Cheap parlours: are Fender & Gretsch any good

DavidR

Kittyfrisk said:

Cracked record time   Try out a Vintage V300MH if you can, as well as the recommended guitars above.
https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/227138/nagd-vintage-v300mh/p1

Ditto That. Have one. Mega. Paid £220 for mine. OO size. Very pretty Tone.

Details in this review thread I did a short while after purchase.

Dave_Mc

bertie said:

I would definitely try some smaller bodied guitars before you buy,  not all are made or sound equal and can vary massively in tone.  You may not like what you hear so dont play just one

Yeah definitely. As I've said before (at length!) on here, I really didn't like the Faith Mercury for example (and I tried several examples across several of their ranges). And I'm a big fan of Faiths otherwise.

Clecko

bertie said:

Clecko said:

Totally agree with this. I've had the mahogany V300 for years and I like it loads, but it is quite dark sounding. Mine simply cannot achieve a bright or spanky sound and once the strings have lost a bit of their newness it wouldn't be unfair to say it sounds a touch dull. I'm a big fan of it and think it's a bit of a bargain, but worth trying one out before buying and maybe auditioning alongside a spruce top guitar, depending on your tastes.  

careful, people have been banned (or worse) for agreeing with me on here

  

Even a broken clock...

bertie

Clecko said:

Even a broken clock...

even that went over my head

Andy79

Yorkie said:

My Yamaha electroacoustic dreadnought is too big for me. It’s only taken me >20 years to realise, but I’ve got there in the end. I need something smaller. I play and record blues (90% of time it’s clean, the other 10% through a Blues Driver). So I thought a parlour would be a good fit. I am fine with a purely acoustic model, and can’t spend more than £200 at this point anyway. 

Are the Fender and Gretsch (Jim Dandy or something like that) models any good at that sub-200 price point? 

Many thanks,
Jon

Small guitars can work but most don’t.  
Martin can make an 0 size guitar sound huge and sweet. I like old ladder braced catalog  ones as the (can) be loud due to their lightness and construction and are generally cheap 

in my opinion, a modern shop-bought, cheap small guitar is likely to sound only boxy and lacking in bass and volume. 

From long experience, one man’s ‘Blues Box’ is another man’s crock of shit. 

equalsql

paulnb57 said:

I have a Jim Dandy, I like it, I suppose they have their own sound, but are a great blueser

I concur, I have one too and it sounds very authentic in terms of early blue music. Those old blues guitars were dirt cheap models back in the day so I'm not sure if that's necessarily a good recommendation for the Jim Dandy. However if you're looking for a box for old blues picking and slide work that sounds like the real deal then it's definitely worth trying out one.

stufisher

COPIED FROM THREAD 'SURPRISING GAS - SMALL ACOUSTICS' POSTED LAST WEEK

I'll probably be shot down in flames and banished to Hades for eternity for just whispering HB in a thread about top-end acoustics but @champ222 , you're treading the path I walked early this year and so, purely for completeness and possibly to save yourself a few hundred squiddlies for Christmas then perhaps you might wish to contemplate, with an open mind, one of these:

https://harleybenton.com/product/gs-travel-e-spruce/

I now hardly ever play my Tanglewood Dreadnought because I play the HB GS almost every day ... sometimes for up to 2 hours. It has transformed my view of small acoustics and enabled me to learn better, quicker and with less pain in my arthritic fretting hand.

It has worked SO well for me ... it may also work for you. 

I can take the ridicule ... pachyderms R us  

BTW it sounds really good through an amp  

DavidR

Self-evidently, you're never going to get the bottom end of larger bodied instruments from smaller ones. Nor perhaps the woody 'Woodstock' type growling. But you definitely can get marvellous tone, and you don't necessarily have to pay megabucks for it, so long as you look about.

Then there's the comfort. Increasingly important as you get older!

imho, every acoustic player should have a smaller, cheap, fun acoustic to doodle on, in comfort, and without fear of dinging it. Why not? Basically.  :-)

Pjon

equalsql said:

paulnb57 said:

I have a Jim Dandy, I like it, I suppose they have their own sound, but are a great blueser

I concur, I have one too and it sounds very authentic in terms of early blue music. Those old blues guitars were dirt cheap models back in the day so I'm not sure if that's necessarily a good recommendation for the Jim Dandy. However if you're looking for a box for old blues picking and slide work that sounds like the real deal then it's definitely worth trying out one.

