1964 Cadillac Green Country Club.

This 17-inch-wide and 2-inch-thick Cadillac of Country Clubs weighs just 7.60 lbs. and has a huge nut width of just over 1 3/4 inches and a scale length of 25 1/2 inches. Laminated rock maple body with laminated maple top and two large single-bound f-holes, two-piece rock maple neck with ebony center strip and a medium profile. The body of the guitar is triple-bound (white/black/white) on the top and back. Triple-bound headstock with inlaid pearl Gretsch "T-roof" logo. Two-layer (black on white) 'bullet' shaped plastic truss-rod cover with three screws. Individual Grover Imperial tuners with 'kidney' shaped metal buttons. Single bound ebony fretboard with 'zero' and 21 original thin frets and 'neo-classic' inlaid pearl thumbprint (half-moon) position markers. The fretboard has a single white line inlaid on each side and at the end. Two Gretsch "Patent Number" Filter'Tron Humbuckers (with "U.S. PAT. 2892371" stamped on the face of the pickup) with gold Lucite ridged surrounds and outputs of 3.97k and 3.94k. 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 one three-way pickup selector switch and one three-way tone selector switche on the upper bass bout. The potentiometers are stamped "137 6516" (CTS April 1965). "Arrow-through-G" knobs with cross-hatch pattern on sides. Gretsch height-adjustable 'bar' bridge on ebony base and factory "Gretsch by Bigsby" "V" cutout vibrato tailpiece. Single height-adjustable padded mute assembly between bridge pickup and bridge. 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" written in red ink and the serial number "65047" (March 1964) typed in black. This wonderful sounding guitar has had some overspray on the back of the neck and neck heel. On the neck heel this was done because of some minor deterioration to the body binding. We have no idea why they felt it necessary to overspray the back of the neck as well. All of this was done many years ago and all of the binding is quite sound. Underneath the removable green 'back-pad' is a substantial area of finish loss (7 x 4 inches) due to condensation having built up over the years. This is only visible when the 'back-pad' is removed. Otherwise this is a wonderful and really superb looking example of the last of the thin body (2 inch) with the back-pad and the adjustable mute assembly. This guitar looks like a strong 9.25 (near mint) example but because of the aforementioned overspray etc. we have given it an 8.75 (excellent plus) rating. Housed in the original Gretsch five-latch two-tone gray shaped hardshell case with maroon plush lining (9.00)

"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).