New availability Gretsch Junior Jet basses.

[Joran]

Veneer? Sounds like they are made by Ikea   

[Dave W]

It does look like mahogany, but since when have you ever seen genuine mahogany in a Korean bass? I never have. Could be one of the mahogany look-alikes, either solid or plywood, or a veneer.

[Chris P.]

As I said it doesn't sound like mahogany. It sounds more basswood-ish, so my two cents are for veneer. I'll ask my contact at Fender's. I didn't expect a 230 euro bass to have mahogany.

[Chris P.]

Mail from my contact at Fender's. He helped us out with some info about the T-bird-pick up loaded Precision of Pino P. He also doesn't know but he also thinks it's a veneer.

For Joran: My sunburst Squier Tele HB bass (with chrome humbucker at the neck) has a basswood body with maple veneer at front and back. Gives it a better look. Squier mentions it in the specs at their website.

[Pilgrim]

I have the sunburst at home and the front of the body LOOKS mahogany. The sides and back are covered in black paint, so I guess it's just veneer. The bass doesn't sound like mahogany at all.

I have the one pickup version at home now. I'll post some pics later, but four things first:

- the new one has the nice Gretsch G Arrow control knobs, with little screw to fasten it. So no cheap version with plastic inside.

- pickup size seems exactly the size of the TV Jones I have around. Could be a normal Chinese Gretch guitar pickup in disguise?

- the pickup indeed is hot.

- striking difference: I will make pics to show, but the new one is a different design. The neck is longer and there's a lot more wood behind the bridge. So the overall length is longer and I guess you have a better acces to the upper registers. I think the pickup is in the same position, but because the bridge is more to the front of the body, the pickup is also more to the front. On the pics above it's at the end of the pickguard and on the new ones in the middle. But if you compare it to the older ones I guess it's on the same position string-wise.

So - care to tell us more about how that sunburst one sounds and plays???  I really do like mine.

[Chris P.]

Some things:

Headstock.
The headstock is cool and small. Looks similar to the Billy-Bo, but without bindings. Black front, gold Gretsch (horizontal) and Electromatic (vertical) on it. Truss rod cover is the Gretsch bell shape type. Tuners are quite standard. On the back it has Made in China and a serial number.
The headstock is glued to the neck with a scarve joint? Is that how you call it? Same as a lot of Epiphones.

Neck.
A maple one with a rosewood board. Not very thin. It has quite a big white nut. Dot inlays and 20 medium frets. Neck's bolt-on of course. It's quite comfortable to play: Round, flat, but not to flat. The neck reaches the body at the 15th (shoulder) and 18th (cutaway) fret. The back of the neck is finished in  high gloss, which I never like. Could be sanded down / roughed up a bit. All 20 frets are easily accessible.

Body.
The body reminds me a lot of the Epi LP Jr. of my ex girlfriend. Same depth and finish. Officially it's basswood and I think it has a maple veneer. The control cavity doesn't reveil a thing cos it's painted with a black shielding coat. A good thing! The screw holes reveal some red-ish wood, which is more like mahogany than basswood, so I'm in doubt a little. The bass sounds more like basswood.

Pickup.
The one I have at home has one pickup. It looks like a Gibson mini-humbucker.It has quite a big ring around it. The oval pick guard is mounted flat on the body, it has 'Gretsch' on it (white this time) and a cut our for the pick up. The dimensions of the pickup are almost the same as a TV Jones. It's as wide, but the depth (dimension from neck to bridge) is about 2mm more.

Bridge.
Fender-ish with d'Addario strings. They feel cheaper than normal d'Addarios though.

Controls.
It has the right G Arrow controls with adjustment screw. Nice. Volume + Tone.

Cavity.
The cavity has a shielding coating and the plate on the back is shielded to on the inside with silver-ish tape. Pots are small like in all cheap basses.

Overall.
It's a very nice looking bass. Quite light. The big pickup surrounding looks a bit cheap.

Sounds.
I played it for a very short time. The pickup is hot indeed. Hotter than two other basses I brought with me. It sounds very good. Real sixties with the tone rolled off and just modern and growly with treble full on. The sound is definitely warmer than a Fender. The first impression is that it hasn't a real character of it's own. Just a decent sounding and good looking bass. Good for a lot of styles. I'll come back to it!

[daan]

I had one of the 2-pickup ones from the late 90s. It was definitely plywood. It sounded fine, but the neck warped to the point of unusability (like pulling the frets at the end of the board so they didn't hit the strings bad) in less than 2 years. The pickups now live in my Hofner bass and sound awesome in that.  Thinking back on it, the quality of mine at least was more like a "Stagg" or "Jay Turser" than what seeing Gretsch on the headstock would make you think. So, hopefully these new ones are a little nicer.