The hard cases are really nice.

That is pretty funny, BZ.

Well, I'm intrigued by these things.

And, okay....I have to say...I really want to hear and try to play one of the resonators. The instant I heard Mike Lewis play Hawaiian licks on one...I was done.

"How's the build quality?"

Our shop got a couple of Rancher Jumbos a week or so ago, and I looked more closely at one today; I'll be doing a photo feature of it as soon as I get finished with a group of antiques.

Build quality is pretty good, as I would expect from factories in this range. The fit is fine, the neck angle is reasonable, and that's good because like many guitars (other than Martins) the finish is applied after the neck is attached so neck resets require refinishing. The bridge is fairly thin, and the neck points to just above the top of the bridge.

There is no Country of Origin sticker on the instrument that I could find, so I don't know immediately where it was made.

The guitar doesn't have a lot of bottom end, nothing like my old Japanese Epiphone J-200 copy despite the similar body sizes. Perhaps it will fill out or perhaps it's the design. The ones we have come with a Fishman pickup and preamp installed - so the lack of acoustic bottom end is likely a plus. As to projection, I didn't find that the guitar projected that much and wasn't very loud. But, it was comfortable to play, it looks good, and if you're plugging it in, the volume and bottom end come from somewhere else.

HTH -pk

nice review pk...thanks

there's not a lot of "real" wood involved in this bunch..rancher jumbos spruce top is best...but yeah i'd imagine not a lot going on acoustically..piezos be damned

cheers

pkeenan said:

"There is no Country of Origin sticker on the instrument that I could find, so I don't know immediately where it was made."

The "IS" serial number prefix indicates Indonesia as the country of origin.

I've been playing a new Rancher dreadnought now for about a week straight. The build quality is phenomenal for such a reasonably priced guitar (msrp is $525 and I'm seeing them on the Interwebs for under $400).

LOTS of bottom end, with good midrange and high sparkle on the treble. Neck is very nice, with low action. Top is spruce, with mahogany back and sides.

I had a Taylor 510 years ago that cost three nearly times that price. Granted, I don't still have the Taylor to compare directly, but this guitar basically blows away what I remember from the Taylor.

Not a ton of projection on the Gretsch when fingerpicking or playing at low volume, but when you dig in with a flatpick, it projects just fine -- nice and big with that cannon-whomp boom, as a dreadnought oughta.

The price is certainly attractive and everyone seems to agree that the build quality is great for the price. I'd like to see how the Jumbo Rancher stacks up against the Martin DRS1 Dreadnought. I realize the Martin is a couple hundred dollars more, but I', into the idea of another Gretsch, since I like my 5120 so much.

I hear an outdoor acoustic set in Nashville...or two or three...waiting to happen.