'Copper Mist With A Bamboo Yellow Top'

1957 Gretsch 6189 Streamliner.

This beautiful Streamliner weighs just 7.00 lbs. and has a nice, fat nut width of 1 11/16 inches and a scale length of 24 1/2 inches. Fifteen and a half inch wide double-bound laminated maple body with a one-piece maple back. Double-bound 'f' holes. Two-piece medium-to-thin profile maple neck with ebony center strip. Ebony fretboard with 22 original medium-thin frets and inlaid 'hump' pearloid block position markers. Single-bound headstock with Gretsch "T-roof" logo etched in white onto black pyralin overlay. Two layer (black on white) bullet-shaped plastic truss rod cover with three screws. Grover StaTite open-back tuners with oval metal buttons and hexagonal bushings. Single DeArmond (Gretsch Dynasonic) pickup (in the neck position) with an output of 3.14k. Matching "Copper-Mist" Lucite pickguard with Gretsch 'T-Roof' logo engraved in black from the underside. Two controls, one volume and one tone. The potentiometers are both stamped "134 708" (Centralab, February 1957). Gretsch "G through Arrow" knobs with cross-hatch pattern on sides. Black Melita Synchro-Sonic bridge with individual saddles on ebony base and chrome cut-out "G-hole flat" tailpiece. Original Gretsch rectangular white label inside bass "f" hole with the model number "6189" stamped in blue, and the serial number "23689" stamped in red. This guitar is has had a professional jack-plug input repair on the side and now has a rectangular nickel-plated metal surround (2 5/8 x 2 inches) secured by six small screws. We would certainly have given this guitar a (9.25) rating - the only thing that prevented us from doing so is the issue of the professional jack input repair. There is some very fine/light finish checking on the body and a couple of very tiny surface chips on the edges. Housed in the original Gretsch four-latch, two-tone gray, shaped hardshell case with purple plush lining. (9.00).

"With five documented batches, the 1957 model year was the Streamliner's most prolific. Feature changes to batch #215xx incuded the removal of the vertical Electromatic designation from the face of the headstock. A simple, etched Gretsch T-roof logo remained on the black pyralin overlay. Gretsch also replaced the arrow control knob with a "G" indent knob featuring a large debossed "G" with an arrow piercing through it diagonally. The next few batches of this production year (#222xx, #228xx, 236xx, and 256xx) reflect a continuity of 1957 model year features, with the exception of the last 25 to 30 specimens from the 256xx group." (Edward Ball Gretsch 6120 The History of a Legendary Guitar, p. 57)