...the first pics (besides the ones from the KC Roundup, of course) of the new 5442B Electromatic bass gitfiddle.

According to the lovely and talented Joe Carducci, this one is the first specimen to escape the factory. This one is also the one used for the photo session for the next catalog, as were the other guitars in KC.

Mine, mine, all mine...mineminemineminemine...

I LOVE this bass!

Yeah! That's a cherry! Thanks for posting the pictures.

Ain't she sweet....

Thanks Tub, I was going to suggest a new thread, as the 5442B is built on the 542x body, and therefore is not simply a doublt-cutaway 5123B.

Being thinner than the 5123, I wonder how they compare in sound? Baxter, without being negative about the 5123, said he MUCH prefers the feel and playability of the 5442 over the 5123, which he considered to "feel" bigger than it actually is (not that it's small by any measure!), but didn't express how he felt about the difference in pickups.

The thinner profile of the 5442, matched with the new ELECTROMATIC "blacktop" filters (in a four-pole configuration of course), seems like a winning combination to reproduce a more "vintage" Gretsch-y tone. One of the reasons I like the 5123 so much is it's ability to be super smooth and rumbley, all the way to super crisp and articulate, but jangle and sparkle are definitely not heavy in the tone without additional fx.

I'm excited to hear some clips of the sound, and she's a real beauty, there's no doubting that at all. Congrats on getting the FIRST of this gorgeous new breed Tub!

I haven't heard a plugged-in 5123, so can't make a real comparison, but I really, really like the 5422 sound. To my ears, it had a warm, articulate, vintage-y sound. Not super low, not boomy, but warm and articulate.

That was my assumption with the thinner body and filter pups, and as such it could be more appealing in tone to those who are after the "vintage" sound.

The 'Trons in the 5123 though, definitely boomy! Oh the boomy goodness.. We've just gotta get these two together in the same room soon!

And I apologize for you're not having heard a plugged-in 5123, that's certainly my fault. You'd think after a year of making promises I'd post a clip...

Um, if I said it was coming soon, would you believe me?

By the way, I'm WAY digging the hump-blocks and the bound f-holes. I think it presents a distinctly "pro-line" look on this model. I'm glad to see that the humps are making their way to more electros recently. The thumbnail inlays are fine don't get me wrong, but there's something about those humps that just looks stellar!

So Tub, are you gonna do this to it?

Cause if not (which would be understandable), you should definitely do this:

Well, I'm quite sure I'll be leaving the Bigsby off the to-do list.:-)

As far as a Tru-Arc's concerned, I might eventually entertain that thought down the pike. (Hell, I won a guitar one in Nashville and have yet to freakin' use it because in the process of switching to all gold parts in the 5120BK it's intended for, the guy I got the git from gave me some wrong info. Now I have to get the headstock veneer fixed/replaced before I can go any further. That'll be my first hands-on with the fabulous Tru-Arcs.)

In KC, the 5442 did sound lovely. I'm gonna say rather Jaco-ish. I was drumming at the time and asked the guy playing it to switch to the neck pickup, which did fatten 'er up quite a bit.

I couldn't wait to get it home because in KC, it was being heard through a guitar rig. I plugged into an older english-made Ashdown Mag-410 (4x10's, tweet, 300 watts) and the tone was subterranean! Massive! That was neck PU alone. Even when you mixed in the bridge, it was still huge but obviously brighter.

For comparison's sake, I plugged in my Jazz afterwards, and it was also very nice, of course, but a bit dull and rather lifeless after what I'd been hearing.

As far as any mods go, I'm still in the honeymoon phase with it and for lots of reasons, I don't see any point in fixing that which doesn't seem to be broken, y'know? And regardless, I'd be an idiot to EVER do anything irreversible, if I ever wanted to make any changes at all.

It's just an awesome bass, plain and simple. If Gretsch doesn't sell a metric ton of 'em when they come out, it'll just be further proof that western civilization will eventually just eat itself.

I am gonna try a set of flats on it, that I know for sure. My tone preference leans toward the James Jamerson, Kasim Sulton, warm, round kinda thing and I'd think that 5422B should just about epitomize what I like to hear, once she's wearing a set of flatwounds. Hafta see...

Nice pics Tub

The smile on your face at the Round Up said it all

Cool, cool bass, and I'm glad that you were the "pick" LOL

Take care my friend

J(ust an old Cowboy)D, thank ya very much, sir.

Congrats once again to your own personal self as well, bud. How's that gorgeous white critter treatin' ya?

