Gretsch New Yorker Review

[John Flynn]

I'm on a consulting project in Palo Alto, so I had to make a pilgrimage to Gryphon Strings while I'm here. They have a lot of great mandolins in there, but the most surprising was a Gretsch New Yorker Standard. I normally wouldn't have picked it up, but I owned a Gretsch Chet Atkins back in my guitar-playing days, so I guess I had a case of headstock-nostalgia. I know the mandolins are a Chinese-made modern-day concoction and don't bear much relationship to my former guitar.

NFI, but I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised. The fit and finish is very nice. It is a good looking instrument. Playability is excellent. The neck is slightly fat, like a Rigel neck and I happen to like that. The real surprise was the tone. It has a much rounder, more even tone than I expect to hear from a $200 mandolin. It has good volume and an OK chop also. There were some much more expensive instruments there I did not like as much.

I have to say that if I were in the market for a nice starter mandolin or a beater, I wouldn't hesitate on that one.

[Timmando]

I had a similar experience at Guitar Center. It had a natural finish, GREAT chop, and excellent tone/volume. I was really surprised and was tempted to buy it, but I don't need it. I agree, a great starter and maybe more. Maybe some of the surprising good tone is because it looks like it has very little finish on it, maybe even just a varnish.

[bookmn]

They've done great with the "Roots" collection. I bought an inexpensive guitar from that series that sounds good and is really fun to play. I'll have to checkout the mandolins. Thanks!

[roysboy]

I too was pleasantly surprised by the New Yorker ( for the money ) until I played a few entry -level Kentuckys and Epiphones in the same shop . Although the Gretsch seemed nicely put together and fairly playable , I thought the latter two had much better tone ( depth , warmth ) and comparable finish/fit for not much more $$$. I bought the KM -150 after those comparisons and have been completely happy with that choice .

[Joey Anchors]

Don't mean to bring back an old thread, but I fully agree with what has been said so fair about these Gretsch mandolins. I own a G9310 and love the tone, feel and looks.

There are some issue but that is to be expected on a low priced instrument. The things I will be fixing/upgrading on my unit is a better bridge, real bone nut, better tail piece, and FW74 strings.

[MikeEdgerton]

I sat down with one of the Gretsch mandolins at the local Guitar Center last week. Then I picked up the infamous $50.00 Rogue ($59.00 at the GC). If I'd been looking for a mandolin and I only had a choice of those two I would have spent the $59.00 on the Rogue.