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Guitar World
Guitar World
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Jonathan Horsley

“Anyone looking for a budget acoustic with retro looks will be charmed by ol’ Mr Dandy. It’s ahard guitar to put down”: Gretsch Jim Dandy Concert review

Gretsch jim Dandy 2024.

Once upon a time, in the prelapsarian era before broadband, TikTok and vaping, players could browse guitars in a catalogue before ordering one through the mail. If this was you in the 1930s and you took a shine to a cheap acoustic guitar with a squarish headstock, badged “Rex”, you were in fact buying a Gretsch guitar, and this Rex sub-brand is the inspiration behind Gretsch’s Jim Dandy Concert model.

Now, we’ve seen the JD a few times before in its smaller, parlour-style size, but for 2024, Gretsch has expanded the range to also include Dreadnought and Concert-sized strummers. Here we have the Concert model, and as with the rest, it looks like it’s straight out the ’30s.

Don’t expect many modern appointments, this is a time-machine project. But there have been refinements. The headstock is squarer than its catalogue counterparts, and bears the Gretsch name. The single-ply aged white pickguard has the “G” graphic, matching the tuner buttons. An unfussy black-and-white rosette complements the “Rex Burst” finish.

Gretsch has applied a semi-gloss treatment to body and neck, attenuating some of that new guitar shine. It’s very tactile. There’s painted pinstripe purfling and a single-ply aged white binding tying it together.

Jim Dandy sure looks dapper, the period aesthetic enhanced by three-on-a-plate open-gear tuners and a pinned walnut bridge. The pre-war feel extends to a walnut fingerboard that seats 18 narrow vintage-gauge frets.

But whether the year is 1934 or 2024, some things never change; compact but with bigger lungs than its parlour-sized siblings, the concert acoustic will always be a popular proposition for players. For many, this is the goldilocks option, catering to fingerstyle, strummer and blues picker alike.

(Image credit: Future / Olly Curtis)

The nato neck joins the body at the 14th fret, and is shaped into a pleasing C profile, neither too fat nor too lean. If this Jim Dandy steps out of the box and makes you think of Gibson’s old L-series models, it’ll be because we’ve also got Gibson-esque dimensions by way of a 24.75” scale and 12” fingerboard radius.

All of this looks great, but how does it sound? How does it play? At this price, don’t expect the hi-fi quality of a Taylor V-Class acoustic guitar. The tuners are a little stiff.

With a body of laminated basswood, the Jim Dandy’s tone is not going to age as gracefully as a solid-wood acoustic, but it is a tidy build, and in the here and now it provides today’s player with affordable versatility.

(Image credit: Future / Olly Curtis)

This is a viable beginner guitar. The Jim Dandy will happily accommodate your first open chords, and there’s enough sparkle in its voice to support budding crosspickers. But anyone looking for a budget acoustic with retro looks will be charmed by ol’ Mr Dandy. It is a hard guitar to put down.

Specs

  • PRICE: $189/£209
  • TYPE: Concert-sized acoustic guitar
  • TOP: Laminated basswood
  • BODY: Laminated basswood
  • NECK: Nato, C profile
  • FINGERBOARD: Walnut
  • HARDWARE: Walnut bridge with compensated saddle, open-gear die-cast nickel tuners with Aged White buttons
  • FINISH: Rex Burst [as reviewed], Frontier Stain
  • CONTACT: Gretsch
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