The Internet Has Thoughts About MusicRadar's Gretsch Electromatic CVT Double-Cut Review.
MusicRadar called it budget firepower for garage and punk. One forum poster called the specs horrible, and an owner called it an SG killer.
Source
“It's a fun, affordable electric that offers dual-humbucker tones at an affordable price point.”
What the internet actually said
“This guitar plays itself. Great fretwork, easy tension.”
Gretsch-Talk · t.s.
“Seems like horrible specs for an electromatic. No G locks, pickups from the cheapest guitar in the line, and a bolt on neck.”
Gretsch-Talk · g.b.
The Suede Read
MusicRadar gave the revived Corvette shape four stars and a clean bill: a fun, affordable electric with dual-humbucker firepower for garage and punk. The caveats were small. The factory setup needed a tweak, and it is not the most versatile guitar in the catalog.
The spec sheet took fire on Gretsch-Talk. One poster called the specs horrible for an Electromatic, pointing at pickups borrowed from the cheapest guitar in the line and a bolt-on neck. On paper, that argument is not crazy.
Then you read the owner report in the same forum and the spec-sheet case falls apart. The owner said the guitar plays itself, praised the fretwork, and reported it stays perfectly in tune even right after a string change. The whole package felt like a real bargain, in their words. Their two-word verdict was SG killer. They also went further than MusicRadar did on where Gretsch cut corners, calling the pots crappy and the bridge junky pot metal, while conceding the bridge works fine and does not rattle.
That is what an honest budget guitar looks like. The wood, the neck, and the fretwork got the money. The pots and the bridge did not. MusicRadar said the same thing with a politer vocabulary. When the press and the person who actually paid for one land in the same place, the review holds up.
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