Gretsch G9200 Boxcar Round-neck, Mahogany Body Resonator - Natural, Padauk Fingerboard Reviews

I first bought the Recording King Dirty 30's and it wasn't what I needed so returned it an got the Gretch 9200 Boxcar round neck. Absolutely love it. Action is perfect for finger picking or slide. Tuned it to open g and wow can't put it down. First strum an I was hooked. Actually tried more expensive guitars and like this on best. Great tone with slide and pick!

Just received my Gretsch 9200 resonator guitar from Sweetwater. Guitar was packaged extremely well and survived the shipping without any issues. I was very impressed with this guitar - as it was set up pretty well right out of the box. It has good low action - which works great for me with fingerpicking style of play. The guitar may be too low action for those wanting to use a slide, but could be adjusted. It has a very nice, clear, mellow sound - with a body style of a "parlor" guitar size-wise. I absolutely love this instrument and caught a slight break price-wise as it was a demo model. But… it has a flawless finish, frets, tuners and cone material. Very happy with it.

I have had this guitar for almost a month. I changed the strings out to Martin Retro 12s nearly immediately only because I like those strings; how they sound and I use them on everything I have. This guitar has quickly become my go to. It fits my style, I like its sound and it is just a comfortable guitar to play. I did a an exhaustive comparison between it , the Gretsch Alligator, the Recording King Rattlesnake and the Recording King Dirty Thirties. I am in no way disappointed in my decision. My decision was based on the best sound for the best $$ and and looks. I was looking for something that really had that 1930's look and in addition I felt the spider bridge was a better fit for my style of playing than the biscuit bridge. For someone interested in getting a Resonator I would definitely recommend the Gretsch Boxcar as well as any of the other three I was considering. Between the four it just came down to which one spoke to me the most.

I have really enjoyed this guitar and could not be happier with the purchase.
I played it for about a month with no adjustment before I took it into a luthier for a full setup. My luthier was blown away when he inspected this beauty, especially when I told him what I paid. The guitar needed very little adjustment for my style of playing. He basically set string height, corrected intonation, and installed new strings. He "woke a sleeping giant" and this has quickly become my favorite guitar, I can't put it down, is good looking, easy to play, and the sound is unique and loud.

Packed and shipped with care. Double boxed. The guitar is 100% fit and finish beautiful. Got the Gretsch gig bag also. The strings are fine if you are going to play regular acoustic guitar and maybe a little slide. I put .013 Resonator stings on it and it comes to slide life. Not sure on the tuners yet. It will need a truss rod adjustment after it settles in. 1.75 inch nut is nice. The sound is reso/dobro it projects nicely. Fun guitar with standard or open tuned.

I didn't know what to expect when I bought this tone machine. Slide or fingerpick, it has everything to make you better at whatever you play. From DVR's "Cocaine" to Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" and all points in between. Buy it and amaze yourself. It's that good.

I'm digging this Boxcar resonator. You really feel the sound and that improves your playing…and pleasure.

This guitar is super cool. Very unique tone and great feeling neck. Fit and finish are great. Very impressed for a $ guitar!

I have played this guitar. And it plays wonderfully, and has a very comfortable neck to finger pic or open rhythm. It's resonator is not too loud but loud enough to be heard without overbearing other instruments. I will soon be buying one of these guitars myself.

I love this guitar!
It looks great, plays, great, and sounds great. A great guitar for blues, gospel, and folk.
Great for Delta blues slide guitar.

I've been playing primarily electric guitar, secondarily conventional acoustic steel string, for four decades. In recent years I became interested in trying resonator and associated slide styles. Wanted to dip my toe in the water without spending a lot of money. After doing some research into models and resonator types I settled on this one. Very pleased at how well made it is and how sweet it sounds! Recorded a tune with it last night and it is exactly the sweet resonator tone that was in my head, that I was chasing. Sits beautifully in an acoustic mix, and sounds like it cost much more than it did! Sounds great both playing fretted and using slide. Seriously fun addition to the toolbox here!

