Tear It Up

A bolt-on addition to the solidbody range? Like us, you might be surprised after hitching a ride with this low-priced Junior Jet Club…

- Dave Burrluck

As the entry point into the vast Gretsch guitar range, the Junior Jet Club is simplistic by design. Available in dual humbucker or, as here, in a slightly more expensive P-90/humbucker format, it also comes in a trio of colours with cream body binding and pickguard to match the covered neck single coil. It certainly recalls the style of the classic single-cut Jet models, Gretsch’s response to the Les Paul.

While the original Jet was a sealed semisolid design, this G2215 is a solid slab-bodied affair. The body and neck are both nato, and although you’d expect the neck to be glued in, it’s a bolt-on – quite a rarity in Gretsch’s catalogue. Granted, that does scream budget, and, while that’s the point of the exercise, it also gives these Junior Jet Clubs a rather unique place in the range, not least in sound.

Despite the difference in constructional style, it retains obvious Gretsch DNA. The Jet outline is slightly longer and a little more squared than the Les Paul, yet somehow less rudimentary-looking than a Telecaster. Combine that with the classy, classic raked-back three-a-side headstock and the thumbnail fingerboard markers, and there’s no doubt you’re playing a Gretsch.

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