The Gretsch G2420 Streamliner Hollow Body is a great example of why you don't have to spend a fortune to get into the world of Gretsch. With its big single-cut hollowbody design, classic styling, Chromatic II tailpiece, and a pair of Broad’Tron humbuckers, the G2420 delivers plenty of Gretsch character while adding some modern versatility to the recipe. This is a guitar that looks like it should cost considerably more than it does, and it comes equipped with the kind of features that make it useful for far more than just looking cool on a stand.
Gretsch has been building guitars with a distinctive personality for generations, and the G2420 taps directly into that tradition. The Streamliner Collection was created to bring the look, feel, and general attitude of classic Gretsch hollowbodies to a much broader range of players, and the G2420 does exactly that. Its fully hollow construction gives it the big, resonant character you expect from a hollowbody, while the modern Broad’Tron pickups give it enough muscle to handle rock, blues, country, jazz, and plenty of territory in between. The Chromatic II tailpiece is a particularly cool Gretsch touch, designed to compensate for differing string gauges and provide more uniform playing feel across the strings.
The neck is nato with a comfortable Soft "C" profile and a 12" radius laurel fingerboard. With 22 medium-jumbo frets, a 24.75" scale length, and a 1.6875" bone nut, the G2420 has a familiar Gibson-style scale length and a neck that feels immediately approachable. The pearloid Neo-Classic thumbnail inlays add another unmistakably Gretsch visual touch, while the 12" radius gives you a nice, modern playing surface that works equally well for chords, bends, and lead playing.
The G2420's fully hollow body is built from laminated maple with an arched top and back, and Gretsch uses parallel tone bars inside the body to help produce the guitar's rich, resonant response. At 2.75" deep, this is a proper big-body hollowbody, and you can feel the acoustic character of the design even before you plug it in. The gloss finish, aged-white binding with black/white/black purfling, three-ply tortoise pickguard, and classic Gretsch appointments give it plenty of vintage-inspired style without trying to pass itself off as a 1950s museum piece.
The electronics are where the G2420 gets especially interesting. A pair of Gretsch Broad’Tron BT-3S humbuckers provide a strong, full sound with tighter lows, muscular mids, and smooth highs. These aren't timid vintage-style pickups—they have enough output and authority to push an amp while retaining the clarity that makes a hollowbody fun to play. You get individual volume controls for each pickup, a master tone, and a master volume, with a push/pull function on the master volume that splits the humbuckers for useful single-coil sounds. A three-way toggle gives you the standard bridge, bridge-and-neck, and neck combinations.
If you've been curious about hollowbody guitars, Gretsch guitars, or just want something that looks and sounds completely different from the usual solidbody suspects, the G2420 is an awful lot of guitar for the money. Come check it out, plug it in, and see what all that hollowbody Gretsch attitude is about.
