This one has Sold! If you have a guitar like this one that you want to sell, email us or call us direct: 785-766-8906 9am-9pm any day.
Even though the Gretsch 6122 model featured the endorsement of Chet Atkins, we all know why these guitars sold like crazy from 1964-1969... How many Gretsch Country Gentleman guitars did George Harrison sell? Maybe we will never know but I’ve lost count of the number of original owners that sold me their Gretsch and claimed they “went out and bought it the day after they saw the Beatles on TV and wanted to be George.” Here’s another one. This unit is a one-owner from just before the Baldwin takeover. It was made at the famous Gretsch factory in Brooklyn, New York U.S.A. and it is in really nice clean condition. The pickguard is a replacement but I have the original also. It has 1966 date codes and matching hardware with an early 1967 serial and it was made prior to the "made in USA"-decal which became standardized in July 1967. There are no cracks, splits or repairs-the guitar is super solid. It is a one-owner and was obviously very well-cared for its whole life. It is 100% original, fully set up and ready to go, it needs nothing.
The double cutaway body is a hollow body construction with a set neck. The body is solid and there are no creaks or groans whatsoever. The finish is very nice and has a nice shine. The coloring is unfaded, and it remains vibrant and warm. It is obvious that this guitar was well-cared for. There are a couple of chips in the binding-but the binding is not loose or flaking. Gretsch used a cellulose binding for these guitars-some stayed stable and others deteriorated. This one is still in really good shape, with only a couple of small spots of spiderwebbing-see photos. The neck joint is super solid with no issues and the neck angle is perfect. The back pad snaps on and off easily and it is in exceptional condition.
The neck itself is straight and super smooth-it feels awesome. The neck profile is best described as a vintage C-shape. It has the nice 1 11/16" width at the zero fret. The neck depth measures .855" at the 1st fret and .995" deep at the 12th fret. The original big paddle Grover tuners are the early style (used from the 1950's through first weeks of 1967) with dog ear double screw mounts. They function smoothly and the gold plating has typical patina. The headstock and logo display excellent. The truss rod turns and the cover is clean. The fingerboard is clean and very smooth. There is one small line crack in the binding on the treble side, but it is not obstructive while playing-just a cosmetic. The frets have been professionally leveled, crowned and polished and are very clean-see photos. The action is set relatively low for a fast and easy playing experience. It currently has .010's on it so it can easily accommodate lager strings without any issues. The string height is currently .010" at the 1st fret and .055" at the 12th fret. the guitar plays like butter up and down the fingerboard with zero dead spots. It has a fast soft feel to it. The action can easily be raised by the adjustable bridge-which functions smoothly.
This 6122 has double filtertrons and they have an excellent balanced signal. The neck pickup measures 4.08 ohms and the bridge pickup measures 4.29 ohms-which is exactly perfect for filtertrons. All of the switches function with no issues. The wiring harness is as clean as it was when new-in fact the inside of the guitar is exceptionally clean. The potentiometers date to the 39th week of 1966. The mute functions monthly and the felt is in excellent condition. The original Bigsby vibrato functions smoothly and like all of the other gold-plated hardware on the guitar; shows some handling wear and perfect patina. The original pickguard has a small chip in it so it was removed for protection. It is included, of course. The replacement pickguard looks nice and fits perfectly.
The guitar is lots of fun to play and despite the large size, it is pretty lightweight-it weighs 8.37 lbs. It is comfortable to play whether on a strap or in your lap.
The original early-style Gretsch hard case is included and it is in very nice condition. These were made for Gretsch by the ESS & ESS company in Brooklyn New York. The foil sticker is still inside the case pocket!
This is an excellent example of a highly collectible vintage Gretsch 6122 and it plays, sounds and looks really nice.
