Gretsch Americana Series

3/4 size, 18 fret guitar. No cutaway. Made in Indonesia. Purchased in 2007. My model was the "Showdown" with cool, but cartoonish cowboy graphics depicting a western shootout. Very lightweight, almost like a toy guitar. However, I really like it and pick it up all the time.

Sound does not provide much bass, but the brighter sound is actually fairly pleasing, particularly when playing lead. Easy bending and fretting makes this an easy playing and enjoyable guitar, with reasonably good sound, particularly from musicians like my kids with smaller hands. This is a good guitar for the beach, dock, boat, campfire, etc.

This is where this guitar shines, relatively speaking. No fret buzz, perfect action (low and buzzless for smaller hands). This is the easiest playing acoustic guitar I've ever had. Unlike a previous reviewer, I found that the factory strings weren't too bad in sound. They were very light for easy bending and fretting, in combination with the nice, low action.

No complaints yet. Materials are not the choicest, but seem quite durable. Hardware seems solid, and guitar stays in tune very well while playing. I think I could drop this in the lake and the laminated materials would probably be fine.

Nothing to deal with here.

I'm a hobbyist and have been playing for about 15 years. However, I have a lot of guitars, including many high end electrics and acoustics. So, my expectations from a $150 guitar were not great to begin with. Plus, I'm a Gretsch fan and was drawn to the cute art aspects of the guitar. All in all, I chose this guitar based on my affinity for Gretsch, the art aspects (looks good in my lake cabin), reasonable sound, and the desire to have a cheap guitar to strum on my boat or dock without being concerned about damage. This is that guitar.

These are limited edition 3/4 guitars, made in Indonesia, with neato retro cowboy/western graphics silkscreened on the body tops, with a satin finish. I chose the "Sundown Seranade" version, which has images of cowboys rounding up the last dogies of the day and settling down by the campfire to strum their Gretsches. It has a nice smoky brown sunburst finish, and the graphics are in no danger of wearing off.

They are similar to the Stella beginners models from the '50s & '60s. The tuners are 3 in-line vintage style, with aged white buttons. The neck is slightly round and very nice, with a flat fingerboard. The frets are on the small side - I wish they were bigger. They are entirely made out of plywood, and have x-bracing.

The carton that they come in is chock full of fun '50s-style cowboy comics graphics. The carton itself is a keeper!

I give it an "8" for features because I dig the graphics so much!

The tone is fair, but better than what one would expect from a $150 plywood guitar. Definitely on the thin side, with little bass response. Kinda twangy. Almost sounds like a resonator - would be swell for slide or fingerpicking.

As one would expect from such a small guitar, it's not terribly loud.

It comes with crummy strings - probably .011s - and after I restrung it with D'Addario .012 Phospher Bronze strings, the tone improved considerably. The .012s still feel kind of light on this short scale guitar, so next time I'm gonna try .013s and see if it beefs up the tone a bit.

This was about the only guitar I ever bought that was perfectly set-up from the factory.

No fret sprout or excessive buzzing. Neck has proper relief. Intonation is good. Action is low. Tuning is stable.

It seems to be reasonably well-made and solid. The wood is on the thin side, so it won't take much abuse, but if you don't stomp on it, it should be fine. It would make a fine beach/camping/office guitar. They would also make a fine first guitar for a child to learn on.

No opinion.

Bottom line, these are in no way performance-quality guitars, but for what they are, they are very hip and a lot of fun. I wish I could buy all four and just hang them on the wall, and pass out to friends to play when they come over.