Greg Bennett Design Gold rush ST91 N 39-Inch Folk Acoustic Guitar, Natural

I love this guitar. The action came just a hair too low so it took a little set up and some good strings right away. Such a good and easy player. Even sound, perfect intonation. I used Martin flexible core sp strings on this guitar and it plays like silk. I also ordered gold Grover tuners but the tuners that came with the guitar are very good and smooth so I'll probably just change them for the asthetics. Not used to getting a guitar at this price with such good tuners.

Finding well made smaller scale guitars that actually play is difficult. This is a nice 23" scale concert - akin to a 3/4 size - with good parts and craftsmanship. The Mahogany is nice and the finish is excellent. I got it for under $100 so it was a bargain.

Based on the picture of the ST91 on Amazon and the fact that I also bought the ST61, I was sent the Brown color not the natural. This ST91 Brown is actually gorgeous compared to the ST61 natural. Don't get me wrong, both are very nice. It's just that the ST91 is so much more attractive with its color versus the ST61. The ST91 is the longer total length at about 38". The body is also larger than the ST61.However, I did have to do much more setup work on the ST91 than I had to do on the ST61. There was a much thicker shim under the saddle on the ST91 which had the action way too high. Removing the shim on the ST91 made it more noticeable for buzz on the 10 - 12 frets. Had to dress those up and adjust the neck to get the action right. Now it's top notch. I really think it was worth the effort.The shorter 36" ST61 was much better out of the box as far as string height. I still removed the thin shim under the saddle to get the better action. Minor neck tension adjustment and I had it just right. The smaller guitar is slightly thinner sounding than the larger...... DUH. :-)Neither one of these are going to produce the sound that comes from a larger body guitar. But you'd be surprised at what the sound is. Far less of the dead box sound than I thought either would be. They both have their own ring. I did play around with different gauges and found the Light gauge 12-52 were best for me. Obviously for a child that would not be the case and Extra Light gauge would be better.I am an adult male with large hands but thin fingers and bought both of these are easy for me to play. No issues with finger picking or strumming. I think either would be just fine for a child, though. Remember, ST91 38", the ST61 36". I would have given 5 stars but since it required more setup than typical, I gave 4. Just know that both are good buys.