I got my bobcat through sweetwater in March last year (almost a year ago), and it's an amazing little workhorse. It sounded great out of the box and I restrung it with D'addario EJ 40 strings recently and now it's even better! It is beyond what I would have expected out of a $... guitar. It looks amazing with the bluegrass vibe it has going and the v-neck is super comfortable. If you need a workhorse/beat-around guitar, this is the one for you. I'm always amazed at how fun it is to play. Great job Gretsch!

Tuned to open G straight out of the box. Sounds amazing. Was packaged very well. Finger picks and slides nicely. Stays tuned. Love it.

This is the first Resonator guitar I have ever played or owned. (Figured it was about time.) It sounds fantastic!!! You can't beat the price for a quality guitar from Sweetwater!!!

I highly recommend it!!!

Been thinking about getting a resonator for a couple years now. Finally made the plunge & glad I did. I"ve played off & on for forty years. Mainly finger picking the last few. Dabbled with slides. Tuned to open G, this thing sings, picking or slide. Stays tuned bending and aggressive plucking. A lot of quality for the money. Thoroughly enjoying the experience. Having a blast! May have to get one with a buiscut res next. LOL

I've been playing guitar for 50+ years. Started WAY BACK WHEN the Beatles and Rolling Stones asounded the USA with their "sound." My two best friends and I bought a guitar (me), bass, and drum set. We set out to become the next "sliced bread" on the musical scene.

Alas, reality set in, and our dreams swirled clock-wise and down the preverbial toilet as the war in Vietnam and life in general caught up with us. Our guitarist (yours truly) and drummer (close friend like a brother) got caught up in the USA's determination to rule the world.

Jump forward several decades. We three musketeers, although destined never to become a group again, have remained in contact over the ages. We all still "mettle" with out instruments. Unfortunately, I've become a terminal GAS victim (Guitar-Acquisition Syndrome). Cut to recent times. I've bought a couple of resenators before; one, a cheapo (but decent playing) Fullertine/Winslow with a bisquit cone. The other, a Regal metal body, also biscuit cone. Both sound good for the money, especially if you have the knack to make them sing/growl your way.

Recently I was browsing here at Sweetwater and stumbled across the Gretsch G9200 Boxcar Mahogany Body Resenator. This one come equipped with a spider cone, something I've had no experience with. Okay, what's another few hundred bucks to feed my addiction, I said to my wife. I won't recount her reaction, this being a family-friendly website. A few days later I had my Gretsch Boxcar in hand. I tuned her up and began finger-picking a few songs, slowly adding in some blues beats with thumping bass and runs in-between chords. Hmm, I thought to myself, this thing sounds pretty dang (Southern for another swear word) good. With such minimal effort I was beginning to hear tonal melody and rather sever "grunts" emitting from my Boxcar's body & spider cone. Over the next several weeks I kept up a steady diet of fingerpicking and strumming/thumping blues, with short runs betwixt and between.
Like a vixen, my Gretsch Boxcar spider cone had leaped to the top five guitars I own (and that's more than a few--the wife keeps saying I should part with a few of my babies--Oh, the cruelity of it!).
Okay, cutting to the chase. This resonator is a gem, especially for the money. Wonderful tonal qualities, from the thumping (damped) base sounds to the high and mid-ranges between chord changes. I'm sold on this baby, and believe me, it WILL NOT be among the few guitars I plan to part with in the near (or far) future. If I have ONE gripe about this sweet baby, it's that the dagburn thing is too dang pretty! The colorful headstock--which reminds me of my Regal metal-body res, is a bit "modern" looking for my tastes. Other than that gripe, I shall remain silent.
I know guitars and those who play them have an infinite number of pluses and negatives the average guitarist can find. This sweet baby is almost beyond that (IMHO), except for the aforementioned headstock fanciness.
Out of the box the setup was fine, especially if you want to play some slide later on, which I do. Although a teeny bit high on my preferred setup, there is nothing which causes any real problems with a guitarist who has a few years or even months under his/her belt. The sound, whether fingerpicking or strumming, is on the upscale side of what you would expect from an instrument of this all-laminated mahahogany ax. All-in-all, this is a wonderful instrument for the price, and I've developed a big crush on this baby in a mere couple of months. Your time and experience may vary. Shh, don't tell my wife I said so!

