All Original, Near Mint 1966 Double-Cut Gretsch Duo Jet.

1966 Gretsch 6128 Duo Jet.

This 13 1/2-inch-wide guitar weighs 7.80 lbs. Chambered mahogany body with three-ply binding, pressed arched top with black finish. One-piece mahogany neck with a nut width of just over 1 5/8 inches and a scale length of 24 1/2 inches. Bound ebony fretboard with 22 original thin frets and neo-classic inlaid pearl thumbprint (half-moon) position markers. Headstock with inlaid pearl Gretsch "T-roof" logo. Two-layer, black over white plastic, dome-shaped truss-rod cover with three screws. Individual open-back Grover StaTite tuners with oval metal buttons. Two patent number Filter'Tron pickups with gold plastic surrounds and outputs of 3.95k and 4.55k. Original gold Lucite pickguard with "Gretsch" engraved in black from the underside. Three controls (two volume on lower treble bout, one master volume on upper treble bout) plus two three-way tone selector switches 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 Gretsch, height-adjustable 'Bar' bridge on ebony base and bent flat-arm Burns vibrato tailpiece with black plastic tip with "Gretsch" engraved in white. All hardware gold-plated. The switch control cover plate is engraved with the serial number "24415". There is the minutest amount of belt-buckle rash, some very light checking on the back, a tiny surface mark on the side of the treble horn, a couple of tiny indentations on the top and a light vertical 'surface scratch' on the back of the neck behind the 4th to the 10th frets. With all that said, this guitar is the cleanest, all original example that we have seen and is in near mint (9.25+) condition. Complete with the original black leather 'Gretsch' guitar strap and housed in the original Gretsch five-latch, two-tone gray, shaped hardshell case with burgundy plush lining (9.25).



"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).