She's treating me so well, that she needs a new set of strings already

Stuck on a brass Tru-Arc and she sounds really sweet.

I'd give the D'Addario Chromes Flatwounds a chance, my 5123 loves 'em. Part No. is ECB81.

As far as mods go, I understand completely, I was just poking at ya. My first mod was to install a jack plate to cover a small crack in the poly.

NOTE: USE 90 DEGREE JACKS:

After that, I had to start drilling, and you know, it's kind of like tatoos (I hear), once you start... Here's the first mod I ever did to my 5123. I think it came out well!

Yours however, being the very first ever 5442B, I'd be hard pressed to let it leave it's case, much less take any tools to it!

Anyone know when the 5442 will be released? And possibly what colors will be available? That green color available in the 5422 would be the bomb.

Tubwompys, as you're the only one known with it, do you know if the 5442 has a center block? Thanks

Nice but I still want a 5123b.

Oh, and another question, is it a neck diver ?

The 5123 is a diver for sure... according to others. I'm a drummer in real life, so the 5123, being my first bass, feels great to me, and I have no issues with neck dive or what I'm told is a HUGE body. Since my playing style and habits are built around the 5123 though, it's not been a problem for me personally.

With that in mind, although the 5442 is 2" shorter in scale, I bet it has the same kind of balance.

Thomas, sorry for taking so long to answer. I just saw this thread come back up.

To answer your ?, she's as hollow as a campaign promise.

As far as being a neck diver goes: not at all.

A bud has one of the new deep-body long-scales and the balance is definitely different. Not a divining rod at all, but different. And it also sounds godlike, not to mention being a gorgeous instrument to look at.

Tell ya one thing, though. Combining my being accustomed to the scale length and body depth of mine with my li'l T-rex arms, his bass certainly feels like a different critter to play, as it should. Its owner went out and bought it after seeing and playing mine and prior to that, his main ax was an Epiphone Rivoli. He also had the same experience with the new longer scale and deeper body.

Sump'n else: Before I was blessed with the 5422, all 5 of my other basses through the decades have been solid-body Fenders. Even though I know it's just in my mind, there's a certain feeling of fragility and delicateness to the Gretsch when you're used to the battle-ready Fenders. To be honest, I rarely play it standing up, because it just seems to want to be cradled lovingly and safely as you play it (a factor with which I'm more than willing to comply).

Which brings me to one last thing.

I was gonna make a separate post about it this morning but since we're on the subject:

My bar-gig beater bass is a Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar, the one with the P-Bass PUP amidships and a Jazz PUP by the bridge. Bang-for-the-buck wise, it's just untouchable IMO. No volume drops between the A and D strings compared to the E and G ala a lot of Jazzes, the ol' James Jamerson boom (insert "heart" emoticon here) with the neck PUP only. Gotta love it.

♥

I've recently managed to get the Fisher-Price "My First Home Studio (tm)" turned into something I'm not quite so embarrassed about. Since the 5442 stays in its case most of the time and my Jazz needs one new tuner, I cut a buncha bass tracks using the Jag.

Out of the necessity to compensate for my technical inconsistencies on stringed instruments, I've become fairly adept at the art(?) of "turd polishing" with processing on the tracks. Wound up having to use 5 plugins simultaneously to get the bass track to sound like an actual bass PLAYER was on the track, along with getting the right tone.

It entered my mind to see how the 5442 would fare in this scenario. So I busted out the 5442, muted the existing bass track, and did another pass on a separate track using the Gretsch, setting up its track so that the processing on both bass tracks would be identical.

Hand on my heart, folks! Upon listening to the Gretsch in context during playback: in order for the bass to sound like it should, I had to REMOVE ALL OF THE PROCESSING! Talk about not needing to fix that which ain't broken! No better indicator to an instrument's quality than that IMO.

(Sorry for the diatribe. How y'all doin'?)

Thanks, Tubwompus !

Must say I'm blessed with a good (to me) parts bass now (p body/pup with jazz neck), and wondering if something totally different would be likable... Guess I'll have to find one to try out !

...the first pics (besides the ones from the KC Roundup, of course) of the new 5442B Electromatic bass gitfiddle.

According to the lovely and talented Joe Carducci, this one is the first specimen to escape the factory. This one is also the one used for the photo session for the next catalog, as were the other guitars in KC.

Mine, mine, all mine...mineminemineminemine...

I LOVE this bass!

SO DO I!!!