Gretsch G400

long scale - carved top ( solid spruce ) - tone bare bracing - groover imperial keys - fretboard ebony : fantastic value

she's a very Archtop : the best guitar for jazz/bossa-nova and every king of acoustic purpose. with round hounds she sings very acoustic

long scale but the action is superbe

very well built - obvously you have to take care of her ( ..she's an Archtop not a solid body )but she's built like a thank ! well done Gretsch !

no experience

Syncromatic 400 is a professional guitar not a toy. Very good guitar as the excellent Gibsons , old Epiphones. If you have the money and you can buy a D'Acquisto or D'Angelico ...well made ! But if you're looking for a prof-guitar without selling your car this Gretsch can be your best friend for many many years - God save tha Jazz

mine it's a 1990 model ( pre fender ) - made in USA - great guitar CARVED TOP ( like gibsons L4 but with longer scale ) - very good hard case - honestly a very good guitar ( second hand )

10 for jazz . i own a gibson es 165 very good for joe pass , herb ellis sound . this one sounds more acoustic ( .. of course it's carved ;-) . very very good guitar if you like 40' and 50' jazz. do you like Wes Montgomery ? don't buy a Gibson 175 or 165 . Buy directly an L5 ... or this Gretsch . very similar to Gibson 400

easy to play - longer scale ( diapason ) but ... butter for fingers . fingestyle jazz , fingerpicking . FANTASTIC

no problem . i've installed a De Armond PU - but you need to pay - not much money but i's not a coke ... ;-)

no need

10 . i say 10 . sure about it. do you like jazz ? 10 - no more words - i say 10 ;-)

I had seen these guitars in books and could never find an oldie. At the street price ( about $1300 ) I decided to go for it and order one. In my case, a G400C with cutaway. It took a long time to get... 6 mos maybe, but quite worth it for this guitar. Made in Japan now I believe. Solid spruce top and laminated back and sides all beautifully finished and bound in fancy bindings. The bound cat eye F holes really make this guitar. The spruce top seems a bit thick however. Perhaps not planed down and tuned the way it really should be, so the acoustic fullness suffers a bit. Not as full bass as say my Martin HD 28 or the volume either.
No electronics.
The "synchromatic" ebony bridge and gold plated tail piece are very nice reproductions of the originals, but the plating on the tail piece is already starting to turn. Not a huge deal, but will probably continue to revert to a dull silver like other gold hardware I have had. The Grover Imperial tuners are a very nice new addition to this guitar.

The neck maple neck with nicely inlaid fingerboard is a real treat. Beautiful to play. Intonation is good. Nice case also.
of the originals

Acoustically, the mids and highs are nice and full. The bass a little lacking in a guitar this size. Acoustic volume is only moderate. I have fitted this guitar with a De Armond Rhythm Chief pick up and it sounds great thru a tube amp. Very full and rich. More than enough bass presence. A real fat sound. The high end may be lacking electrically, but I am sure it is the pickup. Hey, this is not a strat. If you like the Joe Pass, Barney Kessel , Oscar Moore kind of sounds it is great

The fit, set up, action on this guitar are all very nice for this price. My main problem, if there is one at all, is the finish is heavy polyester ( I think ). If it is nitro, it is still too thick. Takes away from the wood feel and vibe from this nice guitar. If the finish were more like a nitro, the guitar would really be a "10".

I haven't had too long yet. Guitar seems well made. Came with 012's and plays nicely with those. The finish will outlast the guitar... unfortunately. The plating on the hardware is going as I mentioned, but that happens playing in clubs.
I would use this with no backupon a jazz gig. However, it does not scream like its Fender cousins for blues and R&B, but its not supposed to in my mind anyway.

I have played 30 years and owned many Fender, Gibson, Gretsch, Martin and still do.

This is a nice buy for an archtop short of spending $5000.

This is simply an update to my previous review. Although it should be noted that since Fender has taken over Gretsch some of the features have changed. Deco-style tuners have been added, the sunburst now fades from brown to yellow, rather than from black to yellow. Additionally, the guitars are now made in Japan, rather than Korea.

A proper a acoustic archtop needs atleast 12's or 13's to drive the top. It came with 12's, but was not particularly loud. To get a better acoustic tone it went to 13's. The E and B strings still sounded "thin", so I took a tip from friend and replaced the .013 E and .017 B with a 14 and an 18. The guitar couldn't really handle it...

Now here's where the story goes ary. My first Gretsch-made G400C lasted for 10 months before I noticed the top was sinking in from the string tension. I checked with Fender, and they told me the guitar should be able to handle a full set of 14's, no problem. Not so. After being hasselled by Fender customer service, my dealer sent the guitar back to Fender. They decided it was beyond repair. It took 3 months to get a replacement sent out.

When it arrived, I immedeately put heavier strings on it. After 4-days the top cracked. 4-days of being either in a case or on a stand, and the top cracks. I'm done with Gretsch.

So, the first time I called Fender I spoke with Ray Anthony, who was very helpful. He said the guitar should handle the heavy strings no prblem. I never got a hold of him again. Everyone else there were assholes and totally unhelpful.
To have the guitar sent back, I first had to go to a FMIC certified replair center. I live in the city of Los Angeles, and there were 2 places in of all of the LA area, both 40 miles away. After they told it was terminal, then I had to go back to my dealer and have it sent back.
After it took forever to get a replacement, and after that died, McCabes was cool about settling the problem. Since they didn't have anything in that would be a suitable replacement, and they didn't want to let me purchase go, they offered to order me an Eastman, without charging me full price and allowing me to upgrade to a much nicer guitar. McCabes was great the whole time

I think the guitar would have lasted perfectly well with 12's, and the guitars weren't defective. They simply aren't designed to do what I needed them to do. This being said I can't slam the guitars completely. It was just a long ordeal.

