Do you still have your Gretsch?

Larry Miller · Post by **Larry Miller** » 16 Oct 2009 1:07 pm

My answer is no. I let the 1967 Tennessean go for $1,000.oo and I traded the 1966 6120 Nashville for a nylon string guitar. I could kick myself in the a$$! These are now bringing $3,000.oo...who knew?

Steve Norman · Post by **Steve Norman** » 16 Oct 2009 1:09 pm

I have a 58 anniversary. A friend of mine has a 56 6120 all original. He appraised it at $15k!

Mike Perlowin RIP · Post by **Mike Perlowin RIP** » 16 Oct 2009 2:51 pm

And at the same time, you can buy a new Chinese made replica for around $600.

Go figure.

Post by **Brad Bechtel** » 16 Oct 2009 3:20 pm

I still have my 1948 Gretsch Electro-Matic lap steel.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 16 Oct 2009 3:34 pm

I had a 61 PX6120 (Orange color, single cutaway and real F holes). I sold it in 85 for $2000.00 as I needed the money. Hindsight I should have kept it.

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 16 Oct 2009 7:24 pm

Nope....Wish I have them now so I could sell them for more....Old Gretsch stuff is made so poorly. I have reset necks on those things and you would not believe how sloppy the neck joints are put together. They are cool looking and bring a lot of bucks in the vintage market, but I really don't care for them. The new Gretsch guitars you can buy today are much better made than the old ones.

Robert Tripp · Post by **Robert Tripp** » 16 Oct 2009 8:57 pm

Brad, did you buy that steel new?

I have an old new yorker arch top f hole that my Dad used to play on live radio. Don't have a pic of it, but it is sunburst, and had to have the tailpiece replace.

The thing is like trying to play a log. I"ll take my Larrivee over that anyday.

Delvin Morgan · Post by **Delvin Morgan** » 17 Oct 2009 6:20 am

I had a late 50's (not sure of year) 6117 that I had to sell because my job at the time, mid 70's, folded up. I always kicked myself for not keeping it, but now I have a Reverend Club King, that plays better, and sounds as good, for a lot less money.

Dave Hopping · Post by **Dave Hopping** » 17 Oct 2009 3:47 pm

Well,I still have my '62(bought new) and '64 (refinned) Country Gents and '67 Nashville,but the '59 6120,'59 6119,and '68 White Falcon got sold long ago.

(Scanner's down,so can't upload the other Chets or the Falcon.Sorry)

Bryan Daste · Post by **Bryan Daste** » 17 Oct 2009 6:13 pm

Sold a 1998 Brian Setzer 6120 (the cool green one) last year to pay for an Emmons p/p. Something had to go, and the Emmons is certainly getting more use than the Gretsch was!

Dan Galysh · Post by **Dan Galysh** » 17 Oct 2009 8:19 pm

My brother still has his Tennessean that he played in his garage rock band ages ago.

Geoff Barnes · Post by **Geoff Barnes** » 18 Oct 2009 1:06 pm

Bill Hatcher wrote: The new Gretsch guitars you can buy today are much better made than the old ones.

+1
My White falcon (w/dynas), and Annie (w/filtertrons, Bigsby) are both keepers.
The older models (particularly the Baldwins) are notoriously inconsistent in quality. I never saw the attraction in Gretsches until I played a friend's 6120(Terada sp?) a few years ago and was amazed at how well the company had recovered. Both mine are beautiful instruments and cut through the mix with authority.

Bob Blair · Post by **Bob Blair** » 18 Oct 2009 2:40 pm

I let a nice Country Gentleman go decades ago. I walked in to a store in Kingston, Ontario thinking I was going to come out with a Les Paul, and walked out with this cool CG instead. Unfortunately it didn't seem to be the right guitar for me when I was onstage (the problem was the player, not the guitar, I'm sure), and in those days I couldn't afford to keep a bunch of electric guitars around, so I let it go after a few gigs. Wish it was hanging on my wall today.

Rick Batey · Post by **Rick Batey** » 18 Oct 2009 3:01 pm

Mark Lind-Hanson · Post by **Mark Lind-Hanson** » 21 Oct 2009 4:51 am

No. It wasn't my choice to be parted from it, but a couple of very clever thieves. It was a melody maker copy, or something quite similar to a gibson melody maker (solid body, 2 pickups,similar shape) but I will probably get one of their solid body Electromatics next time I feel the need for a new axe. And it's been gone for 30 years now, (sniff).

Steve Norman · Post by **Steve Norman** » 21 Oct 2009 8:53 am

Bryan Daste wrote:Sold a 1998 Brian Setzer 6120 (the cool green one) last year to pay for an Emmons p/p. Something had to go, and the Emmons is certainly getting more use than the Gretsch was!

that my friend was an awesome trade!

Steve Norman · Post by **Steve Norman** » 21 Oct 2009 8:57 am

Bill Hatcher wrote:Nope....Wish I have them now so I could sell them for more....Old Gretsch stuff is made so poorly. I have reset necks on those things and you would not believe how sloppy the neck joints are put together. They are cool looking and bring a lot of bucks in the vintage market, but I really don't care for them. The new Gretsch guitars you can buy today are much better made than the old ones.

thats is becoming more true every year, the TV Jones pickups due justice to the filtertrons. The early 90's reissues I thought where terrible, but within the last 5 years or so they figured it out/cleared legal hurdles to make pretty neat stuff.

the only thing lacking is 50 years of resonance in the wood and glue.

