Love the versatility of this instrument. Plays well and gets wow looks everywhere I go.Yes I have to continually tune it. May invest in locking tuners....haven't done it in a year though..have fun!

Got 1 of these cerulean smoke versions of the G5655tg and it is superb from the tail pin to the tuners. Even the stock tuners are useable without pain turning the keys, they are smooth and better than most; but will be replaced by more accurate and smoother ones. The voice is as expected with a versatile tonal palette. The Bigsby has a lot of range and the handle is high above the strings where I can grab it easily, in a hurry. The sonic effect of the Bigsby is pronounced. This is a good 'Bigsby guitar' and you can heartily wring out the whammy bar within reason. Pull up too hard and the spring will fall right out onto the floor and you will have to find it for the guitar to work.

It is thin and comfortable and fits in the hands like gloves. The guitar is compact and light compared to a strat. Definitely very responsive and bright. Good control layout that helps tame brightness, shape sound, etc.

Cerulean smoke is a beautiful sky blue metallic color reminiscent of Lake Placid blue. The blue and gold accentuate each other.

This is an excellent guitar.

After months of studying Gretsch guitars, I finally went with the Azure Metallic 5655tg. Ordered on a Saturday, received on the following Tuesday. Even though the weather was nice, I waited the recommended 24 before unboxing. Let me tell you, this was the best boxing job I've ever seen on a guitar ever. I have one hollowbody, and 2 other semi-hollowbodies, and even though there wasn't any shipping damage to those other 3 guitars, this one could have been dragged to my house behind the truck and survived.
As for the guitar - flawless. It was just a few cents off on a few strings of being perfectly in tune. Intonation is perfect. It stays in tune as long as you don't divebomb the Bigsby. The pickups in this guitar are awesome. First thing I played was a bit of clean surf music, then followed up with some AC/DC through an Orange Crush 35rt on the dirty channel. Just sounded great. Playability is great. Neck feels great. Zero dead frets. No fret buzzing anywhere.
I actually got this guitar to play more 50's rockabilly and 60's surf music ( yes I'm old ), but it handles distortion just fine. We shall see what it does once I get into all that.
Thanks goes to my SWEETWATER Rep ! If you don't have a relationship with one, and you're really into playing music, I suggest finding one. They have a few hundred to choose from. Drake, you are awesome!!

My Gretsch 5655TG was my first new electric guitar in 19 years. Always wanted a hollow/semi-hollow body, and boy, did I make the right choice! Aesthetically, she's simply beautiful, as the blue is actually darker than on the Sweetwater website, and the gold hardware is a perfect accent. I plugged into my Marshall CODE 100, and within 30 minutes, had dialed in the perfect tones for worship. The Bigsby was a little bit to get used to stringing, but the intonation is great, and stays in tune. Overall, I couldn't be happier.

I never write reviews but I'm making an acception. I just started playing guitar a year ago. I have a few guitars, a Fender Mustang, a Squier Jazzmaster and Jaguar and a couple of Grote guitars.

This Gretsch guitar is a game changer. I went from an average sounding player to a guitar God the second I opened the box and laid my hands on pure magic.

The sun shined brighter, birds sang louder, crime stopped on the streets and world peace was achieved. My girlfriend suddenly loved my playing. My neighbors stopped complaining about how awful I was and when I walk down the street people stop and applaud, clapping until their hands bled.

The guitar looks incredible. Just holding it will get you laid. It's that amazing.

It plays incredibly well. I paid to have Sweetwater set it up for me. It seems expensive but now I understand the importance of having a guitar set up properly.

It's easy to play. The action is low, the frets are great for small hands. The sound is pure gold. It gives me confidence in my playing ability.

I can't say enough good things about the guitar. Even when not plugged in, it sounds great. You will be 100% satisfied with this guitar. Definitely pay to have the guitar set up properly.

If you want to be a rock and roll star this is the guitar to have, period. It looks amazing, sounds amazing, plays amazing and makes me feel amazing.

Now that I have it set up to my liking, I love it even more. This guitar is so versatile. I can get my twangy
old blues shuffle, Bo Diddley style groove. Dirty it up a little bit and I get my classic rock tone.

I locked the strings on the post, no tuning issue's what so ever.

If you play multiple styles of music. This guitar is a great across them all.

I received my gretsch G5655TG last Friday. I let it sit until mid morning Saturday and then I unboxed it. Obviously the first thing I noticed when I got it unwrapped was how beautiful this guitar is. This Bigsby tremolo with the gold trim speaks for itself. Out of the box it plays wonderfully. The tone range is wider than I thought I would get. You definitely can can't cover a lot of genres of music with this particular guitar. I would highly highly recommend anybody that wants to get into the Gretch guitars and want to mess around with semi Hollow Bodies you can't go wrong with this line of guitars.

This guitar play incredibly well and it's good reviews are justified. Only two issues I have noticed is:

1) from strap lock screw backs out of the body on it's own.

2) the broad'tron pickups are very hot....a lot of gain. But that is more a thing of opinion and not good nor bad.

I'm loving it

So I posted glowing reviews about this when I received it, but I feel I should update my review. A little over a year later, the sound is just completely out on my guitar. Just gone. Because it's a semihollow, getting someone to repair this is incredibly expensive. Sweetwater is great enough to fix it for free because of the 2 year warranty, but because I live in GA, shipping the guitar back to get it fixed isn't the easiest thing. Since I have experience making my own mods to electrics, I decided to look into the fix myself.

