Gretsch G5021E Black
Product information "Gretsch G5021E Black"
The G5021WPE Rancher™ Penguin™ BLK Parlor Acoustic/Electric is certainly one of the most fabulous Gretsch birds to ever fly. It offers the classic Penguin style and features of a Parlor-sized Acoustic Guitar with plenty of resonance.
The Fishman® Presys III pickup/preamp system provides a modern tonal complement to classic details like a solid Spruce top with Maple back and sides, gloss gold neck and body Bindings, Neo-Classic™ "Thumbnail" fretboard Inlays, a gold Plexi Pickguard, a "Vertical Wing" logo on the Headstock, and much more.
- Back / Sides: Maple
- Binding: Gold Sparkle
- Body Shape: Parlor
- Body Shape: Folk/smaller sizes
- Bridge: Rosewood
- Color/ Finish: Black
- Colour: Black
- Construction / Acoustic: Solid (Top)
- Controls: 3-Band-EQ, Master-Volume;
- Country of Origin: Indonesia
- Cutaway: no
- Finish: High Gloss
- Fretboard: Rosewood
- Fretboard Inlays: Pearloid Neo-Classic™ Thumbnail
- Neck: Maple
- Nut Width: 42,5 mm
- Pickup Details: Fishman Presys III
- Pre-amp system: Fishman Presys
- Saddle/Cross piece inlay: Synthetic Bone
- Strings: 6 string
- Strings thickness ex factory: .012 - .053
- Top: Spruce
- Tuning Machines: Gold Grover Style
Since its founding in 1883 in Brooklyn, New York, Gretsch has delivered musical instruments of the highest quality with masterful craftsmanship — instruments that have been both influential to and cherished by some of the music industry’s most respected artists, including Chet Atkins, Eddie Cochran, Billy Duffy, Bono, Duane Eddy, George Harrison, Brian Setzer, Stephen Stills and Malcolm Young.
Twenty-seven-year-old Friedrich Gretsch, a German immigrant, began the company’s career by making banjos, drums and tambourines. Only 12 years later Friedrich passed away and left the young business to his then 15‑year‑old son Fred. Far from a typical teenager, he built the company into one of America’s leading importers and manufacturers of musical instruments. Knowing that the key to growth was listening to the public — and the public wanted guitars — Gretsch began producing the sought‑after six‑string instruments.
Initially, from 1926, these took the form of acoustic archtops for the rapidly growing popularity of jazz and a handful of flattops for the ever‑popular country and western sounds in the USA. In 1935 Gretsch launched the legendary Broadkaster drum series, which remained successful into the 1950s. Gretsch’s contribution to the rise of electric amplification came in 1939 with the first Electromatic®, a hollow‑body design that, in contemporary form, remains in the range to this day.
In 1942 Fred Gretsch Senior, after 50 years of successful business, handed the company to his son Fred Gretsch Junior. Because production was interrupted during the turmoil of the Second World War, Junior left the business to his brother Bill and joined the Navy. Tragically Bill died in 1948, like his grandfather at a young age, so the now‑inactive naval officer Fred resumed the helm of the family firm.
Since 1953 the company has also cultivated its expertise in solid‑body guitars, which met the ever‑louder concerts with greatly reduced susceptibility to feedback. The semi‑acoustic line has since been expanded to include guitars with centre‑block construction, combining the tonal character of a hollow‑body guitar with the practical aspects of a solid‑body.
After George Harrison’s appearance with the Beatles and his Country Gentleman on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, Gretsch became firmly established among the iconic guitar makers — a status reflected in 1965 by the highest production volume in the company’s history.
In 1967, at the peak of its success, Fred Gretsch Jr. decided to retire and sold the company to the Baldwin Piano Company, which took over operations — unfortunately with only moderate success. Fortunately Dinah Gretsch joined the company in 1979 and helped prepare the path for a repurchase that her husband Fred W. Gretsch, the great‑grandson of the founder, completed 17 years after the sale. Together the couple restored the company to its former glory, where it seems to remain today.
