Gretsch 7628 Committee

Features have been covered well enough in prev. reviews. They're plenty bueno enough fer me--great build qual., that serves up killer tone & great looks!

Kills on this front. Tremendous sustain, tone, & touch. mine's been tweaked to playin perfection. Go it set up so I can switch between tv jones 'trons or p90s pretty quick depending on how I'm feeling. An amazing axe that's easily on par w/ any of the prs's I've played--can really serve up the santana tone, the pleasant mick taylor bite, or N Young fizz. just amazing. beside the pickups, all the electronics in mine are original & work flawlessly unlike the current FMIC gretsch's. Can't figure how FMIC gretsch can get away with selling such expensive axes w/ such crappy electronics!

I play a wide variety o' stuff from punk to country to blues & this is my go to axe. Kills all the SGs, LPs, and PRS (all of which I sorta like)at a fraction of the dinero, plus looks way cooler w/ the smoky batwing pickguard!!

I snagged mine about 20 years after it came out the factory & it's been set up perfectly to my tastes. Killer quality all 'round though & beautiful!! Unlike current G!b$on$ the fretwork on my committee is awesome!

Mine's about 40 years old now & i have had it for about 20, playin the %^&$ out of it in studios, roadhouses, jams & parties & it still plays as good as new, never given me a prob. If that ain't reliable, than the word means nothing!

who knows. I'd rather talk to my ex-mother-in-law than the a#$%o#$s at FMIC that now own gretsch. Besides, they'd jus tell me what I already know--I'm on my own.

playin 30 yrs now in so many bands & places that i forget a lot of 'em & frankly wish i could forget a few more. This is my go to axe 90% of the time --when I'm in strat mood, I play a j. jones. Every time i play it, folks that first see it think WTF? Once folks hear they think WTF!! same w/ other gunslingers that play it! Can't tell ya how many times folks have wanted mine, but i've never been tempted, cuz they're too damn hard to find. For alot of yrs, I played the usual stuff--f#$der$ & G!b$0n$ & while a coupla out the many I've had we're alright, the committee burns down there houses & spits on the ashes. g'luck finding one, ya can't have mine!

Mine was made in 1979 and I have owned it since new, and it is in like new condition. ( true closet classic ) I have noticed that the other reviews listed the body as mahogany, it is actualy walnut. My case has dark grey interior as opposed to lime green.

I play a little of everything, but tend to stay away from metal and lots of distortion with this guitar as it gets a little muddy and muted in that role. I have a Kustom Lead III stack that I bought at the same time as the guitar and I have a Marshall combo. Played clean or thru low distortion effects or thru a wah and is sounds as good as the best of them.

My action was set pretty low from the factory, and I have some buzz on low E. the frets are really short compared to guitars of late. It could use a good setup but I have never had it done. The fit and finish is very good. The volume and tone controls started to get scratchy so I cleaned them with contact cleaner and that fixed it. The tuners do a fine job and it stays in tune a long time. The sustain is decent. both tune and sustain are way better than my Strat!, tune hold is on par with my Schecter, But the Schecter will sustain a note forever....

It has always been the guitar that is ready to play when the others are down. Solid as a rock and the almost as heavy

I have been playing over twenty years as a hobby. If it were stolen I would be heart broken, it is a very rare guitar and it was my first. I would like to see what it could do with a set of highend pickups but it's not broke so I wont fix it...My other guitars are a Strat standard, Schecter c-1, Gibson J-45 and a Martin D28...

I believe this one is a 1979 model, with the number 3-9011 inside the control cavity on the back, which I believe to be the 11th made in March, 1979 - I could be wrong. 22 medium/jumbo size frets with 24.75" scale, double cutaway solid body with neck through design. The wood is mahogany with maple stripes in the neck, finished in gloss. Hardware is all stock with string through body and hard tail bridge. It has two humbuckers with adjustable pole pieces and semi transparent pickguard and control cavity cover. 3 position switch with two volume and tone controls - all with the Gretsch "G" with arrow printed on top. The tuners are Gretsch stock, 3 to a side. And of course, made in USA - one of the last USA models at the time.

