Arbor AJ138 Gretsch Style

New 2004, made in China, Gretsch copy (sort of). RED! translucent finish, soon-to-be-worn-off gold hardware, Gibson style tone and volume setup, and a Bigsby style tailpiece. Case not included.

I've never owned a real Gretsch, so I won't bother to compare the sound. I've been playing two Ibanez 'Lawsuit' copies from the '70's, an ES-335 and an ES-175. The Arbor is just a bit thinner than the 175, but otherwise feels about the same. I'me used to playing fat guitars, and this one is very comfortable. I playing mostly Reggae on it. I run it through a DigiTech RP100 pedal into a GK bass head and an old Fender BassMan cab with two 12's. I also play bass and Hammond clone through the same setup in other bands. I play it through a Tube Works Real Tube II at home.

The Arbor has a nice fat sound with both pickups on, and the bridge pickup screams nicely, especially through the Tube Works.

The pickups don't have the punch, clarity, or drive of my old Ibanez pickups, but then again, I think those old Super 70's were the best pickups I've ever heard.

The guitar was unplayable out of the box. The strings were set way too low, but easily adjusted. At about normal string height, I discovered a high 8th fret that caused quite a buzz. I raised the strings a bit more, to slightly high, and the buzz is almost gone. I like high action, and I can live with it until I have time to get it fixed. I use to know how to do fret dressings, but that was over 20 years ago, and I don't have the tools anymore.

The next thing I did was remove the pickguard. I ugliest, cheesiest, fake metal piece o' crap I've ever seen. The guitar looks waaay better without it.

I've posted two photos of it:
http://www.edkrebs.com/up05/arbor.jpg


The electronics are cheap. The pickup toggle feels cheesy, and one of the volume pots was loose. A small cresent wrench fixed that.

Some other reviewers have mentiond the pole pieces on the pickups. They don't line up with the strings, and there's no way to fix them. The spacing is simply wider than the string spacing. The pole on the 6th string lines up, and the 1st string is off by quite a bit. I doesn't seem to affect the sound, so I'm not going to worry about it, but it really is a glaring error. Those pups are for a guitar with a wider neck.

The overall finish is very nice, and the guitar looks like a million bucks from a short distance. Very deep red, with some very nice wood grain showing through. But there are flaws in the binding on the f holes and headstock if you look really close. Reall cheep MOT block inlays, and they don't even line up.

I've had it for about 3 months, and used it at least once a week. So far, so good.

The bridge has a floating type wooden base, and can move, throwing off your intonation. I check it every time I tune up. I also makes chaging strings a bit trickier. If you take off all six at once, the bridge just falls off. You will need to have a good tuner handy to get the intonation back in place. The brass part of the bridge has fine adjustments,rollers for the Bigsby, and seem very well made. The Bigsby tailpiece also seems first rate.

The tuners seem solid and it stays in tune rather well, unless you really start to push the Bigsby.

The gold plating started to wear off where I rest my hand on the bridge almost immediately, but that's to be expected. You have to keep the gold stuff wiped clean all the time, or you will have that 'worn in'look very quickly.

I always play with a backup, but so far the backup has stayed in it's case when I had the Arbor with me.

Shipping took about 2 1/2 weeks, which drove me crazy. Other than that, I have not delt with Crossroads or Arbor.

I bought this guitar mainly for the Bigsby-style tailpiece. I couldn't resist the ridiculously low price. I had never heard of Arbor or Crossroads music, so I was really taking a chance. The price was $100 lower than eBay, so I went for it, and I'm glad I did.

I don't think it is fair to compare this to a $3000+ Gretsch. I stands on it's own as a very playable instrument. I can not believe they can produce and sell these for $240!! These Chinese companies don't have a lot of quality control, and there may be quite a variance from one guitar to the next, so you are taking a chance on using mailorder. I got a good one! I'm giving these fat Arbors a 10+ in the Bang-for-the-buck category. This guitar would be great for jazz, rockabilly, or whatever, without having to spend big bucks. The metal parts are solid, but the electronics are cheesy, so it's a trade off. If you like the guitar, you can always replace the pots and switches.

I've been playing over 30 years, on lots of different guitars. I've got questions and compliments from the audience on every gig that I've used this guitar. It's a headturner. No, it's not the best guitar I've ever played, but it's the best $240 guitar I've played! Just get rid of that UGLY pickguard...

2004 Made in China, gretsch copy. The top is made from agathis, which I'd never heard of, but found out later that it helps eliminate feedback. Two filtertron style pickups. Guitar is Finished in Cherry Red with gold hardware and pickgaurd. I'm not sure of what the name of the style bridge is on this guitar but it seems to work out after a few adjustments(may replace later with a tune-o. Neck is superb for a guitar of this price and higher priced guitars. The luthier that I had set it up says the electronics are more a Gibson setup than Gretsch.

I'm currently starting to learn the Merle Travis style and let me tell you this guitar is perfect for me. The sound is amazingly close to a Gretsch. Pickups are extremely smooth. If you weren't looking at this guitar you'd think someone was playing a Gretsch. I played it through my dads Fender Princeton reverb and he was amazed at the sound this thing has. He has a early 60's Chet Atkins Nashville and also had a 1998 6120-60 reissue. In his opinion this Arbor has a better neck and sound than the 98 Gretsch. As a matter of fact he even said he would like to find these same pickups for his Chet Atkins.

