently a new 5420T colour combination based on the old 6118 Anniversary 2 tone green guitar was launched. Having owned a Terada made green 6118 I was interested! And seeing the 6118's are now hard to find and wanting one, I thought I'd look at a 5420T in this colour configuration.
The DuPont codes for these colours are 246-92001 and 202-912151
In recent years, the 5420T moved from Korean production and production is now done in China. So, also owning a Korean made Fairlane blue 5420T, I was curious to see how this new Chinese made guitar fared. I'll review the two side by side in another review posting.
This 2 tone 5420T green guitar was purchased on-line from Peach Guitars in Essex and I'll review their shop later in another review but please visit the link and check out their range, they offer great service and very competitive prices. They are a proper old school guitar shop that cares about the guitars they supply their customers.
Unboxing the new 5420T 'Anniversary' Green guitar I was amazed at the quality of the guitar, both in terms of the build quality and finish. Given that it has 2 paint shades, this was very nicely finished with no uneven paintwork even where the two paint colours met, it might be unfair to compare this guitar to a Gretsch made in the Terada Japan factory, but against those it really does hold its own.
Hardware is an area that is adequately done on the 5420T but the buying price allows you to upgrade these parts, which is something I have done on my previous Electromatic guitars.
The machine heads were found to be quite sound despite being inexpensive. The Streamliner in comparison has closed machine heads, geared with a good ratio, I found them very good. (On my Korean 5420T they have started to wear so I will replace them with the Wilkinson WJ45 ones as the screw holes are a near fit).
I previously owned a 6118 Anniversary and I must say that the 5420T 'version' of it having the bound F holes, neck sides and headstock looks better for the binding and is an advantage in protecting the guitar and makes it look more finished.
The 6118 in comparison looked rather 'incomplete' I felt without the binding.
the 5420T machines are worth upgrading with closed Wilkinson WJ45 Kluson 3+3 ones
The paintwork on the 5420T is quite amazing as I have stated. It was often like that seen on cars of that era that could be purchased with 2 tone complementary colour schemes.
Gretsch was one of the first companies, as was Fender to visit the automotive paint colour charts for inspiration. The 6118 Green shades combination has continued on this 5420T edition and I think it is a superb choice of well suited colours.
a 2 screw fixing like the Electromatic 'Waverley' type
A good upgrade for your G5420T and not expensive
Our guitar here is finished in the two shades of Green, seen on the 1958 Ditzler Cadillac colours chart and looks great, but is hard to photograph to get the lighter green really show the true colour. Once you see one in real life you'll love it!
I have adjusted the colour of the top in the picture below to a more realistic representation.
With a B6C Bigsby it will improve the look!
Pickups are plug to plug wiring making assembly easier
The guitar for the review had been set up well by Peach Guitars and even came with a Q card showing it had been checked, acoustically the guitar sounds bright and seems slightly lighter in weight than my Korean 5420T in blue. Sadly, a number of retailers cut corners by not setting up guitars, it is not difficult to do. Recent previous buying experiences showed this up.
The Gretsch 5420T from Peach Guitars
The C shape neck on this 5420T does not seem much different in profile to the U shape on the Korean one I own, even down to the thickness at the nut. The body is around 2mm thinner on this Chinese made 5420T than my Korean 5420T, the measurements all round though seem very similar. The Chinese 5420T does have trestle bracing, perhaps adding to the brighter sound.
The Gretsch 5420T 3 way selector switching
The fretboard is Laurel on this guitar and I did oil it well before giving it a play, I have noticed on the new Gretsch guitars of late that the first few plays of them leaves you with dirty fingers on the fretting hand, I am not sure if the strings were original from the factory but they sounded ok, I will replace them in any case in my upgrade project.
The B60 Bigsby works well -
I will upgrade to a B6C to make it more like the 6118T Anniversary guitar
The black top Broadtron Pickups fitted are new FT5E uprated units (which like the Brian Setzer signature pickups) in comparison to a standard Filtertron, are brighter sounding than the standard fare or in this case against the Korean FT5E types on my Fairlane Blue 5420T.
Plugged in the new guitar like my 6120 Hotrod in Candy Blueburst sounds really great, the sound is 'woody filtertron' with a nice clear sound all round even on the neck pickup, but more inclined to a single coil clear treble sound. Its unmistakably a Gretsch sound still.
The Trestle Bracing and the new pickup version does seem to make the sound brighter.
The neck and middle switch position (which can often sound muddy) are clear and with a bit more treble edge than you normally find on the previous FT5E pickups, the bridge pickup has a more cutting sound, but without sounding fragile or thin.
At around 4.9k output the pick ups sound nice and not tinny or thin.
I tend to play a clean sounding guitar and testing the guitar against a Barney Kessel track playing along, the new 5420T sounded the part. Chords and single note playing were sounding good, although I will give the action a final adjustment to my taste when it has settled down.
Peach Guitars did a good job on the setup - unlike the guitar shop I purchased a previous Gretsch this year from, that one had not been checked at all. So top marks for Peach Guitars for their efforts.
The Bigsby B60 vibrato works well but I do prefer the B6C version, see my review of and upgrade on my other Electromatics to the Bigsby B6C unit here.
I found the B60 worked on this guitar nicely and stayed quite well in tune, given the strings may not be completely new. I have a B6C ready to fit which will make it look more like the 6118T and improve the appearance.
The 5420T retails with a retail price at around £899 GBP although I have seen an RRP of £1040 quoted in one place and this guitar was on offer at £673 GBP including delivery and I was very pleased with this deal, having paid about £550 for my blue 5420T in lightly used but as new condition in 2016 when the Korean made guitars were often around £750 GBP. Delivery was quick and it was very well packed for shipping.
The green 5420T is when taken overall with considerations such as price and specification a very nice guitar, sounds good, looks the part and is open to upgrading if you desire. Certainly at the deal price, it leaves you a lot of scope and headroom to upgrade.
For those looking for an occasional arch top for example for band use and can't justify a pro series Gretsch, buy this. Even as another guitar in your collection, it will open up possibilities perhaps to other musical styles.
It is good value for money, the build and finish are excellent even at this ticket price and it does play and sound the part. The striking colour stands out too.
For those finding the 5420T body deeper than they prefer, try out the 5422 type guitars, more in line with a 335 style and even played by established artists.
So, overall I have no real issues with the guitar and it looks plays and sounds great, for the money it is a really reasonably priced Gretsch guitar. They have really done a good job on this edition.
Thanks to Peach Guitars for a great buying experience.