I play mostly rhythm & blues, 60's style surf, and some rockabilly too. I use a Fender 1965 Super Reverb reissue with Dan Echo and Tube Screamer effects pedals - not much else, except when bi-amping with either a MusicMan HD-212 or Fender DeVille 4X10. This guitar has a warm vintage sound when played clean, but tends to get muddy in the low end when distorted. The pickups have become a bit microphonic and need to be potted, which may help this issue. Either way, the sound is definitely a full sound, not to bright - even in the bridge position with tone all the way up. With the volume rolled back in all positions, you can get very nice, smooth, defined chord tones for comping. Distorted at high volumes, it screams out with a Gibson SG-ish sound. All around a nice guitar for my style. I also play several different telecasters and stratocasters (70's-90's), Epiphone Sheraton and Wildkat, Gibson Blueshawk, and a few others (the wife says I have way too many guitars - not enough really).

When I first purchased the guitar, the nut was cut way too low and needed replacement. With a new nut by GraphTech, the guitar now is very playable and has medium to high action, which is my preference. Electronically, there were some solder joints that needed repair, and some cleaning of the pots. Everything now works perfectly. There is a lot of oxidization of pickguard screws, but all other metal parts seem impervious to that. Both pickups are well faded and oxidized on the surface.

I think this guitar could be dropped off a tall building and still play great. It is very solid. The one thing that could be improved are the tuners, which are average, but smooth machines. I have little problem with them, however, so I have kept them stock. Everything else is rock solid and I depend on this guitar for heavy gigging - never had any issues since I first worked on it. This is not my main gigging guitar, so it is one of my backups, but I would use it without backup if needed.

Who knows... I do practically all the work on my guitars, barring a refret. I know nothing else about Gretsch's support policy - I've never looked into it.

I've been playing for around 13 years - I started late. I own over twenty guitars, fifteen of which are electrics - 3 telecasters, 4 stratocasters, Gibson Blueshawk, Epiphone Sheraton & Wildkat, and a few other non-gigging axes. My amplifiers are Fender Super Reverb, Prosonic, DeVille, Deluxe Reverb, and Music Man HD-212.

When I purchased this guitar, I was really looking for a CBS era Telecaster Deluxe, but with no luck in my price range of under $1000. I looked into SG's and a few other solid body humbucking guitars. I stumbled across the Committee and here I am, writing a review. My favorite aspect of this guitar is the tone in the bridge position when playing leads. It really gives a searing, vintage tone, without being brash, brittle, or thin. It really is bad a$$. My least favorite aspect is the microphonic qualities of the pickups. I think this will be resolved by wax potting.

I would try to find another one of these guitars if it were lost or stolen, but they are certainly uncommon. Likely I would continue looking for that Telecaster Deluxe I keep dreaming about... (telecaster deluxe...aaaggghhhlllgghhh - as groaned by Homer S.)

According to various websites and an illustrated guitar encyclopedia, the Gretsch Committee was produced around 1978. The body is neck through and is short scale (22 jumbo frets). The guitar is a hand-me-down and has some upgrades and modifications. In addition to the 3-way pup selector switch, it has two additionally installed 2-way toggle switches that engage series/parallel modes on both humbuckers. The two humbuckers have been replaced with Seymour Duncans (model unknown). Four knobs control volume/tone for each humbucker. The original string-thru body has been replaced with a tune-o-matic bridge and a Bigsby tremolo. The body itself is a transparent stained finish, double cutaway and a semi-translucent black pickguard. The guitar came with a Gretsch hardshell case lined with lime-green "fur". In my opinion, this guitar may look a bit beastly, but has it's own charm and character.

This guitar delivers bright, sparkly tone. Combined with spring reverb and tremolo, (not to mention the Bigsby tremolo) surf guitar and Ventures styled tones are easy to achieve. However, a quick switch to the neck pickup and rolling off the tone will deliver great, rounded jazz flavors that avoid sounding muffled.

I have run this guitar through a Mesa Rect-O-Verb combo, and a Fender Twin Reverb, and both have achieved impressive results. The Mesa crunch is fierce and responsive. In fact, all 3 stages of the red channel (Raw, Vintage, and Modern) yielded very unique personalities of gain, AND remained very quiet with low noise. The Twin Reverb was classic Fender clean that produced some wonderful tones through all the combinations of series/parallel pup configurations.

