Gretsch G9201 Honey Dipper Round-Neck Metal Resonator - Brass Body, Padauk Fingerboard Reviews

This guitar is my first experience with a resonator, so I have nothing against which to compare it. I greatly enjoy playing it. It's a fairly heavy instrument as you'd expect from something with this much serious metal in the body. You can pump up the volume pretty easily though it's also very expressive when played piano instead of forte. I've shopped around enough to know that resonators can be fairly pricey. At its current price point, this one is a real bargain. I'd strongly recommend it.

If you can find one of these (and I had to look far and wide before finding the last one recently in Sweetwater's inventory), get it! It's a terrific instrument, and not just for the price. The action is easy and smooth and the sound is absolutely booming, certainly at the level of instruments costing four or five times as much.

One thing I want to point out has to do with the buzz on this instrument at various places around the web. Players are enthusiastic about it, but a number have noted in their reviews that the Honey Dipper's sound is very robust but decays quickly. I was very surprised to discover that this isn't at all true, at least with the instrument I received. In fact, it's *extraordinarily* resonant--the sound is very robust, very 'round,' and enduring. It doesn't fade quickly at all.

I have a couple of really fine acoustic guitars from a couple of the leading brands. The Honey Dipper is clearly at their level of excellence. You'll have a blast with this, as I do.

This thing is FUN to play. I am attempting to learn slide guitar in open G, and it's not a chore with this guitar.

It's also fun to put it in standard tuning and play some CCR...

I am really impressed with this Gretsch Honey Dipper. Played many guitars over the last 45 years or so. Not much resonator experience, however this one sounds great to my ears. It's also really well made. It's apparent that some good construction technology was employed. Perfect welds and whatnot. The neck is flawlessly made and attached. Wasn't sure if I would like the v shaped neck, but I find it comfortable and easy to play. No flaws at all. Using the strings it came with and will stick with them. Action feels nice out of the box. Now to learn some delta blues slide guitar. Thanks Sweetwater!

Received my G9201 yesterday. The guitar came in perfect condition, in tune and ready to go. It's quite heavy, being brass but that's to be expected. The wood neck is beautiful and the V shape is very comfortable.

The sound is awesome. You'd swear you were sitting in a speak-easy down south listening to great Delta blues. If you haven't played resonators, be warned, this thing is LOUD! I can play any electric I have through my DSL40 and play quieter than this beast! That being said, for me, that makes it sound all the more better. If you are considering a resonator guitar, you need to check this thing out!

I bought this guitar on the tacit recommendation of the great Blues guitarist, Justin Johnson, who plays this guitar in possibly more videos than any other guitar which is remarkable because brilliant luthiers are constantly sending him extraordinary world class instruments.

I absolutely LOVE this guitar so much some of my other guitars are gathering dust. The Guitar is built like a tank and by itself, has that old-timey blues sound.

I briefly considered the next model up in price because it had a built in pick-up, but despite the fact it is a Fishman, which is a great company, the pick-up is a piezo and I hate piezo pick-ups because they sound thin and tinny. I opted instead to buy a 12 Bar Blues Pick-up with a volume and tone control again on Justin Johnson's recommendation and I could not be happier because it is a thin line humbucker that sounds much deeper, warmer and more resonant and sticks to the body with an adhesive double sided foam tape that is really easy to reposition, so you don't have to cut holes in the body.
I am going to have to change the bridge piece to raise the action slightly be cause the strings hit the pick-up when playing above the 15th fret, but that's an easy fix.

I removed the bridge cover and both the volume and tone significantly improved and I bought flatwound strings which will also improve the tone. I am also going to change the nut and bridge piece with brass and will likely steel wool the finish off the entire guitar bec ause it will look better.
While the modifications I plan will be a significant amount of work, this is such a great guitar, I don't care because by the time I am done, it will not only be a great guitar, but a world-class instrument.

TLDR: playability, action, is very good, action between low and medium. worth the price? yes. tone is decent / good for the price. craftsman / workman ship is good, clean, consistent. fretboard is clean, no fret sprout, no sharp edges. guitar build is solid.





The review: I was surprised at this guitar. The playability is very nice. Comparing to my recording king nickel plated brass tricone (current price is 1000k while honey dipper is 699, 2021 prices), the playability is way better on the gretsch, for reasons that I won't get deep into since this is about the honey dipper. I did give the RK glowing reviews (but was newer at guitar fiddling so that affected since I wasn't playing near the 12th fret, but now I am). Both the recording king and honey dipper has 13's (honey ships stock with 12's ), and the honey dipper is way easier to play. Action is semi low (double credit card / dime thickness) .


Action notes: I tend to like medium action, since I also bottleneck slide, low action to me is US dime width / credit card width but I think the luthier definition is in gauges (like spark plug gauges).


One thing to note is the honey dipper has strong V neck that ranges from mid V to softer V (on mine its softer towards nut and stronger to 12th fret). I personally like V's as on my Fender teles and strats that is my preferred neck. But I am flexible and use other necks.

