Gold Tone A-6 A-Style Mando-Guitar with Pickup and Gig Bag

If you’ve ever wanted the cutting, bell-like tone of a mando-guitar without having to relearn your chord shapes, the Gold Tone A-6 was designed with you in mind. It’s tuned exactly like a standard guitar — low to high, E A D G B E — but the 15″ scale length, mandolin-style construction, and lighter string gauges give it a shimmer and presence that a full-scale guitar simply can’t replicate. I’ve played and sold a lot of instruments over the past 45 years, and mando-guitars occupy a genuinely unique tonal space: they sit beautifully in a mix, cut through acoustic jams without effort, and inspire players to find melodic ideas they’d never stumble onto on a standard guitar. The A-6 puts that experience within reach at a price that makes it easy to say yes.

The foundation of the A-6’s sound is a solid spruce top — not laminate, solid — paired with maple back and sides. That combination delivers a bright, articulate response with enough warmth to keep things musical. The traditional A-style body is finished in a rich tobacco sunburst satin that looks classy without being flashy, and cream ABS binding gives the edges a clean, finished look. The maple neck carries a radiused rosewood fingerboard with 21 frets and dot inlays, and Gold Tone’s two-way adjustable truss rod means the neck stays stable through seasonal humidity changes and is easy to dial in. The Zero Glide nut — Gold Tone’s patented design — improves open-string tuning stability noticeably compared to a standard bone or plastic nut. Chrome-plated open-gear guitar-style tuners round out the hardware. The bridge-mounted transducer pickup is quiet and natural-sounding for a built-in pickup; it won’t replace a dedicated acoustic-electric setup, but it’s genuinely useful for small venues or recording scratch tracks. And it all ships with a gig bag included.

Each instrument receives a professional setup at Gold Tone’s factory in Titusville, Florida before it ships to you. They check the nut slots, adjust the bridge for proper action and intonation, inspect the truss rod, and play the instrument through every position on the neck to make sure it’s genuinely easy and enjoyable to play right out of the box. A professional setup makes a real difference — especially on an instrument like this where low action encourages the fast, picking-style playing that makes mando-guitars so fun.

Why Buy From Banjo Warehouse

Banjo Warehouse is an authorized Gold Tone dealer, which means your A-6 comes with the full manufacturer’s warranty and genuine factory support. I’ve been working with Gold Tone since the early days of the brand, and I co-designed the OB-Standard with them — so when I say I trust their quality control and stand behind their instruments, that’s not a marketing line. It’s 45 years of industry experience talking. We’re based in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and this instrument ships directly from Gold Tone’s factory in Titusville, Florida. If you have questions before or after your purchase, you’re talking to people who actually play and know these instruments. Financing is available through PayPal Pay in 4, Afterpay, and 3, 6, 12, or 24-month plans — no late fees, so you can get playing now and pay on your schedule.

Gold Tone A-6 Specifications

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to learn new chord shapes to play the A-6?

No — that’s one of the best things about the A-6. It’s tuned E A D G B E, exactly like a standard guitar, so every chord, scale, and lick you already know transfers directly. What changes is the feel and the sound: the 15″ scale is shorter than a guitar’s, the strings are lighter, and the mandolin-style construction gives you a brighter, choppier tone. Most guitar players find they’re playing things they’d never thought of within the first hour, just because the instrument responds differently and inspires different ideas.

How does the built-in pickup sound, and what do I plug it into?

The A-6 uses a bridge-mounted transducer pickup, which picks up the vibration of the bridge rather than the strings magnetically. It has a natural, acoustic character — less feedback-prone than a soundhole pickup and more transparent than many undersaddle designs. You can plug it into any acoustic guitar amplifier, a PA system, or a direct box. It uses a standard 1/4″ output jack. For small venues and practice with amplification it works well; players who need stage-ready amplified sound for larger rooms may eventually want to add an outboard preamp or endpin jack upgrade, but for the price point it’s a genuinely useful inclusion.

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