Gretsch G5222 EMTC D. Jet BT V-St. NAT

I was looking for a guitar for my AC/DC tribute band. I'm playin' as rhythm guitarist (Malcolm Young). This Gretsch, with a beautiful natural painting, is exactly what I wanted. Original sygnature of Malcolm is too expensive for me at this time, but Gretsch G5222 EMTC D. Jet BT V-St. NAT have as good presence as original guitar of Malcolm Young. Very good choice and purchase for me!

I'd like to thank Thomann for having a lot of guitars and other stuff. Are you looking for something that you can't find? Check thomann's website and I'm sure that you'll find what you are lookin' for!

First of all the service one gets from Thomann is second to none. The Gretsch wasn’t in stock when I ordered it and the communication from Thomann customer service was spot on. The guitar arrived ahead of the date anticipated and was perfectly packaged, detuned by half a step and had perfect intonation. The action was a little high for me but adjustment on the G5222 is simple so not an issue.
The guitar itself is not perfect, but for the price it is remarkably good value.
I found that the G string tuner was not as tight as the others, the tuners are ok, but not top quality, so I found that with some string bending the G string would fall out of tune quite quickly. Hence the 4*.
I elected to replace all the tuners for some locking tuners, which has totally cured the problem. Now it holds it’s tune not just through a gig but for weeks. Intonation has never been a problem and it’s been spot on since it came out of the box, even with the height adjustment and tuner swap.
The only other issue is the ‘nose dive’ that this style of guitar suffers from. I have fitted an additional strap lug to the base of the neck. Which does sort the issue, but out of the box this caused some discomfort when playing stood up. Hence the 4*.
The only other thing I’ve had to do is a slight fret dress to the ends of a couple of frets which were a bit rough, but not really an issue, just me being fussy. The frets got a polish when the strings got changed out and the fret board was given a wax to help with string bending, but this can be said for guitars three times this price. So not an issue.
The pickups and potentiometers are bloody brilliant. Something I would have expected on a much more expensive model. So top marks there. There nothing else but positive comment for the G5222. It sounds brilliant, the pickups can be pushed really hard to give a real rock sound (ala AC/DC) or kept very clean, enough to rival almost all single coils.
The guitar looks the part and sounds the part. It has that great Gretsch sound and versatility, so you can sound like George Harrison or Malcolm Young and everything in between if you want.
Worth the money? Hell Yeah. Worth a lot more money to be fair.
It’s a brilliant guitar and at this price it’s a no brainer. Getting it from Thomann just makes sense.

I bought this guitar because I wanted humbucker sound from a more traditional guitar shape. I never liked the feel of a Las Paul style shape. The build quality of this guitar is amazing, the finish and the detail are very impressive, what you might expect from a guitar costing three or four times the price. The set up was amazing out of the box and the sound from the broadtron humbuckers is big, and full bodied like a Gibson humbucker, but also with a lot of bright single coil tones like a Fender Strat. I use a Marshall valve amp, and with the volume rolled back, the breakup / overdrive sound from the amp is exactly what I was hoping for. Very versatile sound, ideal for any style of music, clean or dirty. Very responsive to touch. A pleasure to play. This guitar has its own style and sound, its not trying to copy any other sound or style. Its a Gretsch 100% from me.

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.
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 and plays really well. For this price it's a steal.
Edit: I installed a TV Jones Classic plus on the bridge. Incredible pickup I love it. The stock ones are ok, but the classic plus is in another league. I will now buy a Supertron for the neck.
Re-edit: I had some cts 500k pots lying around so I changed the pots. Now I have some trouble with the jack so I ordered a switchcraft one and will be changing it.
The sound is amazing with the tv jones classic + in the bridge and supertron in the neck. I highly recommend the change of pickups.