So if one is anti V neck, might want to skip this one.




The tone is good. It's a single cone biscuit so it has that punch. Comparing to the Recording king's tricone, the tone is louder but honeydipper has less sustain. ALso the RK has more bell like ring and notes have more clarity, however that is more tricone / design diff (the RK is copied from national's tricone style series). It does have that resonator tone.



The honey dipper does sound good regarding chord and notes for a single. The thing that got me was in the reviews, the honey dipper has that banjo tone / raw delta swamp sound. Mine doesn't have that as much. It's possible since I'm learning the blues but play regular songs in standard tuning for resonators. For alt tuning the honey dipper handles well and maintains the tone quality that standard tuning enjoys, unlike certain acoustics that sound weird with lower tuning (another reason why I use 13's).



Also the guitar stays in tune, which is pretty good (looking at that top manufacturer that rhymes with chib and ends in son), given that despite manufacturing for over 50 years and thousands of guitars later still make guitars that go out of tune every other song and major recording studios often have players swap out for their axes in their collection to record with instead.



I do like the honey dipper's tone, and for the price, it sounds well and comparable. They have videos of people swapping out the cone in side for national which may have some diff. I saw a video with the epiphone hound dog metal reso (from a japanese shop video), but that sounds more hollow / thin / shrill than the honey dipper I have) and that's around the same price on sweetwater.





Craftmanship, fit and finish. Very impressive for the price and also where it came from. Gotta hand it to those chinese factories that pump out the fenders and gretschs, this thing is near immaculate. Fretboard is nice, no sharp edges, no sprouts, and its even. The set up and action is very nice, it was clean. Finish is good. It says weathered pump house roof, which can be kinda descriptive, but flaking part rusted, corroded / patina is what comes to mine. To me its more fine sanded (not rough as it feels smooth) and unpolished brass finish.




The bummer part is no gig bag. My guitar collector friend who has hundreds of guit fiddles, says the $300-1000 USD range ALWAYS used to have gig bag, and even 800+ would get cases, and definitely in the 1K + range . . . yet that was 1990's / 2000's but now you're considered lucky if your guitar comes with a gigbag and a case is considered pushing it.



HOever he said in that eras even the best guitars had the 20 problem (out of 100 guitars, 20 of the sucked bad either tone, playability, or quality) and he says now 90% are good in all price ranges.



The guitar came in from sweetwater double boxed (YAY!, triple box if you count the foam container for the honey dipper) and I have the hobo case (styrofoam form fitting box) to use until a gigbag arrives.



Over all, well with the price. If this got lost, stolen, walked away, definitely replacing it with another.

This is my first resonator so I can't speak to how it compares with more expensive guitars, but I'm very happy with my purchase! It sounds amazing and works great with slide. It's heavy, but that was expected. Does everything I want it to do and for this price it was a no-brainer.

I decided to buy a resonator guitar after 50 years of playing guitar. This one doesn't have palm trees sandblasted on it like my friend's National guitar from college, but it's a nicely made guitar and I like that it's a Gretsch. (I used to have a pale green Gretsch Anniversary model, but I sold it when the kids needed new shoes - still kicking myself).

This guitar is heavy and loud. The quality and finish are good, which is sometimes a concern with an instrument made in China (I had a mandolin that I had to throw away because the neck separated from the body and the inside structure was a mess).

The color of this guitar body is a bit greenish, which you can't really tell from the pictures on the website. The tone is good, classic resonator tone. I have been using it in standard tuning but want to try using it as a dobro. The action is a bit high, which means I need to get my calluses built back up.

It came with good strings on it and was all set up properly. It was even pretty much in tune when it arrived. The people at Sweetwater did a nice job prepping it.

Wow. Bought this after having several acoustic and electric guitars. It is LOUD for an un-amplified guitar, My college friend had a National steel body guitar. This one is just as good, sound-wise. No Hawaiian scenes sandblasted into the body, but that's OK. A nice compromise between standard and slide guitar styles. And LOUD.
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I've been playing guitar since 1962, yes I'm getting long in the tooth. I play all kinds of music, Rock, Jazz, Blues. I started playing slide guitar a few years ago, but was pretty bad. So I started working on it again 5 months ago, and all of a sudden it clicked, and I was hitting more right notes, than the ones sounding like an injured cat. As I played it more and more, I started having a desire to get a resonator guitar. So I watched a ton of youtube videos and finally nailed down the sound that I liked the best for Blues was a Biscuit resonator, Brass bodied guitar.

History:
In January I purchased the Rock Slide Brass Bell Tip Slide
In April I purchased the Dunlop Capo/Slide converter, I converted an old acoustic guitar for slide use.
In May I purchased the Gretsch Honey Dipper Resonator guitar, and have been having a ball ever since.