Ron Whitfield · Post by **Ron Whitfield** » 21 Oct 2009 9:44 am

Bill Hatcher wrote:Old Gretsch stuff was made so poorly. I have reset necks on those things and you would not believe how sloppy the neck joints are put together. They are cool looking and bring a lot of bucks in the vintage market, but the new Gretsch guitars you can buy today are much better made than the old ones.

Therein lies the beautiful Gretsch conundrum. While the new ones have much better quality control and builders/practices (the consistancy was not happening in the old day's), there are very few if any instances that you can play a good old Gretsch and have a new Gretsch match or surpass it in sound quality.

My '68 Duo Jet (which no longer exists) was nearly a sad shaped mongrel but sounded better than most anything I've ever heard. Infinitely better than the top shelf DJs of today.
I'll be getting another vintage DJ asap, willing to pay the nuts $ rather that take a free new one.

Kevin Hatton · Post by **Kevin Hatton** » 21 Oct 2009 8:34 pm

I totally disagree. I have an early 90's 6118. My friend has an original 50's. Mine is built better and sounds the same. Same Filtertrons. He agree's. The originals were poorly built and inconsistent. Necks were aweful.

Gary Walker · Post by **Gary Walker** » 21 Oct 2009 10:43 pm

I still own my 1960 Gretsch 6122 Chet Atkins Country Gent that I bought new. It's still a beaut, never had a belt buckle hit the back, or anything else. Chet signed it in '94 at the CAAS.

Roger Rettig · Post by **Roger Rettig** » 22 Oct 2009 5:14 am

I have to agree with Bill. I was pretty dumb as a youngster and was blinded by all the hype, so I bought the 'best' Gretsch I could afford; a red Jet Firebird. I really wanted an orange 6120 like Duane's or Chet's (or Eddie Cochran's), but the 220 Pound (UK) price tag was out of reach.

Their fit and finish was awful back then, and Chet wrote about his disappointment in his book, 'Me And My Guitars'. I traded that Firebird against a '58 Gibson Super 400CES - a totally different kettle-of-fish altogether!

Still, though, I find myself drawn to that Gretsch 'flashiness' - there's a brand-new green Anniversary in a music store around here that gently calls to me when I pass. I'm able to resist it, but it's sobering to realise that a Gretsch can still work its magic on me regardless of their reputation.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 22 Oct 2009 5:41 am

The 61 model PX6120 I had must have been an exception. The fit and finish were excellent - as good as any guitar I've seen. The only problem I had with it was a weak spring in the Bigsby and they sent me a replacement and no more problems.

I always used the heavy gauge (wound 3rd) Gretsch Chet Atkins strings in the round plastic container.

Ron Whitfield · Post by **Ron Whitfield** » 22 Oct 2009 10:01 am

Kevin Hatton wrote:I totally disagree. I have an early 90's 6118. My friend has an original 50's. Mine is built better and sounds the same. Same Filtertrons. He agree's. The originals were poorly built and inconsistent. Necks were aweful.

You sited an instance you experienced, mirroring the occassional exception to the rule that I stated.

The new ones are indeed very good, but again, a GOOD old Gretsch will win virtually every time when A/B'ed against a new one for that classic/vintage Gretsch sound, which most look to Gretsch for.
And Jones' PUs aren't exact copies of the vintage Gretsch PUs. They reasonably replicate the sounds sought, some styles better than others, but no cigar.
One example - Setzer rejected the TV FT's that were first made for him and had Jones design a new/retro Filtertron to be used by him and with his signature guitars that gave him the true vintage sound he needed.

Steve Norman · Post by **Steve Norman** » 22 Oct 2009 3:22 pm

also there was a massive difference in sound from the 50's gretsche PU and 60's gretsche PU tht I have heard for some reason. I think the pre 58 PU sound hotter and more woody than the later ones, I assume they wanted to clean up the sound a bit. I have a 58 anniversary with filterons marked patent applied for, same as the 6120's, and I know that in 59 they stopped putting those in the anniversary to lower the price. The post 58's had a much thinner sound. I think the real diff is hearing a 58 or 59 6120 versus a new reissue of the same guitar. Much more volume, response to pick attack, grittier sound etc.

Ron Whitfield · Post by **Ron Whitfield** » 22 Oct 2009 7:59 pm

The PUs were changed from the DeArmonds that Chet said were too strong and sucked the tone out, to the Filtertrons in late '57, and in '61 the body was thinned.
So that PU switch alone was a major sound chang that you may have noticed.

But in the 50s/60s and worse later on with Baldwin, it was always a crapshoot with Gretsches, depending on who was working where and how they felt that day..., such was life with hand made guitars built in a factory.

Regardless, vintage Gretsches will always have a high degree of viability when tone is paramount. Some just moreso than others.

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Do you still have your Gretsch?

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