Turns out both the pickup selector switch and the master volume pot failed. When I was looking into this in various forums, I discovered that this isn't an uncommon occurrence - the electromatics tend to have poor quality pots and switches. The pickups and the guitar itself are great, but the components are poor quality. If you don't mind replacing the pots switches yourself on a guitar like this, go for it, it's great, and it doesn't cost much to replace them. But if you're not comfortable with changing the components yourself or don't want to deal with it, it's like adding a couple hundred to the price. It's not worth it to me anymore.

So I've had the guitar for a couple of weeks now so I feel I can give a good review.

First of all this guitar looks incredible! I can't stop staring at her. I catch my jam buddies looking at her as well but I don't let them touch her, she is all mine.

But lets be honest, looks only get you so far. This thing can sing as well. My biggest concern buying this was that it wouldn't compare with my other guitars. I always end up putting custom pickups in them to fine tune my sound. I don't think I will do that with this one. She sounds great as is.

So far she has stayed in tune even with my using the vibrato. I'm very impressed.

I've always loved the sound of Gretsch guitars and my choice of the Electromatic was essentially a no brainer. The good news is that when it's in tune, it sounds great. It's a beautiful guitar (mine is Snow Crest White with Gold Trim) The bad news is that it doesn't stay in tune and I suspect that this is a "from the factory" quality control issue. Play it for a bit, it goes out of tune, touch the Bigsby? Forget it, way out of tune! A trip to the luthier was particularly revealing. First of all, the nu-bone nut was improperly cut, so the strings kept getting hung up in the string grooves. They needed to be re-filed and some "nut sauce" to lubricate them was an improvement but the there were still problems because the tuners are actually pretty "basic" and somewhat loose. Lastly, the adjustomatic bridge is, in my humble opinion, cheap and is a poor choice for the Bigsby combo. Swapped it out for a Schaller roller bridge; adjustable for height, intonation and string spacing with low-friction roller saddles for much improved tuning stability (supposedly perfect for Bigsby vibratos). And about that Bigsby ... it's a licensed version not from Bigsby. Look, I think... the Gretsch / Fender behemoth could use some real quality control, spring for some better tuners and a low friction roller bridge. For about $300 more, it sounds like the Gretsch I thought I was buying. I love the guitar now but seriously folks, Caveat Emptor.

Before I get to the Gretsch, Let me give a great well done to Nick Church! I had to wait almost three months for my guitar as it was on order from Gretsch. He did an OUTSTANDING job helping me with order, keeping me posted on its status and notifying me when it arrived. I have worked with Nick on multiple purchases and he always out does himself. Nick is an outstanding Professional and I look forward to working with him in the future!

Also want to tip my cap to the tech who did my inspection and setup.....perfect out of the box!

This is my fourth Gretsch and smallest of the lot. I am not normally a fan of blue but the workmanship and finish is amazing! Photos do not do justice to the actual color. It has a richer, bluer finish than it shows, stunning.

It has that classic Gretsch sound and I am amazed at how clean the highs and lows are. It still has that humbucker growl but not overpowering. No issues staying in tune with the Bigsby. It is lighter than my Les Paul and it also sounds brighter than my Gretsch hollow bodies.

All in all this guitar is a winner and it was worth the wait! I just want to plug in and play!

This Gretsch captured all the elements I have been looking for in my next electric guitar. I had a bunch of oddly specific needs for a Gretsch that I'll spare you from here, but some things I love about this guitar:
- The BroadTron pickups are perfect to me. Filtertrons were a little too bright for my tastes, but these have some of the heft of humbuckers without losing the definition and chime Gretsch is known for.
- I love the look of the semi-hollow body, and the detail is very crisp and well done!
- My main instrument is acoustic, and I have a dual gig-bag designed to carry both an acoustic and an electric. I was worried I wouldn't ever able to fit a semi-hollow Gretsch into the electric side, but this guitar fits perfectly, even with the Bigsby!
- The controls are very usable, and I have been able to get a variety of sounds using just the guitar volume and tone controls while going straight into my Vox amp. Clean and chimey, crunchy, mellow, and everything in between.
- I enjoy having built in strap locks. They're not as easy to add and remove as aftermarket ones like Grovers, but they get the job done.
- I haven't been big on using vibrato systems before like on a Stratocaster, but I've actually found the Bigsby very useful to add some shimmer. It's easy to flip out of the way too for when I don't want to use it. Tuning has also been surprisingly stable. Setup make a world of difference!

The only complaints I can think of:
- The pickguard arrived slightly loose, and would slide down as I strummed. It wasn't too hard to retighten it, but it did cause some of the gold paint to get scratched off underneath, and it still sometimes clacks against the pickup rings as I strum.
- I forgot that this doesn't come with a case. It's not been an issue since the double gig bag I already owned doesn't have anything else in it, but it would've been nice to have a case or at least gig bag come with the guitar.
- Again, the strap locks are nice to be included, but they take a while to take on and off. Perhaps the biggest issue is that these are designed differently than other strap pins I've had, meaning my options for replacing them are more limited.

Overall, I am very pleased with this guitar, and at the rate it's going, this is going to surpass my other electrics to become my main electric guitar!

The over all build is impressive, and of course with the 55 point inspections it played out of box nicely. The new Broad'Trons have a lot of woof in them, the bottom end is wide (The neck pick up is almost like a Phat Cat P90). The highs (Bridge) never spike. The middle position I found I had to roll off the Neck pickup off a little(personal taste). There is plenty of clarity with the Broad'Tron with the output of Humbucker. The neck is very nice, and plays like a Les Paul Custom I once had. Treble Bleed in master volume does it's job. I have never had an issue with the Bigsbys in either of my Gretsch's. Over all I'm very impressed with the stock build.