My thoughts: By taking an old guitar and raising the strings with the slide converter, and open G tuning the guitar, I could try slide guitar without a lot invested. After I got a feel for it, I found I could play slide on a lower action regular guitar without fret noise. Then I felt the purchase of the Resonator guitar was a no brainer.

It's a lot of fun, and opens up a whole different sound to expand your musical pallet. I highly recommend the Honey Dipper, but it's the only Resonator guitar I've ever played.

I also want to praise Sweetwater and my sale engineer Alan Carter. Alan has always given me valuable advice and his honest opinion. I've been a loyal customer since 2010, and they have made the experience fun and rewarding, unlike the past music stores I've dealt with.

I highly recommend adding a Resonator guitar to your arsenal, you won't regret it.

Keith B.

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I love my Honey dipper. It has the twang of a banjo and is great for bluegrass, country, blues, slide work. I was really impressed with how well it projects the sound. Good job Gretsch!

My first foray into a resonator guitar was the mahogany wood, Gretsch Bobtail Round Neck. After playing it for a while though, it sounded a little too much like an acoustic guitar...or, not resonator ENOUGH. Then I went into Sweetwater to play the full steel Bobtail. It was okay, but just didn't have that really old-school, haunting reso blues tone I was looking for.

However, within 10 seconds of playing the Honey Dipper, it was everything I had hoped for...old-school, chimey, haunting, airy blues. The neck, fit and finish etc. are all perfect. I also kept the mahogany Bobtail because I began to appreciate it much more as a warmer resonator tone that has now become a great companion to the Honey Dipper.

When I received this i was blown away! The tone is focused and projects beautifully. The playability was great out of the box, set up for chording and slide play. Jed my sales Engineer is very knowledgeable and helpful.

Beautiful guitar!

I knew it's made in China, but thought, "Okay, but my daughter has her Chinese cello, my granddaughter her Chinese violin and they're both really well made instruments. And I've got that Blueridge BR-371 that I love, so I'll take the plunge."
It helps that there are many YouTube videos featuring The honey dipper to check out when I couldn't go and see one in person.
It arrived. I've played it. I'm blown away.
I've been working on songs like "Dark Was The Night" and Amazing Grace," some Taj Mahal tunes.
Wow.
This guitar sounds haunted. The notes just shimmer with harmonics and overtones. The notes sustain a long long time. Likely because it's built like a tank. It's heavy in the metal body and the neck is one stout piece of wood, all tightly joined together. That contributes to the sustain.
If I'd make any changes it would be to have the free edges smoothed a bit. They're a little sharp when I'm sliding a finger up instead of the glass slide I use.
I might mention that a bone flat pick adds a nice, softer dimension to the pleck compared with a plastic pick.
Go ahead and buy it! Sweetwater is so, so helpful. They ship immediately and their follow-through is unprecedented in customer relations. Except maybe what I hear about Rolls-Royce. (No, I don't own one.

I have been wanting a resonator guitar for some time and I'm glad that when I pulled the trigger it was for a Gretsch G9201 Honey Dipper.

This guitar is very playable, sounds fantastic, and great craftsmanship.

I wanted a guitar with a distinct sound that I could play blues, folk, or gospel music on and the Gretsch Honey Dipper fit the bill.

I was looking at three different resonators and finally decide on the Gretsch, and I am very glad I did. It has an unique resonating sound. I found the neck a little thicker than I wanted, but it doesn't detract at all. Tuners are good. I replaced the strings so the sound is stronger. Overall, it is a fine guitar and a joy to play.

I have had my Honey Dipper for several years now. It is a lot of fun and really projects, lots of volume!
This is my first resonator guitar so I'm no expert but I really like the way it sounds. I find you really kinda have to play it with authority to wring the tone out and mistakes are not easily hidden so it forces you to practice more, bonus! My only complaint is one of the black plastic tuning key knobs just split in half one day. I was able to find stainless steel ones to replace them with for not a lot of $ and all is well.
If you really want to see someone light one of these up, check out Justin Johnson playing his on Youtube. Oh man is he good.

When I saw the price on this resonator, I could hardly believe it. I had been looking and this Gretsch seemed like just what I wanted. I bought it as soon as I could and I am happy I did. The sound is clear and ringing. The looks are great. It plays well. It is a bit on the heavy side as you would expect from a brass body. It also only has one strap pin on the bottom, so instead of tieing the strap up on the head, I will probably install a strap pin on the heal of the neck. Those are the only two items with which I can find any fault. This is going to be one of my favorite guitars.

This guitar has a great sound. But beyond that I was pretty unimpressed. The intonation is terrible, it arrived with the action extremely high (~4mm, when I would expect ~3mm for a resonator), the fit and finish is pretty sloppy (see attached images). There are cracks in the fretboard edge at the 12th fret, and sloppy gaps in the glue along the neck joint, and even a string of dried glue on the side of the neck heel.

When I brought these issues up to my sweetwater sales representative, I was told "it's common," with the implication being that I shouldn't be surprised to see it.

Fairly disappointing.