“Gloriously adorned with a gold edge burst finish over a gold paisley and sparkle top”: Gretsch unveils the Paisley Penguin – a rare bird that growls – and the Honey Dipper Special, a resonator for all your roots rock manoeuvres

Gretsch has announced a small but significant expansion to its 2025 catalogue as the brand unveils a limited edition take on its aluminium-bodied Honey Dipper resonator – and, for the player with some serious money burning a hole in the gig bag, a Paisley Penguin that gilds this prized bird in a gold edge burst finish over a gold paisley and sparkle top.

Yes, that finish looks every bit as ornate as it sounds, and this rococo makeover of a bona-fide classic Gretsch guitar is very much a get it while it’s hot deal. The G6134TG is limited to, well, Gretsch doesn’t say but they don’t tend to stick around long.

The G6134TG Paisley Penguin looks like it could have been the signature guitar of Jay Gatsby, used to thrill the partygoers of West Egg with some Eddie Cochran licks – and, what the hell, Seven Nation Army once the first few cases of Dom Pérignon had been drained.

But fundamentally this looks like another tip-top high-end electric guitar build from Gretsch’s Japanese factory. And it is comprised of (mostly) familiar materials.

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There is a chambered mahogany body, the glued-in mahogany neck carved into that super-comfortable Standard U profile – and topped with a 12” radius ebony fingerboard inlaid with those MOP Neo Classic Thumbnails. It is a nice minimalistic contrast on a guitar that is the dictionary definition of ‘a strong look.’

Of course, the hardware is gold. You didn’t need us to tell you that. And even as gold might well be rising in value right now as investors seek out haven assets it is the pickups and the hardware, and the fit and finish on this, that are the real big ticket items.

The Paisley Penguin has a pair of TV Jones pickups, with a TV Classic and TV Classic Plus Filter’Tron (two guarantors of “That Great Gretsch Sound®”) hooked up to individual volume controls, plus master volume, master tone, and a three-way pickup selector.

A Bigsby B3GP string-through vibrato tailpiece supplies the wiggle-stick wobble, and this is complemented by an Adjusto-Matic bridge with a pinned ebony base.

Exquisite, top to bottom. Come for the Gold Edge sunburst Paisley finish. Stay for the G-Arrow knobs and the gold Plexi pickguard with the Gretsch logo in gold and a penguin in black.

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Yes it’s true what they say about the penguin; it’s the coolest bird around, and it’s not just because they call Antarctica home. This will set you back £/$3,499 street. You can see more details over at Gretsch.

Brass and aluminium might not be as precious but they are just as welcome, and have been put to good use on the G9202 Honey Dipper Special, or to give it its full name, the G9202 Honey Dipper Special Round-neck, Brass Body Resonator Guitar.

It might be a mouthful but it tells us everything we need to know about this – not least that, with a round neck it is designed for playing like a regular guitar. The square necked resonators are played flat on your lap like a lap-steel.

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This is finished in Bell Bronze, has a body of bell brass, and features a resonator cone that Gretsch calls its “Ampli-Sonic” diaphragm. This is the resonator equivalent of a custom-wound pickup. The cone was hand-spun aluminium in Eastern Europe and comprises aluminium that is nearly 99 per cent pure.

It is a design that has historically bowled MusicRadar over, most notably on the five-star G9241 Alligator Alligator Biscuit Roundneck resonator from circa 2016.

This, again, is described as a “limited release” so we’re not sure how long these will stick around for

It has a 25” scale length. There is some wood on this beauty, too, with a hard maple biscuit bridge with ebony and maple saddles. The neck is mahogany, fashioned into a ye olde medium V profile that might confuse today’s player on the page but it should make perfect sense in your fretting hand.

The fingerboard is padauk. The nut is bone. And while the shine of that aluminium resonator cone contrasted with the weathered brass body tends to pull focus, just take a look at that aged pearloid headcap. There is also aged white binding on that fingerboard to differentiate it from the G9201 Honey Dipper. This is a damn fine looking instrument.

It is priced $749/$849. For more details, head over to Gretsch.