Brownsville AAG-10CBS

By now you know what the features are on this little archtop.

It puts out a lot of sound for such a small guitar. No buzzing. Sound really good with a slide. Better sound than those old cheap Harmony Archtops of the past.

Okay. Perfect for slide. A little high for regular picking. Could be easily adjusted at the bridge.
The color has too much red and yellow. I can't understand why a manufacturer would choose this color. Tobacco sunburst would have been much nicer. It's only $129 though.

Looks like it should hold up well.

Unknown.

It was definately worth $129! It's fun to play. Very light weight. The color is kind of weird.

'04 Made in China cutaway yellow/orange sunburst acoustic laminated arctop.
Lower bout is 15.25" across. Rims are about 3&3/8" deep.

20 small frets on 25.5" scalelength neck. Good upper access.
The laminated top is spruce, the sides, back, and neck are agathis, sapele, or something vaguely mahogany-ish looking.

Sealed mini-tuners with small metal buttons (aka keys).
Tune-o-matic style bridge on hardwood (rosewood maybe?) foot, pretty well conformed to the top.
Trapeze tailpiece with end strap button.
Double bound body on front, single (white) bound rest of body and fingerboard. Unbound head.

The store threw in a cheap single ply bag and a new set of strings.
Not many "features," but at least it has bracing. Some Jay Tursers I've seen do not!

It's a bit tinny with the brass Daddarios it came with, but sounds like a lot of small body laminated archtops (think L48/50) with GHS Brite Flats (ground) in 0.012" - 0.054"
Kind of an old Kay or Silvertone archtop sound, but built better IMHO (at least it has a trussrod in a playable neck).
Fairly bright with the metal tune-o-matic bridge.

It's for home practice mostly, but I may mic it for sittin' in at some Gypsy Jazz local bistro/cafe invitations I sometimes chonk chords at (the big guys all use those Selmer clones).

I can couch noodle, fingerpick, etc in many styles with this as my only acoustic. I play a Telecaster on "union hack" paying jobs.

Not bad. The bridge is adjustable. No buzzes with even lower action than I'm inclined to use.
Everything lines up ok and the neck is straight. It has the usual scarf joint in the neck (at the head, but at least it has a supporting volute ala a old Norlin Gibsons).

Two parallel top braces, and traditional kerfing inside.
It's about three quarters of the way to an Eastman Strings archtop, from say, a Jay Turser.
Looks cheap, but actually seems built with some thought to longevity.
The top's sunburst looks pretty tacky and cheap, but the neck, back, and sides look great (satin throughout).

Well, it's pretty low-end, but surprizingly seems sort of "correctly" built, with real kerfing joining the sides to the top and back, a trussrod (old Harmonies etc were just reinforced with a piece of "T" shaped steel), and real longitudinal top braces instead of a stack of blocks under the bridge like a Jay Turser.
The one strap lock on the end seems fine.
The no-name tuning machines are not the smoothest in the world, but are sealed and durable looking. There is some slack in them, but no worse than a lot of Grovers I've seen.

I would gig with it in a pinch, if I thought it was suitable for a particular job. It's sturdy enough for the type, though I don't get much call for unplugged acoustic. It could be mic'd or wired up I suppose, but that wasn't my intention.

Just wanted a nominally audible acoustic practice guitar for around the house that didn't cost an arm and a leg, and I don't trust cheap flat-tops (they all need neck resets too soon)!

Never even heard of them beyond the store I bought it at, and this Harmony Central page.

Since 1960 I have played many styles and even had a short stint as a "professional," back in the 1970's. I still work occasionally for an old client or two (mostly Union stuff: Showtunes, Pop standards), and an occasional dinner Jazz job, or even "Gypsy/Django" jams.
I usually use a Telecaster and Vox amp(s) for playing out.

Didn't realize these could be had cheaper than I paid!
Oh well.

Yes I'd get another if the need arose. It seems stable enough. I doubt it will fall apart.
Sounds fair (great for the price) and is quite playable. Not quite as loud as say, a Samick JZ-4 Lasalle type, but those are 17".

It looks a bit cheap but that's sorta deceptive because of the tacky bright yellow/orange "sunburst" top. The rest of it actually looks quite a bit better!
I might get some "antiquing" and darken (de-pink) the sunburst a little.

It's a nice comfortable size and it's fairly well balanced tonally, up the neck and down. No real dead spots or zingers.

A pickguard might've been a nice touch, but I don't actually miss it except for chord soloing. No big deal. I could mount one, but probably will never get around to it (or the "antiquing").

I've had lots of guitars, but even Eastman Strings archtops are very expensive, and all I really needed was another Epi Joe Pass or something similiar. I saw this and it was really cheap.

I prefer American made guitars but hey, I've supported the American companies very well over the years!
I'm almost retired and can't justify (or write off) $2500 guitars anymore.
They seem to have as many problems and QC issues as the imports anyway.

Made in china. U.S. 129.00 bucks. Cut away, archtop with f-holes and a nice tailpiece and adjustable bridge both for height and individual string length. So if it doesn't sound good or if it settles in, you've got plenty of adjustments to keep it sounding o.k. I'm not sure of the woods, i'm sure it's all laminated, but it sure is pretty. The flamed top left a bit to be desired. Simply the color looks cheap and fake. Very red to very yellow sunburst. I'm going to sand it and put on just a violin oil varnish to bring out the wood and give it an aged appearance. Nothing included, but I did pick up a good sack for minimal bucks. At 129.00 you can afford to pick up some extra strings and other goodies.

