1957 Lotus Ivory and Gray Metallic Full-Bodied Corvette

This lightweight guitar weighs just 5.90 lbs. and has a very fat nut width of over 1 11/16 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Laminated maple body, laminated spruce top, three-piece maple neck, and rosewood fretboard with 21 frets and inlaid pearl dot position markers. Lotus Ivory finish on the top and Gray Metallic on the back, sides, and neck. The headstock is Gray Metaliic with black laminate face and with Gretsch "T-roof" logo engraved in white. Individual open-back Grover StaTite tuners with white plastic oval buttons. One DeArmond pickup with an output of 3.75k. Gray Lucite pickguard with Gretsch "T-roof" logo in white engraved from underneath. Two controls (one volume, one tone) on lower treble bout. Chrome "Arrow-through-G" knobs with cross-hatch pattern on sides. Single-saddle wooden bridge and chrome cut-out "G-hole flat" tailpiece. The bare minimum of finish checking on the back and one tiny chip on the top just above the tailpiece are all that prevent this virtually unplayed example from being given a 9.25 (near mint) rating. Housed in a modern black Gretsch hardshell case with plush lining (9.50).

"Intervening model numbers between the full-bodied, 16-inch-wide, one-DeArmond Corvette Model 6182 in sunburst, blond Model 6183, 6184 in Jaguar Tan and Model 6185 and the Streamliner Models 6189, 6190 and 6191, namely Models 6186, 6187 and 6188, were assigned to both full-bodied, Corvette-like and cutaway Streamliner-like guitars with dot-inlaid fingerboard, plastic, engraved pegheads and, usually, slightly shallower body depths. Therefore, Model 6186 is a sunburst-finished, cutaway or full-body; 6187 is both full-bodied and cutaway in two-tone (in this case, Lotus Ivory top with gray-metallic back, sides and neck) finish. Likewise, Model 6188 is either a full-bodied or cutaway guitar in natural finish. It is important to note that Models 6186, 6187, and 6188 prescind completely from Gretsch's standard, and usually consistent, model numbering system as two models, a cutaway and a full-body, are associated with a single model number. this aberration exists only for these models which never appeared in catalogs or on price lists" (Jay Scott, The Guitars of the Fred Gretsch Company, p. 59).