I'm thinking about possibly getting a new guitar and want to know if there's any good websites that focus on reviewing guitars/amps/pedals, etc. I'm thinking about possibly a Gretsch. Comments?

http://www.harmony-centra...tar/Data4/

User reviews - you get a much better idea of how well an instrument works in your position.

Mind you - take the ratings with a grain of salt. If you bought a crap-o-caster for $500 and it sucked, you'd want to find the good things in it instead of admitting it's not that good...

BUT, just read the reviews with your own needs in mind. Most posts will say "I play at home, only 3 yrs exp" or "been playing in bars for years" etc, and so, when you find a review from somebody similar to you, pay attention to those reviews. (this site is what sold me on the usefulness of my Variax - bar giggers who needed "close enough" sounds for a set of covers).

I agree re: the grain of salt. Especially with effects pedals: "don't buy a tube screamer, it doesn't sound like Pantera at all!" etc. Still, I'd rather read reviews by fellow musicians than magazines who rely heavily on advertising by the very people whose gear they're reviewing.

hectim said:

Definitely. You just have to learn how to read between the lines. That TS review is pretty typical of maybe 50% of the stuff in there.

I've already gone through the reviews at Harmony Central. Most of them were not all that helpful to me so that's why I was requesting maybe a different site that I didn't know about. What do you guys know about Gretsch guitars?

The Gretch guitars are known for their awesome rockabilly tone - specifically the hollowbodies. Unfortunately, MOST of them start at around two clams and go up from there. The Steamroller, (steamship, steampile?) is the one that they'd put out at around $900 new. I tried it out, it played/felt really nice, but you're going to have a couple of problems at louder distorted volumes:
- the hollowbody and the microphonic pickups will put you in feedback hell. These are designed for country/jazz playing, so when the guitar is cranked, you're faced with some sound management challenes.
- the bigsby is a tuning nightmare. Period. I don't care what you've read. Setzer plays five of them so he can swap out between each song.

That said, the solidbody looks like a tiny toy. Haven't tried one out because it just looks toyish. But the hollowbodies look and play and sound mightyfine. I almost bought the Steamroller, but chickened out because of all the work you'd need to do to the guitar to crank the distortion. (fill the body with rags/cloth to baffle the feedback, soak the pickups in wax to isoloate the microphonics, unless they're already soaked).

But, as far as playing and sounding, they're awesome... as long as you don't mind people immediately comparing you to Brian Setzer and Chet Atkins.

There. That's my review from a 2-week jonesing for one of them.

otan said:

So, it makes perfect sense that I just bought a Telecaster instead. BUT, I would've actually bought the Gretsch Electromatic Pro Jet or whatever the hell it was with the Bigsby if I had an extra $1800 laying around. People looked when they heard me rockin' out Stray Cat Strut!