GroteJazz Electric Guitar Hollow Body Chrome Hardware P90 pickup (RED)

I had heard really good things about this guitar on various guitar sites. When I saw it in the vintage sunburst finish, I couldn't resist. Literally the only problem with my guitar was the tuners not holding pitch. I got a set of Gotoh SG381-05P1 tuners for $40 and solved that problem.The P-90 is a great sounding pickup, the electronics are smooth and responsive. Fretwork is great, no high or scratchy frets, no sharp fret ends. I re-strung it with D'Addario Chrome flatwounds (.011 - .50). The only adjustment I had to make for intonation was the G string, because it's wound and the saddle needs to be closer to the nut. Every other string was spot on. I made a small adjustment to the truss rod for more neck relief and was able to lower the action quite a bit with no buzzing or fretting out.The only finish flaws are a little overspray around where the fretboard meets the body, and a small splash of clear coat on the end of the fretboard. Doesn't affect playability, and isn't visible from more than a couple of feet away. The binding is perfect, no gaps or bumps.I know not everyone has had the same experience, but for $200 I am blown away by this guitar. I was expecting to have to do some work on it, but aside from replacing the tuners, I didn't have to do anything other than a standard setup to get the guitar the way I wanted it (and I've replaced tuners on far more expensive guitars).The packaging is not very substantial, but it arrived intact without any damage (which amazes me).TL; DR--BUY IT!

For around $200 I think this is a fantastic value. The one I received did not require much in the way of setup. It features a floating bridge, so you’ll likely need to adjust the positioning for proper intonation. Fretwork was well done! My bridge came installed backwards, haha. I’ve had it a year or more and it’s very stable, holds its tune well, looks sharp, is super lightweight, and has enough acoustic volume to plunk around without an amp. I worked in musical instrument retail for 5 years as a salesperson/buyer and instruments in this price range can be a crapshoot … maybe a few out of every batch are just duds with various problems … a few are just okay …. And a few are really fantastic instruments for the price. But then, this also holds true for instruments costing ten times as much. I am tempted to buy a Grote 335-style guitar as well. But I already have more guitars than I need….*sigh*

I had been controlling myself and patiently watching reviews of this guitar on YouTube until I could no longer resist. No regrets! For just over $200 I feel this guitar is a great deal. The workmanship on the body is very good. Some buyers online complain about the fret work. Maybe I was lucky, but not One sharp fret end, and they were dressed so well and highly polished. Probably one the smoothest fretboards in my collection. Out of the box the action was perfect, just low enough but no buzz. The neck feels great! Some players may want to swap out the P90 pickup, personally I think it has a very nice tone. Im fine with it. As with all of my Chinese or Indonesian guitars I will definitely replace the tuners. They work fine but I prefer something smoother. I purchased the “antique sunburst”, and I’m glad I did. There’s a nice veneer underneath the finish and it has quite a pretty amber glow to it which the photos don’t represent. If you’re familiar with hollowbodies and those with trapeze tail pieces, you’ll appreciate the sustain on this thing. It may not be a thick guitar but it resonates well. Depending on your tone settings you can really dial in a sweet acoustic sound if you were recording or playing live. I’ve yet to run it through my pedalboard, (19 pedals so far), and it sounded great plugged straight into my tube amp, but I can’t wait to do just that and run it through its paces. As many others have stated, they look forward to playing this guitar, and I do too. If you’re a fan of this style of guitar, or P90s, and you don’t want to spend $500-1000, this is a great little guitar for the money. Highly recommend.

This was an impulse buy. A friend of mine purchased one of these and said that it was a lot of guitar for the money. I always wanted a hollowbody one pickup guitar, and this fit the bill.The good: It feels solidly constructed. The finish is quite good at this price level. It was playable out of the box, but still needed some work. It has "good bones" as my friend put it. It has a nice volume unamplified, and I do like the thin body.Is it perfect? No, it is not. It needs some work. The bridge had to be reworked a bit on the bottom as it didn't have full contact. The nut was cut a bit high, and I had to adjust that. The frets are pretty grainy, but that's easy to fix. The fret height and the fret ends were fine though. The tuners are absolutely awful. I mean, really awful. Some slipped as much as half a turn before they would catch. I replaced them with some inexpensive Gotah tuners and it is a huge improvement.I didn't like the pickup - but it is a P-90 and it is a single coil so it is really prone to noise. It also was set up pretty far away from the strings. If you like P-90 pickups, you will probably be okay with it. I thought it would be easy to get a noiseless or humbucker pickup to fit, but since it is a dogear pickup, I had limited choices and all were a bit spendy. I ended up getting a Mojotone silent P-90, which sounds amazing, but it was 129.00. I also put in a spacer underneath the pickup to bring it closer to the strings.All in all, I am very happy with the guitar. I've played out with it and it performed well after the upgrades. If you like the pickup that is in it, all you will probably need to buy are good tuners and a little work to make it fully playable. This guitar performs miles above its price point.