I've had mine for a couple of years, mainly sitting next to the sofa in the living room where I can easily grab it and twang along brainlessly. (Or, you know, practice something!) It's not a sophisticated sounding thing, but then neither am I. It is mainly in open D or G tuning these days, blues, slide, whatever, and that suits it well. I don't need to worry about it being knocked over and it's robust enough that I've put a few dings on the edge. If I need a travel guitar, then this is the one I take. It is cheap. I would be disappointed if I broke it, but it wouldn't be the end of the world.

I like it but understand that not everyone will feel the same way. In fact, I was in PMT in Cardiff yesterday and wanted to try out something a little more expensive but in a similar size (maybe a PRS SE20) but couldn't see anything on display that caught my eye. 

guitarjack66

I am put off HBs because the cheap one I bought is a crock of shite. Only cost 70 quid but its a hell of an achievement to make a cheap guitar sound even cheaper! I tried a Sigma travel before buying one of their GAs but should have bought their travel one as it was lovely.

Yorkie

Ok, been watching a bunch of videos (all shite) and reading all your comments. Hard to quote everyone on my phone so I will answer things below:

- Research: I have not given up research, it's just that now I've got a team of 10 people and am established in York and so I'm no longer putting in 12 hours work a day. Been learning to play (electric) since 2019, joined the TFB in 2021.
- One trick ponies: yes, that's more or less what I would want from one of these guitars. I play electric most of the time, so my other needs are covered already. 
- Small acoustics sounding boxy: small and boxy doesn't sound too bad for me. I don't like my dreadnought. It sounds too loud, vibrates too much and too close to my chest. I am autistic and have trouble regulating with this kind of stuff. I've also got problems with how bronze strings feel. So I think I'm ready to try something new. 
- Vintage: I didn't like the neck. 
- Gretsch: They look nice, and the special editions look nicer. Not 100% convinced about the pickup though. I thought I didn't need it. I never plug my dreadnought in. But the sound of the plugged Gin Rickey is delightfully low-fi and I like it. So I am very confused and don't know what to do anymore. 
- Fender: I like the cheaper 'parlour' (sorry, Americans). But I also like VERY MUCH their Redondo and Sonoran MINI, particularly the mahogany one looks sick. Ok, maybe not sick, or sick but in a nice way.

Can you install soundhole pickups and a jack without drilling? Like, reusing the strap button or something. 

Jon

bertie

Yorkie said:

Can you install soundhole pickups and a jack without drilling? Like, reusing the strap button or something. 

Jon

not totally sure what you have in mind  - BUT to use the strap button,  unless its already a "socket"  you need to drill a hole for the jack to go into

Yorkie

bertie said:

Yorkie said:

Can you install soundhole pickups and a jack without drilling? Like, reusing the strap button or something. 

Jon

not totally sure what you have in mind  - BUT to use the strap button,  unless its already a "socket"  you need to drill a hole for the jack to go into

It’s just that I’ve seen the deltolux pickups advertised as needing a ‘non-permanent’ installation, and that makes me wonder how one’s supposed to install the jack without drilling. 

Am not afraid to make sawdust, but would like to know what to expect if I went for a Jim Dandy instead of a Gin Rickey. 

Yorkie

Any opinions on the Fender Redondo and Sonoran minis? Hard to say how big they really are, but they do look fantastic.

guitarjack66

Yorkie said:

Any opinions on the Fender Redondo and Sonoran minis? Hard to say how big they really are, but they do look fantastic.

I like the look of those myself but have no idea of their size. The Fender CC 60S has a good rep and is smaller bodied too.

ziggynugget

Hey,
I'd definitely have a look at some of the Recording King line up........
https://www.recordingking.com/

Yorkie

ziggynugget said:

Hey,
I'd definitely have a look at some of the Recording King line up........
https://www.recordingking.com/

I think I'll hold on until the Recording Peasant line up is out. Then again, they may not look as nice.

Yorkie

Any opinions on the Fender minis? 

hollywoodrox

Don’t PRs do a cheap parlour guitar that’s supposed to be real good 

Yorkie

hollywoodrox said:

Don’t PRs do a cheap parlour guitar that’s supposed to be real good 

It’s a different kind of cheap though. Double the price of the Fender and Gretsch guitars.