Ordered this guitar from Brian. Man this guy gives you service he really cares about helping you. When I opened it was Blown away by the quality. Set up nice played and sounded even better. Very pleased with my purchase. This is my fifth guitar that I bought from Sweetwater. Very pleased with customer service and the quality of all the guitars that I"v purchased. Keep up the Good work Guys........

It's easy to see why the pejorative "cork sniffer" is used by some to characterize reviewers of guitar tone. Sonic qualities of musical instruments are by nature nonverbal, and defy precise description. Having said all that...

This resonator is a pleasure to play, and to hear. I use it for finger style, without a slide, in standard tuning. The action is low enough to make fretting as easy as the few other acoustic guitars I've owned. But the tone is what stands out. I suppose it's the combination of mahogany body and spider cone, but whatever the reason, it's subtly and attractively different from a "standard" acoustic guitar. This is the cork sniffing part: the sound seems not as soft; yet it's not hard or metallic. To me, it seems to sound like a standard acoustic guitar with a small amount of amplification, which makes sense--that's the purpose of the design. But to me, the design isn't a compromise that makes the guitar louder at the expense of tone quality. Rather, in this guitar it imparts a tone, while different from a standard acoustic, that I like a lot.

Use this Gretsch regularly for gigs. Threw a Myers on it. Plays and sounds great. Plus, it looks cool.

I use the brass Jetslide with Propik brass sharp angles and a Fred Kelly med speed thumb pick.

This is a hot-rod guitar. I really like the hot rhythm (5/4 etc) I can get with this ax...its really fun to play and hear. Very well constructed. A gloss finish would be an upgrade. This resonator barks and scratches with the big dogs...glad I bought it.

This is my first and only resonator guitar. Just wanted to check one out without spending a lot. The guitar is well made and has a great sound. Great high end and mids which helps it punch through in a live unplugged setting. Also a great campfire sing along box. I"ve come to like it a lot over the year I"ve owned it. It"s one of my two go to guitars for practice and jam sessions. (The other is a Martin Dread Jr.) The G9200 has very comfortable action and even with 12s that came on it, is easy to bend notes.
My ONLY complaint is the sharp fret ends. Considering the really good fit and finish on the rest of the instrument, this was a disappointment. Fortunately, I was able to clean this up with a little work. If it had arrived this way, I would have rated it a 4+. All in all, a great little guitar and well worth the money. I would recommend it to a friend.

Firstly it doesn't sound like a resonator should, I have tried and tried for past two years to like this guitar but the tone does NOT inspire me to play it. Only buyer's remorse has stopped me from giving up.

Now, let's discuss the build quality. The so called laminate mahogany actually has a paper thin veneer of mahogany over some other light colored laminate soft wood. Don't believe the mahogany hype, there isn't enough in this guitar to give it any tone. The open back grover tuners are junk and screws holding them on pop put because the soft wood they are screwed into isn't hard enough to hold them in place. Plus the plastic tuner buttons are starting to crack. The nut is cut wrong and the high E is too close to the edge of the fretboard. I could keep going but based on the good reviews here you will probably buy it anyway.

I have been playing guitar for 40+ years and have owned some awful guitars but this one is by far the worst. When I eventually replace it with a real resonator I will give it away because selling it would be criminal. Stores like Sweetwater really should take some pride in what they sell and look beneath the surface of the instruments they stock because this is one cheaply and badly constructed plywood guitar.