I did have the guitar set up and looked over by McNeely Guitars above the Mesa/Boogie store in Hollywood which did solve a grounding issue that produced amp noise whenever I would break contact with any metal part of the guitar. With a proper setup for intonation and the grounding issue resolved, the guitar is in fine working order. The Bigsby tremolo will put this guitar out of tune if used extensively, however I am extremely happy with the guitar's functionality.

The series/parallel switches for each pickup do help to give the guitar more variety in tonal character. While I'm still doing my homework as to the technical differences between the two settings, I find that the switches' "down" position gives more output than the "up" position. I'm finding that the "up" position has a thinner sound and the "down" position a more humbucker sound.

If I were to rate this guitar prior to the setup job over at McNeely's, it would receive a 5. After a proper adjustment of intonation, and most importantly the grounding problem, it gets an 7. There are some things a repair guy can do, and there are some things that a previous owner can do to thwart even the most gifted of luthiers. Whoever owned this guitar before either had a tech with all thumbs, or just had no concept of gracefully installing new hardware.

The two toggles that control series/parallel were not installed by the volume/tone knobs where they could be accessed by the rear panel. Instead, someone had installed them by removing the pickguard and GOUGING a huge hole to seat the switches in the body. Then, there is an apparent TRENCH leading to the pickups so that the wiring could be installed. Even though the work is covered by the pickguard, it doesn't help that upon closer inspection, the pickguard is transparent.

The bridge did not fare better. The tune-o-matic bridge is covering up the string-thru body, but there is an obvious amount of wood putty and sealer that covers up the space where the old bridge was.

The humbucking mounting rings are also mediocre. The rings are made of what appears to be the same kind of plastic used for the pickguard. This wouldn't bother me so much, if whoever installed it had at least cut the pieces a bit straighter, and hadn't left so many rough edges. From far away, it looks pretty good. Up close, it bears a resemblance to Frankenstein's monster.

Action is low, and plays like butter without any fret buzz. The knobs are all original with the "G" logo and arrow indicator.

Overall, I believe the modifications made did help it become a better guitar...but not without it's price.

It is a reliable guitar thus far, though I don't play it as much as my stratocaster. I think of it as a backup, rather than my main axe...though if I were to make it my primary axe, I would be comfortable without a 2nd guitar.

none

I've been playing guitar for 12 years, but have only been serious for the a little over a year. As far as gear goes, I own a Clapton Strat, an Epiphone Dot (also a hand-me-down), and a Yamaha acoustic guitar (fairly inexpensive). It's a great guitar for the value ($150 for the setup and other work done to it). It's flexible in its tonal palette and does well in a variety of musical situations. If it were lost or stolen, I don't think I could really find another one without having to look in ever pawn shop and guitar store in several states, so I would most likely look at a Paul (either a LP or a Reed Smith!)

1981 U.S.A. 22frets solid body neck-thru. three way selecter two volume two tone h/h. transparentfinish, laminated mahogany.double cutaway string thru-body, hard tail bridge.locking tuners, thin yet very sturdy neck, rosewood jumbo frets. came with hard case and trusrod tool.

I play blues and rock, the committee is a great guitar with so so electronics, once you put in a better set of pick ups and tuners its true potential can be heard! I bought mine used off of E-BAY for a fraction of the price of a vintage made in AMERICA guitar. the controls had one bad wire{since fixed}and the stock pick ups are o.k. but upgrading them made a big difference.I use a marshal 100watt dfx amp and the sound is full and bright from searing highs to rich deep lows. likes: quality of construction,looks and price!!! dislikes: the part that was neglected was the pick ups, the stock tuners were good but i changed them any way. if you don't mind a little work the committee is a great AMERICAN MADE guitar and the price will only go up since there no longer made. highly recomended for the do it you'r self types,if you can find one!

bought used, body very good, concidering the price range only flaws are from prior users. well worth the money. rating of ten for value,could have ben better but only at many times the price.

SOLID AS A ROCK!

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favorite feature is the neck. if it were lost i would have to seek out another, it's an important part of my collection and a must have as far as i am concered.