Gretsch Electromatic Lap Steel Guitar - Black Sparkle

The guitar is beautiful, in excellent condition, came in good time and I love it

My favorite. I like it's appearance, fret board and overall feel.

So I wanted to get into playing Lap Steel and didn't want a "beginner" guitar. Those $100 ones are built terribly. This one was awesome right out of of the box. It holds tune amazingly, the pickup sounds great through a tube amp, the finish is flawless and interesting, and the playability of this instrument is great! Anyone wanting to start or someone who has played for a long time should consider this product for practice and gigs! I've already recorded with it and it did not fail to impress me.

I'm new to Lap Steel so didn't want to shell out for a pro quality instrument. On the other hand, I didn't want something so cheap it wouldn't hold a tuning or have noisy pickups as I've read the very cheap Lap Steels suffer from. This instrument passes both criteria - no noise, holds my tuning. I also like that it is not as large as some other new lap steels found on the internet, which is good as I like playing the lap steel in my lap, not on a stand. My only complaint is the plastic fretboard guide has bowed slightly and has come off the wood - nothing a few extra screws won't fix. Overall, I'm satisfied for the price.

There is no way anywhere this thing is worth $500. You can buy a real guitar like Gold Tone or Airline for that amount of money. Cheap PVC plastic fret board that buckles. This thing should be priced with the rest of the entry level lap guitars around $200.

I bought this guitar as a gift when I spoke with a person to find out if they like it I was told the guitar came without an electric cord, !!! Seriously!! There was no receipt in the box nothing to say what should come with the guitar just a big box with a beautiful guitar in there but we cannot use it because we don’t have an electric cord

If you are just wanting to start out in the world of Lap Steel, this Gretsch is a good choice ... the choices of beginner's Lap Steels are sparse ... what you DON'T want is something so inferior as to be uninspiring, hard to play or very poor in the sound department ... I have found this Gretsch to be very solid for an entry level instrument ... it holds tune well, the pickup is decent (if a little bit noisy as single coils tend to be) and it plays easy ... This is a simple, no-nonsense Lap Steel that should take you from beginner to intermediate without breaking the bank ...

What's not to like about this instrument? It sounds great; the through-body strings give it good sustain; and ths single coil pickup sounds like butter through my tube amp. The electromatic is relatively inexpensive, but it is sturdily built, and I have received many compliments about the finish and Art Deco styling. I found it easy to restring and it continues to stay in tune despite the changing daily temperatures in my area. This lap steel guitar is easy to play and I'm learning new techniques all the time and growing as a musician -- that is important to me. And it's a lot of fun. By the way, if you aren't familiar with this kind of instrument, the lap steel is like a solid-body electrical guitar with a single coil pickup on a wooden base -- it has no resonance and without amplification you will barely hear any sound. To play this guitar, you will need a separate amplifier (that's the part that plugs in), a guitar cable, and a tone bar to lay against the strings. I have some examples on my Steel Guitar Tone Bars List. Feel free to check it out. I hope that this review was helpful to you. Enjoy your music.

5 Stars! Thank you!