I've bought and sold a few Gretsches lately, and ended up with this being the one that I thought suited me best. I love the ease of playing, the string-through Bigsby, the colour, the scale, the unbound fretboard, everything really. The only thing that I missed a little was the slightly fuller body of the 6120. This sounds great, it's so easy to play - you can even change the Bigsby'd up strings without having to go to hospital.
I was at Coda one Saturday morning, and this popped up on the website the afternoon before, and it had caught my good eye. Anyway, I was there for opening at 9.30am and I was trying this, the phone was ringing about this guitar. 'No', I snarled, 'tell them it's sold'. I say 'snarled' - it was more John Inman than Shere Khan, but the intent was there. Anyway, there was no reason not to buy it, and there's no reason to sell it. It's a lovely guitar. It's virtually as new, and is a 2021 model. It's £2199 new, and so the £1499 that I'm asking here is a decent saving for a virtually new guitar. It has all the paperwork and is immaculate.
So, that was it - in my period of 'rationalisation', that was my Gretsch.
Then last week, I saw a 6120 SSLVO advertised on eBay. I got chatting to the seller, and it turns out that it's done 17 years worth of touring across the USA, UK and Europe with a rock 'n' roll band. Well, I like that type of thing, so I went to see it. Truth be told, I should have spent longer viewing it, but I felt myself coming down with a cold, which incidentally has turned into a monster this week. Not Covid thankfully, but an absolute beast of a virus type thing. Luckily, I'm not one to complain, but anyway, I was thankful to get back to the car and open a box of tissues. As it happens, that's the very same feeling that I get when I complete most guitar deals.
Anyway, I picked it up for a good price, which is just as well, because it's received some natural relicing, by way of being played non-stop for seventeen years. I like that, it's a good back story. It sounds really good too. Really good. I thought that the flimsy strings on it might have been responsible for a slightly 'loose' fretboard experience, but when I got it home, I realised that it needed a refret. So, that's where it's gone. However, it's worth it, and it sounds and feels so lovely, that I'm going to give that a go at being my 'only Gretsch'.
So I thought I'd pop this one up for sale to see how it does. Anyway, you know, happy to travel, don't want to post, dogging areas, public conveniences, shaded woodland glens, car parks, North Yorkshire, service stations (not Watford Gap, I'm stil banned) , wherever you want. I don't anticipate that you'll want to invite me to your house - after all, you have your standards - but I'm happy to visit. I shall have my box of tissues too. Well, you can never tell.
Call me Dave.
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HarrySeven - Intangible Asset Appraiser & Wrecker of Civilisation. Searching for weird guitars - so you don't have to.
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If you’d take a G5420 in trade (recent model in blue, 6120 sized body, mint, freshly setup), I’d be tempted to go for this.
Thanks a lot. Actually I was just asking neck thickness (at 12th fret) not the fret wire. I created a confusion, sorry.
Unfortunately it is a little bit slim for my taste but I guess Gretsch necks are mostly like this.
DB1 you ought to have kept the Chet 6120 you sold me... just sayin'