The Solid Body Version of the Hollow 6120

This 13 1/4-inch-wide, semi-solid body version of the Chet Atkins 6120 features a quad-bound chambered mahogany body and weighs just 7.80 lbs. One-piece mahogany neck with a wonderful medium profile and a nut width of just under 1 11/16 inches. Single bound Brazilian rosewood fretboard with original aluminum nut, 22 original small frets, inlaid pearloid plastic hump-top block position markers and a scale length of 24 1/2 inches. Headstock with inlaid pearl Gretsch "T-roof" logo and pearloid horseshoe inlay. Individual Grover StaTite open-back tuners with oval metal buttons. Two single-coil DeArmond (Gretsch Dynasonic) pickups with outputs of 2.97k and 2.95k. Gold Lucite pickguard with pantograph-engraved Gretsch "T-roof" logo and "Chet Atkins" signature framed in a signpost (the signpost and signature highlighted in black). Four controls (two individual volume controls and master tone control in a triangular configuration on lower treble bout and master volume control on upper treble bout) plus three-way selector switch on upper bass bout. The potentiometers are all stamped "134 619" (Centralab May, 1956). "Arrow-through-G" knobs with cross-hatch pattern on sides. Space Control roller bridge on ebony base and non-plated aluminum Bigsby B-3 vibrato tailpiece with pivoting arm. Original Gretsch rectangular white label inside control cavity, with the model number "6121" stamped in black, and the serial number "23455" stamped in red. The serial number is also etched on to the triangular control cavity cover. All hardware (except Bigsby) gold-plated. Apart from some minimal belt-buckle wear, this is a totally original and near mint example. Housed in its original Gretsch two-tone gray shaped five-latch hardshell case with purple plush lining (8.75). This guitar, produced in June of 1957, is one of the very first to have a Space Control bridge. "Introduced in 1958, the space control bridge with laterally adjustable brass rollers ('transversing string wheels') replaced the Melita... Earliest models of the so-called spacer had large, domed knobs at the ends of the bridge saddle" (Jay Scott, The Guitars of the Fred Gretsch Company, p. 73).

"The solid companion to the Chet Atkins Hollow Body debuted in 1954. The only differences between it and the Round-Up are standard Chet Atkins model features: Bigsby vibrato, non adjustable bridge, signature pickguard, and...metal nut" (George Gruhn and Walter Carter, Electric Guitars and Basses: A Photographic History, p. 175). Despite the name, the Chet Atkins Solid Body had Gretsch's customary semi-solid construction.