Gretsch G5655TG Center Block Jr: A Gretsch That Refuses to Sound Like One

The famous-player list attached to the Gretsch G5655TG Electromatic Center Block Jr. is Chuck Berry, Larry Carlton, Eric Clapton, Dave Grohl, and Noel Gallagher — a lineup that reads less like a Gretsch guitar’s history and more like a generic “semi-hollow icons” list pasted in from somewhere else. And that’s basically what happened: four of those five have their defining semi-hollow associations with a completely different brand, and the guitar magazine that reviewed this exact model went out of its way to say its pickups weren’t built to sound like Gretsch’s own legends, let alone anyone else’s.

That’s an unusually blunt thing for a manufacturer’s own product review to say. It’s also the most honest starting point for understanding what the G5655TG actually is: not a nostalgia machine, but a modern semi-hollow built by a heritage brand that decided, for this particular guitar, to stop chasing its own past.

A Guitar Built to Not Sound Like Its Own Legends

Introduced at NAMM 2019 as a gold-hardware special edition before becoming a permanent line item, the G5655TG made the previously limited-edition Center Block Jr. Single-Cut with Bigsby and Gold Hardware a standard part of Gretsch’s 2019 Electromatic range, initially offered in three new finishes. It sits inside Gretsch’s Center Block family — guitars built around a chambered spruce block running the length of the body rather than the fully hollow construction of a traditional 6120 or White Falcon.

The reviewer covering this guitar for MusicRadar made a point worth building an entire article around: every time Gretsch releases a new non-vintage model, the reflexive response is to wheel out a list of unexpected genre icons who’ve played Gretsches — Steve Marriott, Pete Townshend, Malcolm Young — as if to prove the brand isn’t just for rockabilly revivalists. It’s a pattern the reviewer calls out as slightly absurd, precisely because it’s happening again here, just with different names. The spreadsheet’s Chuck Berry/Carlton/Clapton/Grohl/Gallagher list is that exact reflex in action — reach for familiar semi-hollow names, regardless of whether they connect to the specific instrument being written about.

More tellingly, the same review states directly that the Broad’Tron humbuckers loaded into the G5655TG are not designed to make you sound like Eddie Cochran — the guitarist most synonymous with the classic Gretsch 6120 sound. That’s not an accident of phrasing. It’s the entire design brief for this guitar in one sentence: Gretsch built the Center Block Jr. specifically to sound like something other than its own back catalog.

That positioning makes more sense once you place the G5655TG inside Gretsch’s tiered lineup. The company’s own team has described its three-tier structure as “good, better, best” — Streamliner, Electromatic, Professional — with each tier historically distinguished as much by country of manufacture and construction quality as by tone. The G5655TG occupies the middle Electromatic tier alongside guitars like the G5420T, but its Center Block family sits in a genuinely different design lineage within that tier: not a scaled-down version of a vintage hollowbody, but a purpose-built modern semi-hollow aimed at guitarists who want Gretsch aesthetics without inheriting Gretsch’s historical tonal baggage. That’s a distinct product strategy from “affordable version of a legend,” and it explains why the famous-player attribution problem here is different in kind from the mismatch found on Gretsch’s more traditionally-voiced Electromatic hollowbodies.

Full Specifications

Construction and Tone: Broad’Tron Pickups and the Spruce Center Block

Two decisions define how this guitar sounds and feels compared to a “real” hollowbody Gretsch, and both are deliberate departures from vintage spec rather than budget compromises.

The first is the center block itself. Despite superficially resembling a scaled-down 6120, the G5655TG isn’t fully hollow — it carries a chambered spruce block running through the middle of the body, and comes in at less than half the depth of a typical Gretsch hollowbody. That construction trades some of the open, airy resonance of a true archtop for dramatically better feedback resistance and a tighter, more controlled low end — the same tradeoff Gibson made decades earlier with the ES-335, just applied to Gretsch’s own body language. The result plays and feels far closer to a solidbody than a jazz box, which is precisely the point: it’s aimed at players who want Gretsch looks and Bigsby vibrato without hollowbody stage-volume anxiety.

