Review : Gretsch G6119-ET Tennessee Rose

When it comes to hollow body guitars, it sure looks like Gretsch leads the market in options and levels of construction. The Tennessee Rose is from Gretsch’s Professional collection, in a series called Players Edition.

Instrument Overview

As can be seen in the opening image, the Tennessee Rose is a large bodied guitar in a single cutaway design. It’s not as deep as a White Falcon or 6120 a la Brian Setzer, in fact it’s only a bit deeper than an ES-335 at 2 inches. Thus even with the very wide lower bout, one does not need to be a big person to get arms around the instrument.

The body f holes are painted on so there are no openings in the top. Construction is laminated maple and while the acoustic tone is ok, you aren’t going to really get a sense of the capability until you plug it in. At that point you get to hear the newly designed FT67 Filtertron pickups.

Controls are simple. There is a three way pickup selector, a volume pot for each pickup and a master tone. On the front lower bout is a master volume knob with a treble bleed so rolling off the volume does not result in cutting all the high end. The bridge is adjustable for intonation and while it looks like it could move around the top, it’s actually sitting on pins to preserve intonation on string changes. The tailpiece is a Gretsch by Bigsby, this one where the strings pass through the roller bar instead of riding on the pins found in the more commonly found design. The arm comes from the factory with a black rubber protector on the end, but you can remove this vibrato condom if you would prefer. The tuners are of the locking type from Grover, so combined with the tailpiece design, string changes are a breeze. The pickguard is a silver finished plexi and the default colour is a dark cherry stain. It looks terrific in real life. The fretboard is rosewood and the inlays are pearloid thumbnails. There are luminlay dots on the side of the neck and it is equipped with medium jumbo frets and a Graph-tech Tusq XL nut. When using the vibrato, tuning is very stable and there are no serious friction points. The neck is made of maple and is a set neck design.

This model of the Tennessee Rose is the ELECTROTONE model. There are two others, one a ‘62 reissue, and the other a ‘62 reissue in laminated rosewood with gold hardware.

Playing the Tennessee Rose

The instrument has a really nice tone plugged in. The pickups are neither nasal nor boomy, and the master tone is of the no-load type so you get a wide range of options instead of the common two options of bright or mud found on so many other guitars. The Master volume is great and you definitely don’t lose treble when you roll it off. The neck is a U shape and is not too deep and for my hands feels very comfortable. I did find that I was more comfortable on a stool or standing with a strap on the guitar as sitting with the guitar on my knee the large rear bout pulls the guitar back and the headstock in a bit closer than I would prefer. The guitar comes with Grover strap lock strap pins.

For my evaluation, I plugged the Tennessee Rose into my Helix with the latest firmware and tried it clean through a variety of clean amp and cabinet profiles that I have programmed. It sounded terrific and that wide tonal range sounded most comfortable to me through the profile for a blackface Fender twin reverb with the bright switch turned off. I ran this direct from the Helix to a recording interface (more on that later) and to a large Headrush FRFR cabinet with a pair of 12” speakers. I also ran it through my hand-wired AC30 and my Tone King Imperial Mark II. I liked it best into an amp or amp sim that had lots of headroom.

For a little bit of grit, I used a Klon patch in the Helix and it sounds really good for single note runs, but I had to back off the master volume for chords as it got a bit too crunchy for my taste. I used it with other effects in the Helix as well, ones that I have spent time with. The LA style studio compressor when set well is a good always on choice, and I do like the newer multihead drum delay in the Helix build. I stuck mostly with the Helix implementation of a 63 spring reverb tank and things sounded as I wanted them to.

The controls are smooth and as the guitar is brand new are a bit stiff but not gritty, particularly so on the master tone. The Bigsby is really smooth and I found no binding and while I am not overly aggressive on the vibrato arm, I found that that instrument returned to proper pitch pretty consistently. I confess that I don’t know what strings come on the guitar, the docs say nickel plated steel .011-.049s are the factory default. I think that if I chose to buy this guitar, I would change those out for D’Addario NYXL 11-50 Balanced Tension strings. I like balanced tension strings when there is a Bigsby involved, just a personal preference.

The new Filtertrons are really nice, very open with a bit more high end than on my ten year old Brian Setzer model G6120.

Short Samples

The samples are recorded into Studio One via a Focusrite interface direct from a Helix. The Helix is using a custom patch that uses an amplifier simulation and cabinet IR for a Matchless DC 30 with the guitar plugged into channel one. In the first sample, there are no effects added in the Helix or in post production. It’s just a G chord with the pickup selector first in the centre position (both pickups), the neck position, and the bridge position.

The next sample is just a simple chord progression, this time with effects in the Helix as follows. An Echoplex EP-3 in front of the amp, then an LA-2A style comp followed by Line 6’s plate reverb emulation.

I have to say that while the Helix sounds good into an FRFR speaker, I am underwhelmed by the output for recording. No effects were set on the Focusrite itself and nothing was done in post in Studio One. Suffice to say that the spark you hear live is lost in the recordings. I am sorry that they aren’t what I hoped for. Next time I record this way I will use the Kemper or the Quad Cortex, but I am out of time with the guitar.

Conclusions

It’s my opinion that Gretsch is doing a great job all around. Their Streamliner family is very inexpensive and delivers great guitars in the price point. I think that the Electromatic line offers the best that you can find in a hollowbody in the price range, and in my experience, the fit and finish are superb and the factory pickups sound great. The Professional series is more expensive, and there is a commitment to quality and playability there that is superb. If you like the idea of a hollowbody but one that is not too deep, and without the prone to feedback open f hole top, the Tennessee Rose G6119-ET might be the guitar for you. I want to thank the ownership and staff at The Arts Music Store for arranging the evaluation of the Tennessee Rose. If you have questions about this guitar, please submit them here.

Thank you for reading and until next time, peace.