"Malcolm Young"

1964 Gretsch 6131 Jet Firebird

This wonderful little guitar weighs just 7.20 lbs. and has a 13 1/4 inch wide and just under 2 inch deep chambered mahogany body with three-ply binding and a pressed arched top with the Firebird red finish. The back and sides of the body and the back of the neck are finished in black. One-piece mahogany neck with a nice fat nut width of 1 11/16 inches, a scale length of 24 1/2 inches, and a wonderful medium-to-thick profile. Single-bound ebony fretboard with 'Zero' and 22 medium-jumbo frets and neo-classic inlaid pearl thumbprint (half-moon) position markers. Single-bound, walnut veneer faced headstock with inlaid pearl Gretsch "T-roof" logo. Individual open-back Grover StaTite tuners with oval metal buttons. Two Filter'Tron 'Patent Number' pickups with gold plastic surrounds and outputs of 4.10k and 4.06k. Original black plastic pickguard with Gretsch "T-roof" logo engraved from the underside in white. Three controls (two volume on lower treble bout, one master volume on upper treble bout) plus two three-way selector switches (one for pickup selection and the other for tone variation) on upper bass bout and a three-way standby switch on lower treble bout. "Arrow-through-G" knobs with cross-hatch pattern on sides. Original Space Control bridge on ebony base (stamped "US PAT  2918837"). 'Curved' flat-arm Burns vibrato tailpiece stamped "U.S. PAT  67970". All hardware gold-plated. The control cavity cover is etched with the serial number "74780". This is one of the earlier 'double-cut' Jet Firebirds made before the gold-trimmed 'Gretsch' black pad was added onto the back of guitar. All hardware gold-plated. This fifty-five year old Jet Firebird is in near mint (9.25) condition with just minimal and hardly noticeable belt buckle wear on the back and two very small cracks (by the screws) on the pickguard. Complete with the original four-page. folding Gretsch 'Quality Control' hang-tag. Housed in the original Gretsch gray, four-latch shaped, hardshell with burgundy plush lining (9.00). Definately one of the very best that we have ever seen…

"In 1962 major style changes occurred [in the Jet series] which continued on the line until the re-introduction of the single-cutaway body style in 1970: gold-plated metal parts replace chrome, a gold pickguard engraved with a black 'Gretsch' block letter logo supplants the Duo Jet's and Silver Jet's white pickguard, and a gold-plated Burns vibrato tailpiece anchors the Jets' 24 1/2 inch scale length instead of the previous 'G'-cutout, chrome tailpiece. Most notably in 1962 the company expanded its 'spotlight sparkle'-top line to include not only the Silver Jet but a panoply of other shimmering Model 6129s available at no greater cost than the $350 Model 6128 Duo Jet: the gaudy, Romanesque Gold Sparkle, delicate-lilac Champagne Sparkle, a deeper, wine-colored Burgundy Sparkle and squeezable Tangerine Sparkle. All double cut-aways are extremely rare and few of any color other than Silver Sparkle were made. 1962 also saw the introduction of the standby switch on all electric models" (Jay Scott, The Guitars of the Fred Gretsch Company, p. 101).