The second is the Broad’Tron pickup itself, a Gretsch-engineered humbucker distinct from the vintage-voiced Filter’Tron found on the G5420T and Professional Collection guitars. The Broad’Tron carries a fatter, more modern output that overdrive and distortion circuits respond to eagerly, while still retaining some characteristic Gretsch twang layered under heavy reverb, and pushing the bridge pickup harder reveals a punchy, contemporary rock tone rather than a vintage one. A treble bleed circuit on the master volume keeps that definition intact even with the volume rolled back, which matters more on a hot-output pickup like this than it would on a lower-output vintage Filter’Tron.

Owner feedback broadly confirms the design brief worked as intended. Users report the semi-hollow construction is less suited to extremely high-gain settings due to feedback risk, but performs well across rock and blues, and the center block is specifically credited with reducing feedback while letting the guitar still resonate freely at stage volume. Multiple listings and reviews independently describe the tonal territory as falling between a Gibson-style humbucker and a Gretsch Filter’Tron — which is exactly the middle ground Broad’Tron pickups were engineered to occupy.

It’s worth noting that Broad’Tron isn’t unique to this guitar — Gretsch uses variations of the design (including the BT-3S found on the Streamliner Center Block series) across much of its modern semi-hollow catalog, positioning it as a deliberate house style rather than a one-off experiment. That consistency matters for buyers: choosing a Broad’Tron-equipped Gretsch anywhere in the lineup buys into the same tonal philosophy, whereas choosing a Filter’Tron model buys into the older, vintage-accurate one. They’re not simply “cheaper” and “more expensive” versions of the same sound — they’re two different sounds Gretsch maintains in parallel, aimed at different players.

Famous Players: A List That Belongs to a Different Brand Entirely

Chuck Berry is the only name on the spreadsheet with any real Gretsch connection at all — and even that connection doesn’t reach this guitar. Berry’s signature sound came from a series of Gibson hollowbodies: the ES-350T that defined his Chess Records recordings, and later the ES-335 and ES-355 he played for the rest of his career (he was buried with an ES-355 in 2017). But Berry did occasionally play Gretsch instruments too, spotted at various points with a 1959 Gretsch 6121 Roundup, a 6120, and a Gretsch White Falcon double-cutaway — none of them remotely close in construction to a 2019-era Chinese-built, spruce-center-blocked Electromatic.

Larry Carlton has no meaningful Gretsch connection whatsoever. He’s known professionally as “Mr. 335” — a nickname Gibson put directly on his signature model’s truss rod cover, based on his own 1968 ES-335. His entire session and solo career, from Steely Dan’s “Aja” to his own Grammy-winning albums, is built around that Gibson semi-hollow tone, not anything from Gretsch’s catalog.

Eric Clapton is primarily associated with Fender Stratocasters and, during his Cream years, Gibson SGs and ES-335s. His closest documented Gretsch-adjacent moment was buying a Gibson ES-350TN as a tribute to Chuck Berry — a Gibson purchased in Berry’s honor, not a Gretsch of any kind.

Dave Grohl does have a genuine Gretsch story, just not with this guitar. He famously played a 1990 Japanese-built Gretsch White Falcon — previously owned by Foo Fighters bandmate Pat Smear — throughout the “Monkey Wrench” music video and on tour during The Colour and the Shape era; that specific guitar sold at auction for over $53,000. But the White Falcon is a full-depth, fully hollow, Japanese Professional-tier instrument built decades before the Center Block Jr. existed, and Grohl’s other primary hollow/semi-hollow guitar is a Gibson DG-335 modeled on the Trini Lopez.

Noel Gallagher has no meaningful Gretsch connection either — his signature semi-hollow guitar is an Epiphone Riviera, covered elsewhere in this catalog, and his broader collection leans Gibson (he received a custom Les Paul from Gibson directly).

The real, if modest, documented ownership record for this specific model belongs to working musicians rather than household names — including indie artist Benjamin Ian Taylor, who has used the G5655TG Electromatic Center Block Jr. live on songs including “Strangers” and “Neon.” That’s a far cry from a rock and roll legend, but it’s an honest reflection of who actually buys and gigs this guitar: not vintage-chasing collectors, but working players drawn to its modern voicing and manageable weight.

