I wanted this Gretsch G5222 like a lot of people to be able to get close to Malcom's sound.
Right out of the box I was happy because the grain of the wood was beautiful. I tried one at a local shop and it was uglier.
The finish is great, as is the fret job. It's perfect, really high quality in this chinese factory.
I had to lower the action that was really high, adjust a little the neck relief, intonation was good.
Tuned it to 433hz, valve amp on the edge of break up, bass at 1, middle at half, a little more treble, and I was playing along the first ac/dc albums with a smile on my face...
On the first try the sound was there, close enough.
It's an amazing guitar and plays very well. Lots of sustain and harmonics. Incredible for this price. If I compare the quality of this guitar to say my SG standard that costs more than 3 times the price I can't find it lacking. Only the quality of the tuners, that's all.
Sure I would love to have an ebony fretboard instead of this laurel one but it's just aesthetical, it works well.
It's my first guitar with filtertron like pickups so I can't compare, but these Broadtron sound very good to me. In the future I'll get a tv jones for the bridge to see what's the difference but I'm really happy with these.
Overall a beautiful guitar with high quality and plays really well. For this price it's a steal.