Under the Bed for Forty-Six Years!

This 17-inch-wide and 2-inch-thick Cadillac of Country Clubs weighs just 7.60 lbs. and has a huge nut width of 1 3/4 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Laminated rock maple body with laminated spruce top and two large single-bound f-holes, three-piece maple/ebony/maple neck with a medium profile, and single-bound ebony fretboard with 21 frets plus zero fret and neo-classic inlaid pearl thumbprint (half-moon) position markers. The body of the guitar is triple-bound (white/black/white) on the top and back, the fretboard is single bound with a single white line inlaid on each side and at the end of the fretboard. Triple-bound headstock with inlaid pearl Gretsch "T-roof" logo. Two-layer (black on white) truss-rod cover. Individual Grover Imperial tuners with stairstep metal buttons. Two Gretsch "Patent Number" Filter'Tron Humbuckers (with "U.S. PAT. 289237" stamped on the face of the pickup) with gold Lucite ridged surrounds and outputs of 3.95k and 3.90k. Each pickup has two adjustable polepieces for each string. Gold Lucite pickguard with Gretsch "T-roof" logo in relief in black (engraved from the underside). Two controls (one volume for each pickup), a three-way standby switch, and a "flip" mute control on the lower treble bout, a master volume control on the cutaway bout, plus two three-way tone selector switches on the upper bass bout. The potentiometers are stamped "P134 617" (Centralab February 1961). "Arrow-through-G" knobs with cross-hatch pattern on sides. Space-control bridge on ebony base and "G" cutout tailpiece. All hardware gold-plated. Original gold-edged green pad with eight stud buttons on the back of the guitar. Rectangular orange and gray label inside bass f-hole with the model number "6196" stamped in blue and the serial number "59388" (January 1963) typed in black. This amazing guitar has sat under the bed for the past forty-six years and can only be described as in totally mint (9.50) condition. There is just one tiny little mark on the back of the neck (the size of a match head) behind the seventh fret. This is a fantastic example -- a real time capsule. Housed in its original Gretsch two-tone gray hardshell case with maroon plush lining (9.50). Complete with the original black leather strap, numerous hang-tags and instructions, and even two sets of original Gretsch strings! This is the only opportunity you will every have to purchase a brand new forty-six year-old guitar!

"The Cadillac Green Model 6196 Country Club that graced the cover of the 1955 catalog along with other Gretsch dazzlers was jazz guitar perfection itself, a heady combination of functionality and sparkling color. Introduced in 1954 the metallic-green beauty presented all the features characteristic of the 1955 Club. The now all-maple (leaving the White Falcon the only Gretsch electric with a spruce top, although an occasional and arbitrary C.C. does occur with a spruce top, especially in 1958 and '59), 17-inch-wide, 3 1/2-inch-deep, 25 1/2-inch scale length, true f-hole body is multiple-bound, top and back, in four plies of black and white plastic. The choicest, most highly figured maple plywood is reserved for the body of the 6193 in natural finish. The 6192, 6193, and 6196's gold parts include two DeArmond pickups, arrow control knobs and "G" cutout tailpiece both introduced in 1954 (Country Clubs were never stock with Bigsby vibrato tailpieces), Melita bridge, pickup-selector switch cap and Grover Imperial tuners. In 1955, the Club's tortoise shell plastic pickguard is replaced with a gold Lucite 'guard pantograph-engraved from the underside with a radiused 'Gretsch' block letter logo. The three-piece maple-ebony-maple Miracle Neck joins the body at the 14th fret and utilizes a Brazilian rosewood fingerboard, five-ply bound in black and white, with real mother-of-pearl humped-block inlays; from the model's inception until this time, the fingerboard was inlaid with pearloid plastic squares. The new-design headstock, debuted in 1954, has a 'Gretsch' mother-of-pearl block letter logo inlaid into a dark-stained maple or holly overlay and bound in three-ply black and white plastic. A small, bullet-shaped truss rod cover, introduced in 1954, completes the headstock motif; in 1956, all Gretsch guitars appeared with a new, enlarged truss rod cover" (Jay Scott, The Guitars of the Fred Gretsch Company, p. 45).

"In 1961 Gretsch debuted thin Country Club Models which augured the introduction of the thin Electrotone hollowbody instruments of 1962. At 1 7/8-inched deep, the Country Club joined the Model 6122 Country Gentleman and Model 6120 Chet Atkins Hollowbody issued in the new thin body style...1962 Model... 6196 Country Clubs add the features common to Electrone Hollowbody guitars introduced this year: a padded back, standby switch, and single (never double) muffler… (Jay Scott, The Guitars of the Fred Gretsch Company, p. 53).