Tone Recipes

• Modern indie/alt-rock: Bridge pickup, moderate overdrive, into a clean-ish tube amp. The Broad’Tron’s higher output pushes drive pedals harder than a vintage Filter’Tron would, giving a thicker, more contemporary crunch.
• Blues-rock lead: Bridge pickup with the master tone rolled to about 70%, paired with a mid-boost overdrive (an Ibanez TS9 works well) for a fat, singing lead tone.
• Vintage-adjacent chime: Neck pickup, clean amp, spring reverb, and light Bigsby vibrato — as close as the Broad’Tron gets to classic Gretsch twang without pretending to be a Filter’Tron.
• Shoegaze/atmospheric: Both pickups together, heavy reverb and modulation, volume swells using the Bigsby for pitch-bend textures. The center block’s controlled resonance keeps things from collapsing into mud at high gain.
• Rockabilly-leaning rhythm: Bridge pickup, palm-muted train beat, light slap-back delay — still works, even if it’s not the pickup’s primary design intent.

How It Compares

Within Gretsch’s own catalog, the clearest comparison is the fully hollow G5420T Electromatic Classic Hollow Body. Where the G5420T uses vintage-voiced FT-5E Filter’Trons and a genuinely hollow, feedback-prone-but-airy construction, the G5655TG trades that resonance for the Broad’Tron’s higher output and the center block’s feedback control — a more stage-practical, less vintage-purist instrument at a similar price point.

Against Gretsch’s own more affordable Streamliner Center Block line, which uses a similar Broad’Tron BT-3S pickup concept at a lower price, the G5655TG’s Electromatic-tier construction and gold-hardware options represent a genuine step up in fit, finish, and perceived quality — reviewers have specifically noted how close the Electromatic tier now sits to Gretsch’s Japanese Professional Collection in build quality, even if the electronics remain distinctly modern rather than vintage-accurate.

Compared to a genuinely Gibson-style semi-hollow like the Epiphone Dot, the G5655TG’s smaller body, chambered spruce block, and higher-output pickups give it a tighter, more rock-oriented voice, while the Dot leans warmer and more traditionally jazz-adjacent. Players choosing between the two are really choosing between two different design philosophies — Gibson-style thinline construction versus Gretsch’s own center-block engineering — more than between two similarly-spec’d competitors.

Buying Guide

New pricing typically runs $899–999 depending on finish and hardware color, with gold-hardware TG variants occasionally commanding a small premium over nickel-hardware T versions. Used examples are common on the resale market, since the model has been in continuous production since 2019 and has a reasonably large installed base.

The most commonly reported setup issue involves the Bigsby’s tuning stability — several owners and reviewers note it can require careful setup at the bridge and nut to perform reliably, and one German review specifically flagged the review unit’s Bigsby as less stable than expected out of the box. A proper setup with attention to break angle and lubrication at contact points resolves most of these complaints. Buyers considering the guitar for high-gain or metal-adjacent styles should also be aware that despite the center block’s feedback resistance, this remains a semi-hollow instrument, not a true solidbody — extreme gain and volume can still provoke unwanted resonance.

Because the pickups are the defining sonic departure point from classic Gretsch tone, players chasing an authentic vintage Filter’Tron sound should look instead at the G5420T or Professional Collection models; players wanting a modern, stage-ready Gretsch with rock and alternative pedigree will find the Broad’Tron voicing exactly as intended.

Also worth checking before buying used: Gretsch has released this body style under several closely related SKUs — the standard G5655T (nickel hardware), the G5655TG (gold hardware), quilted-maple G5655T-QM variants, and periodic limited-edition colorways. All share the same core construction and electronics, so the choice mostly comes down to hardware finish and top figuring rather than any functional difference. Sellers occasionally list these interchangeably, so confirming the exact model number against Gretsch’s own spec sheets is worthwhile if a particular finish or hardware color matters to you.

Practical Ownership Notes

• At roughly 7.7 lbs and only 1.75″ deep, this is one of the most comfortable Gretsches to wear on a strap for a full set — noticeably lighter and slimmer than a true hollowbody like the G5420T.
• The individual pickup volume controls plus master volume and tone give unusually granular control for a guitar at this price point, useful for dialing between pickups mid-song without reaching for a pedal.
• Some owners report minor neck-dive on quilted-top variants due to the heavier figured maple; standard finishes balance more neutrally on a strap.
• The laurel fingerboard, used in place of increasingly restricted rosewood, performs comparably in feel and durability for most players, though it looks slightly lighter in color than traditional rosewood.

Frequently Asked Questions