With brand new strings the sound is the best bang for the buck I've ever gotten. I own 12+ guitars and this is now one of my favorites till the next one comes in. (nothing beats my martin, but hey it's a martin)
The sound is surprisingly loud. If I had a charlie christian pick up to throw into the thing, i'd play some serious jazz on this thing. But it has great tones from the metallic bridge to the mellow neck sounds. The harmonics are pretty good too. Get used to changing strings often if you want to get the most out of this guitar.

I played several at the store and the action seems perfect from the factory. not too high, not too low. plus the adjustable bridge will let you set it how you want it. raise it, play some slide (sounds sweet) lower it although you probably won't need to, unless you're still building up those muscles and calouses. I haven't noticed any flaws, and that's surprising, once again I stress the 129.00 price tag. I wish they had something like this 25 years ago when I first started out.

I've been bangin it around. 129.00 bucks so I just throw it in the truck with my two martin travel guitars, and i haven't played either of them in ages. They were the go to instruments always in the truck, but now this one has to travel. Plus if it gets stolen damaged or otherwise meets it's demise, what I'm down 129.00. I can go get another one. The finish seems solid, and I want to change the colors, just checking the depth and coat it looks pretty good. Just the colors should have been better. maybe they'll fade and warm up a bit, but i'll hit it with the sander and other things before waiting that long. The tuners are rock steady, nothing fancy but it gets the job done surprisingly smoothly. Doing some stand up comedy songs I would use this as my gig guitar (i don't travel with my martin) it's looks have a good stage presence and mic'ing it up would be the problem. Probably best played through a voice mic to get all the nuances you can squeeze out of the guitar. I've put it through some serious paces and it's still sounding good. If you haven't played some of the cheaper guitars coming out of asia, you should try them again. They've made major leaps in production quality and components.

haven't had to deal with them. Although there isn't much on the web on it yet and finding it on the websites that say they are the makers of the guitar, it's impossible.

My grandmother has an old old old archtop acoustic, I love to play it when I go home to tennessee, so out here in LA when I want that down home feeling, this guitar feels so right. Plus the sheer feel of the guitar pushes you into new directions. Riffs you've never even dreamed of will flow from your soul to this guitar. I'm a guitar fanatic, I like the expensive stuff, but if it plays like crap, what's the point. If you want a good beginner guitar that's different from everyone elses, but can keep up with them. This is true guitar bang for your guitar buck.

The AAG-10CBS is an acoustic archtop with f-holes. Here's the <a href = "http://www.mannysmusic.com/catalog/showitem.asp?ItemID=28156&TempID=7&Method=3&CategoryID=673&BrandID=0&PriceRangeID=0&PageNum=0&DepartmentID=1&DepartmentKeeper=1&pagesize=15&SortMethod=6&Word1=&Contains=&Search_Type=SEARCH&GroupCode=nonetodaythanks&DepartmentID=1">sales pitch from Manny's music:</a> An arch top acoustic, the AAG-10CBS provides easy access to all frets thanks to it's cutaway body design. Features a spruce top, chrome tuners, rosewood fingerboard and bridge, mahogany neck, back and sides. Vintage Red Sunburst finish. Case not included.

The guitar is fully acoustic, no pickup, piezo or any electornics. The bridge appealed to me as it allows you to adjust the intonation like you would on an electric. Trapeze tail piece. You can't find anything comparable for double, maybe even ten times the price.

The body is small, so unsurprisingly it's a quiet, mellow guitar with weak bass response. Since I just wanted to play in home without disturbing anyone, it's perfect for me. I like to improvise and finger pick. I have the guitar tuned "DADGAD".

This guitar is made in China, and like many Chinese guitars has its good and bad points:
Good: Intonation is excellent. Fingerboard is smooth and very playable. Finish is too bright for my taste (Red - Yellow sunburst), it looks kind of "rock and roll" when I wanted more of "jazz" look, but the guitar looks very classy. Everyone complements it's appearence and I'm proud to show it off in my family room. Tuners are excellent: they turn smoothly and hold the tune well. Very fun guitar to play.
Bad: Fretwire had sharp ends. I sanded them down with 600 grit sandpaper, they are ok now but definitely substandard. The guitar came with some small discoloration on one fret. If you look closely at the f-holes you can see some roughness around the edges. The guitar strings were already discolored and corroding when I receive the guitar.

I've only had it a few weeks, but I expect it will age well. I'm hoping time will mellow the brighness of the finish.

No experience

Despite the bad points I love this guitar. It's exactly what I wanted. I've only owned two acoustics before, a nylon string Giannini Craviola and a small steel string Lauren, and I like the Brownsville better than either. I've owned several cheap electrics: A Gibson Sonex, Ibanez Artcore AF75T and a Epiphone G400 SG copy with a bigsby style tremolo. I'd put the Brownsville with the Epiphone, but it's not as well finished as the Gibson or Ibanez. Electric guitarists will definitely find the Brownsville to be an acoustic that feels and plays like an electric. If you like the arch-top vibe, you won't find anything else at anywhere near the price, so it has to rate a full ten for value.