Fully Acoustic, 17" Archtop with a cutaway. The guitar has unique Art Deco appointments, ie. bridge, tear drop f-holes, fret markers. The guitar is laminated, not solid, and made in Japan. 25.5" scale, maple neck, back and sides witha spruce top. I gave it a 9 because it is just an acoustic guitar, and has no further electronics or features - but that should be the point in getting a fully acoustic archtop.

I play pre-45 jazz guitar, which consists of Freedie Green rhythm work, Allan Reuss chordal solos, and Django-like single notes. It has a pretty decent acoustic tone, better than some vintage guitars I've heard, but definately not better than some of the good vintage guitars I've heard. The tone is pleasant and full , and the guitar is pretty loud. It has the proper achtop punch. Rhythm chunking is great, and single notes are pretty good. The downside is that the guitar is laminated and thus can be a little bit thin, especially in high register on the thinest strings. It came with 12's, but I put on 13's and raised the action quite a bit (although even at its highests possible level, its still incredibly playable) and it increased the volume and added some more body in the high strings. ---Considering the options in acoustic archtops, this is still very good sounding.
I did add some elctronics to amplify the acoustic tone. I got a K&K Pure Archtop pickup (contact piezo system) and it really sounds phenomial. The pickup contacts attach to the underside of the top near the f-holes. The acoustic tone comes through with a minimum of piezo shrill-ness or harshness. I am really happy with the tone.

The guitar was setup well at the factory. I think it was optimized for low action, which can compromise volume and tone. But that's a preference - the guitar was set up well.
The construction is great. Nothing of interest though.

The guitar seems very durable, although its is by nature a fragile type of instrument. I would gig without a backup, mostly because I have nothing else that would really do the trick. 9 because acoustic archtops by nature are fragile, but this guitar is very well built, solid example.

Haven't needed it.

This pretty good acoustic archtop. With so few options in acoustic archtops other than vintage or handmade, both fairly expensive, this Gretsch is a good effort and worthwhile guitar. I was really sick of trying to play acoustic parts and styles on electric instruments, so I got this. If I had a bunch more money, I'd get a handmade guitar or a nice vintage example (like a gibson L-7), but I don't. It has turned out to be a great workhorse, and I get complimented on it's appearence a lot. After getting bigger strings, raising the action, and adding the K&K pickup, it really came into its own. I would recomend this guitar to anyone looking for an acoustic instrument - I would not recommend it to someone wanting an electric guitar, only because there are some many good option on that side of things (check out my review of my Ibanez PM20 PAt Metheny). For the price and type of guitar (ie acoustic archtop) its a good value and one of the only options, but in this case thats not so bad.

This guitar was made in 1997. It is a Gretsch Synchromatic G400 acoustic archtop guitar. It has the sunburst finish with flamed maple back and sides. I think it was made in Japan but i'm not sure. I had installed by Blue Note music in Berkley CA a benedetto floating jazz pickup I had a volume and tone knob installed on the pickguard. It has all gold hardware. It is very beautiful to look at and the nicest I have seen of this same model. It is a very big full body jazz guitar with no cutaway. It came with a really sturdy heavy Gretsch case.

I play mostly Rockabilly and Blues but I love playing some jazz too. I also lead worship at a big church and I use this guitar for that sometimes in place of an acoustic. I use the guitar with a blonde Fender Tonemaster custom shop amp with 2 12's. This guitar sounds amazing both plugged in and un plugged. I use is more plugged in though. It has a big warm Jazz tone reminicent of Herb Elis. The Bennedetto jazz pick up sounds really really good!! If you play it too loud it will feed back though which is just the nature of the beast. This guitar is really only good for playing Jazz or soft acoustic type stuff.

The action and neck on this guitar is by far the best out of any guitar that I own which is really saying a lot. I use the Tomastik Bebop strings on it. The neck is so great!!!!! Such an easy guitar to play. Better that my american hot rodded strat and my gibson sg.
The guitar has no flaws and I plan on keeping it that way too. The pickup was adjusted very well when installed by Blue Note music in Berkley.

This guitar works very well for live playing as long as you aren't playing in some Huge like 10000 seat place and you need a ton of volume because it does feed back. I have played it my church which seats about 1200 people and I haven't had any problems with it. The hardware seems like it will last and is very solid. The finish is very good and nice to look at. I can totally depend on this guitar. Blue Note did a good job on the pickup and I have never had any problems with it at all.

I haven't really dealt with gretsch at all so I cant tell you.

I have been playing for about 7 years and I gave lessons for a couple of those. I own a bunch of guitars Fender Strat American, Gretsch Silver Jet Reissue, Gibson SG Classic, Danelectro Baritone, Gibson Dove Custom shop, Gibson J-180EC Jumbo Acoustic. I got this guitar for a great deal I actually would have paid quite a bit more for it but i'm thankful for it. If stolen or lost I would probably buy another one or a guild artist award. I love playing it and I love the way it sounds. I sometimes wish it had a cutaway. Buy one of these guitar ok thanx