Factory setup was just the opposite, it wasn't. When I pulled it out of the box I could only play the basic chords(no bar chords down the neck). Took it to a local Luthier and he did some slight adjustments on the neck, bridge and tightened the tuning gears slightly and bam, good to go. Controls all work great(nice and tight no hesitation or noise). Couple of things I didn't like, which one's an easy fix, it came with a set of 9's from the factory, I prefer 11's. The second thing is the neck inlay. This guitar has a beautiful finish, don't know if it's real binding or what but it follows the lines of the guitar perfect. The neck inlay, with everything else being nice, is mother of toilet seat. I don't understand why the didn't go ahead a put some nice inlay on this thing.

I haven't really played this thing but a couple of hours so far and so good. Everything seems to be well built. I would play this over many brand names.

The company I purchased this guitar from was www.crossroads-music.org Take my advise and look elsewhere(like eBay.com) I purchased this guitar on November 20,2004 and was told it would be arriving in 4-6 days. Guitar finally arrived on December 9, 2004. I called and called and called and everytime it was, "it should be arriving soon." One time when I called(in December) the guy said, "oh yeah your the guy who ordered the Arbor AJ135 in October" I said nope(then thought to myself that wasn't a good sign). Once again I got, "it should be arriving soon, and no we don't give tracking numbers". Here's the major problem, I ordered a case extra for this guitar. Deluxe Hardshell case $89.95. Guess what when guitar arrived on December 9th, no case. Called them up and the said, "oh,, well uhh,,, we'll ship it to you FedEx". By this time I'm already frustrated and just want to get my stuff and learn my lesson, so I keep my cool and think just a few more days. To my suprise the case shows up on Wednesday December 15th and guess what??? It doesn't fit the guitar. I call them up again to let them know and I get a very wise crack comment. I was told yes it is the right case you just have to force the top close because of the bigsby style tremolo. So I try again. There's no way without breaking the guitar so I call back. I was told to ship the guitar and case back to them and they would put the guitar in the case and show me that it fits. I felt very insulted. I asked for a refund and he said not on the case. If I wanted a refund I had to ship both the guitar and case back and had the phone hung up on me. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell if a guitar fits in a case. I've been playing for many years and I don't like be treated like I'm an idiot. So I filed a complaint with the BBB and am waiting on reply from these morons. And to beat it all I probably would have had the guy several more sales on the guitar because a couple of my friends and my dad and grandpa wanted one.

I absolutely love this guitar(other than my bad dealings with crossroads). Without a doubt I would by another if it were stolen or lost. I may even buy another style Arbor hollowbody just to have it around. These are just starting to filter into the country from China. Best place to find them right now is on eBay.com For the price you can't go wrong. They're just as nice as any higher dollar guitars coming out of Japan and the U.S. I expect the price of these to go up if people start buying them. Which like I said the few dealers that are online are currently sold out and are selling them as fast as they can get them. Check out www.theguitercellar.com for some nice picks of this guitar. But right now eBay is the place to find them.

I bought this new and it is made in China. A beautiful looking and sounding guitar! I'm really happ with this purchase because I finally feel that I bought a true bargan. The neck has 22 frets and the body is about 3 inches thick. The wood grain is beautil with it's cherry finish and the whole thing gets set of by the gold hardware. It even has a gold Bigsby style vibrato!!

I play general 60's to 70's rock n roll so I like heavy as well as twany sounds. This thing does both well.

It must have been set up well because it was still pretty well in tune when I recived it. It was shipped across the country and that amazed me. The action was medium and I have not decided whether i will lower i further.

I took it for my 1st weekend gig and everyone loved its loks and sounds. I've never gotten more compliments on a guitar before! I'm pretty sure this guitar and take years of licking and keep in ticking.

I have had n problems with it and i dont anticipate any problems but, it includes a lifetime warranty that is non transferable so i give it a 9 out of 10.

I play in a band and we do bar gigs on weekends....I wish I would have ordered a case with it because it is hard to find a good inexpensive case for a guitar this style. I'd buy this guitar again in a heartbeat!!

Bought Brand new. A beautiful "made in China" gretsch type guitar with 22 frets, gold hardware, Bigsby Type vibrato, and georgeous cherry red finish.. The pickups are humbuckers that look like T.V. johnes pups or Gretsch pups. I was kind of leary of it because I had never heard of Arbor before, but when I saw the photo's & the price I thought it was worh the risk...and it was. It is now my favorite guitar and I cant stop looking at it.

It has a nica acoustic tone unplugged and a clean jazz tone and some heavy distortion in ocerdrive mode. It is still new, but I am amazed that this kind of quality, fit & finish can be purchased for a fair price these days.

Clean lines and a flawless finish

I would compar this with any Gretsch out there in quality. If I had seen it in person before I bought it and it had a $300.00 price tag on it...I would not have been surprised. It is really that good in finish, sound and construction. I just hope these stick around a while and dont get shut down by Gretsch.

I bought this off of the internet but it does carry a limited lifetime warranty and the address is in the USA. The dealer was great to deal with.

Ive been playing for 20 years and this is by far the best deal I have ever gotten on a guitar. I would buy it again if it were stolen.
I wish they had the knob coniguration more like Gretsch....but I love the guitar as much as any guitar I have ever owned