Gretsch G9202 Honey Dipper BELL BRNZ

Not bad at all. Well made. They have used so many decent parts. Nice woods. It's also totally upgradeable with National parts, which is the plan. It's of a Fender Squire standard, which makes sense, as Fender now owns Gretsch.

Sound-wise, it's what you would expect of a Bronze body reso. It does not disappoint at all.

But rough tooling marks on the upper reach of the fretboard, and a large ding at the bottom of the neck at the rear. It's knocked up in a Chinese factory. So I was half expecting this.

I am not sure why, no setup whatsoever was carried out at all—either that, or it's been sitting in a box in a warehouse for 8 years. The action was insane high, making the guitar unplayable. I had to crank the trust rod back at least one full turn to get the neck back straight. I had to do this over a few hours. I will leave it to settle over a few days.

The cone and biscuit cone are fine. I am just not a fan of the massive amount of reverb. It sounds messy to my ear. But the national cone and biscuit slots right in. They are also sold here. The National hot plate, which is the pickup system, is also on sale here. I bought this to tinker with to my liking.

The Tuners are fine, there, Groover. But I am not sure why they went with the black plastic ones. Oh well, more to upgrade.