Gretsch 3156

I believe my Gretsch Streamliner 3156 is a thin hollobody single cutaway guitar with two (2) pickups. It is about 4 years old. I purchased it used with a hardshell case. This white guitar ( goldplated hardware throughout, including Bigsby vibrato tailpiece. I love the stock pickups on this guitar which give it a great "Chet Atkins" tone wih clear trebles and booming bass tones when hooked up to a good amplified. I use it with my Fender Power Chorus amplifier with great results. I believe this guitar is made at the Samick factory in Korea. It's a beauty...and such a wonderful variety of tonal options when used with a good reverb/chorus amp. I have ownedseveral other Gretsch guitars, including a late 1960's Gretsch Country Gentleman and a Gretsch Brian Setzer Hotrod...which are fine guitars (but expensive!). This Gretsch Streamliner 3156 gives you the same tone and great action...for 50% of the cost of those other Gretsch's. What a value! I guess you could say this 3156 is a "Poor Man's Gretsch Country Gentleman"...but played with the lights off, I doubt if you could hear or feel any difference between it and a $2,0000 to $5,000 Gretsch hollowbody of any kind.I find it much more comfortable to play than the thicker Gretsch 6120 models...especially when playing standing up with a guitar strap.

This guitar suits my playing style perfectly! It's got "That Great Gretsch Sound", looks great under stage lights and handles like a dream with its thin, fast, nicely contoured fingerboard and thubnail position markers. Love its wide spectrum of tones from twangy rockabilly to sublte jazz tones, depending on pickup selection and amp controls.

Flawless fit and finish. No flaws...even used! It's built like a tank, so I expect it to last forever. I believe this guitar is made with maple back and sides and probably a mahogany neck. See Gretsch website for construction/materials information.

Great reliability and durability. I can depend on it for all my professional gigs. No backup needed!

In 50 years of playing guitar, I have never had to contact ANY guitar maker for repairs of warranty issues. I don't expect that I would ever contact Gretsch about issues with this 3156.

I've been playing guitar for 40+ years. If this 3156 were stolen or lost, I would defintely get another! I love the fit, finish, color and fast neck and clear tones of this Streamliner 3156! I especially love the Bigsby tailpiece, which I use a lot! The Bigsby is buttery-smooth in its operation...the Bigsby handle is not to low, not too high...just right height for easy use...without getting in the way.

This is an update to the Grestch 3156 I reviewed a while back. I made some improvements that really helped the guitar stay in tune and stopped hum. (while combining both pickups) I had a Gibson tune-o-matic bridge installed in place of the original copy unit and Graphtech graphite saddles installed as well. Also on advice from TV (Tom) Jones I adjusted the polepiece hights on the Dynasonic Pickups and it made a big differece. Much better string balance and output now. I also had my guitar tech reverse the magnetic polarity of the neck pick up so when both pickups are combined it acts like a humbucker! I originally was going to change to Filter 'trons but the guitar body would have to be cut out so I nixed that idea. I now think the Dynasonics are some of the best sounding pickups ever made (first made in the late 1940's) especially after really paying attention to to the sound of a lot of guitars lately. I always get compliments on tone and and the appearance of this Guitar it is absolutely amazing. The last change I made wad putting Grover Imperial tuning machines on it. To some people they may look too large, but look at an old White Falcon (or new Stephen Stills WF model) and you'll see how cool they really are. OK I am not sellin' this guitar ever!
Dave

Excellent! Even better since I immade the above improvements.

This Gretsch is a 2000 model from the new "historic series" and apparently is made in Korea. It is a 16" wide full depth hollowbody (2.67 inches) made of laminated maple with a rock maple neck and is based on the early 50's model of the same name. (By the way it is the same size as the Chet Atkins 6120 models.) The finish is an off white top (giving it somewhat of a White Falcon appearance) with a very dark rosewood fretboard with half-moon inlays and a shiny black peghead with a traditional mother of pearl Gretsch logo. The back of the body, neck and the sides are a smoke-grey metallic, the binding on the neck and body is "aged white and all hardware is gold plated which give this guitar a really striking appearance . . . completely Gretsch! This guitar has the Bigsby and tune-o-matic bridge combo with mini grover style tuners. It comes with two single coil Gretsch Dynasonic (really DeArmond) pickups with individual volumes for each pickup, a master tone control and a three way pickup selector. Here is my only beef: I really wish it had a master volume control!! I'm glad I bought the black Gretsch hardshell case to protect it as well. No scratches yet!

This guitar gets that cool "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" killer super twangy Gretsch tone with both pickups combined also sounding just like Cliff Gallup or Duane Eddy. It can also put out nice blues/jazz neck pickup tones and more cutting sounds from the bridge one. All three tones are useable and really incredible sounding for a wide variety of musical styles in my opinion. (But won't sound good if you're into heavy metal etc.) The pickups are single coil (DeArmond Dynasonic) so they can pick up hum and noise if you're close to florescent lights, fans or tv sets. All that aside I bought it because I couldn't wait forever for a US made White Falcon and now I'm really happy I bought it. This thing is incredible sounding through my '63 reissue Fender tube reverb an analog delay and Fender Vibrolux amp (1972 silverface). This guitar fits my sound perfectly as I'm doing retro sounding stuff like Psychobilly, Surf, Bow Wow Wow cover tunes and more.

This guitar is finished very well and has nice hardware for a guitar in its' price range especially considering that it is a mass produced model. The paint is perfect with a clear coat and the headstock and fret inlays are flawless. I looked at a lot of Gretsch guitars over a month or so and this one had a good or better neck than even the high end ones, so I had to buy it. The (graphite?) nut is OK but needs to be replaced and cut custom for the strings I use (DR tite fit electrics with .010's, no heavy jazz strings sorry) and also the high E string pops off of the tune-o-matic bridge sometimes. I have played I spoke to Brian Setzer's tech about how to improve the (pretty minor) tuning problems I have encountered when I use the Bigsby faily hard and bridge. He recommended a Wilkinson "Wilkaloid" nut as one of the main improvements.

I believe it will withstand live playing well and has a nice thick finish but it is a hollowbody has to be treated a bit like a museum piece compared to my mid 70's strat and other solid body instruments. I definitely can rely on it at a gig but it will be immediately returned to it's "coffin" before the sun comes back up! The strap buttons are the screw on standard Gretsch ones so it will never pop out during a gig like standard Fender ones etc.

I have never had to deal with them so far.

I have been playing for about 18 years and have a '75 black strat, Fender Vibrolux and a tweed Fender "Pro Junior" tube amp. I would immediately buy another Gretsch if anything happened to it I love the look, the sound and precision fretboard it has. The only possible things it could have that I feel would be an improvement, would be a set of "TV Jones" Filtertrons http://www.tvjones.com/ and "Sperzel" locking tuners.