An Original "Thick-Body" Tennessean

This 15 3/4-inch-wide "thick-body" guitar weighs just 6.60 lbs. and has a nut width of just over 1 5/8 inches and a short Chet Atkins scale length of 24 1/2 inches. Single-bound maple body with two painted-on f-holes with no white border, mahogany neck, and unbound rosewood fretboard with 21 frets and neo-classic inlaid pearloid thumbprint (half-moon) position markers. Black-finished headstock with inlaid pearl Gretsch "T-roof" logo. Individual Grover StaTite tuners with cloverleaf metal buttons. Two Gretsch Hi-Lo'Tron pickups with outputs of 3.11k and 2.81k. Silver-gray Lucite pickguard with Gretsch "T-roof" logo in black. Three controls (two volume on lower treble bout and one master volume on cutaway bout) plus two three-way selector switches on upper bass bout. Chrome "Arrow-through-G" knobs with cross-hatch pattern on sides. Space Control bridge on mahogany base and aluminum V-cutout Bigsby ("Gretsch by Bigsby") vibrato tailpiece. Minimal body checking and belt buckle wear, one small area of surface loss on the back, three small areas of surface loss on the back of the neck around the ninth fret, and a couple of very small cracks to the plastic pickup surrounds. At one time this guitar was fitted with Grover RotoMatic tuners, but these have now been removed and the original Grover StaTite tuners with cloverleaf metal buttons have now been refitted. This super-playing guitar is still in really excellent condition, and is one of the last examples with the thicker body (2 1/4 inches deep) without the standby switch. Housed in the original gray hardshell case with purple velvet lining (8.00).

The two-pickup 6119 Tennessean (as our guitar) was first introduced in 1961 and featured "large violin-style simulated (painted-on) f-holes with no white border, 2 Hi-Lo 'Tron pick-ups, 1 knob on cutaway bout, 2 knobs on lower treble bout, double-bound top, unbound back, gray pickguard with Gretsch logo only, single-bound rosewood finger-board, no zero fret, plastic tuner buttons, "dark cherry" walnut finish". Gruhn and Carter: Gruhn's Guide to Vintage Guitars, p.343. The only differences in our guitar are that the tuners have metal buttons (possibly the refitted tuners are of '62 vintage?) and that the fretboard is unbound…

"The 16-inch-wide Tennessean Model 6119, essentially a one-pickup version of the Model 6120, popped its unadorned headstock into daylight the same year that the Model 6122 Chet Atkins Country Gentleman premiered. With the advent of the 6119 the full complement of Atkins-family models was achieved...A plain, unbound, black-finished headstock with "Gretsch" inlaid in pearl, but without a horseshoe or other ornamentation, is fitted with chrome-plated, open-back Grover StaTite tuners...The first-year, 1958 Model 6119 Tennessean has an unbound, ebony neo-classic fingerboard on the three-piece, maple-ebony-maple neck secured with a heel dowel" (Jay Scott, The Guitars of the Fred Gretsch Company, pp. 196-197).