A Bargain-Basement Mid-Sixties 6120 Chet Atkins.

1967 Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins 'Nashville' Hollow Body.

This forty-five year old 15 1/2 inch-wide guitar weighs just 7.30 lbs. Double-bound laminated maple body with black painted f-holes with white borders. Two-piece maple neck with ebony center-strip, a nut width of just over 1 5/8 inches,  a medium-to-thick profile and a standard Chet Atkins scale length of 24 1/2 inches. Ebony fretboard with 22 frets plus zero fret and neo-classic inlaid pearl thumbprint (half-moon) position markers. Brown mahogany-stained headstock with inlaid pearl Gretsch "T-roof" logo and rectangular brass plate secured by four pins and engraved "Chet Atkins / Nashville / Model". Bell-shaped two-layer (black on white) plastic truss-rod cover with three screws. The serial number ("271287") is stamped in gold on the back of the headstock. Individual open-back Grover StaTite tuners with oval metal buttons. Two patent-number Filter'Tron pickups with gold plastic surrounds and outputs of 4.30k and 4.27k. Gold Lucite pickguard with pantograph-engraved Gretsch "T-roof" logo and "Chet Atkins" signature and "Nashville" in black. Two volume controls (one for each pickup) plus a three-way stand-by switch on the lower treble bout, one master volume control on the upper treble bout, plus two three-way selector switches (one pickup selector and one tone selector) on the upper bass bout. The potentiometers are stamped "137 6640" (CTS, October 1966). One string damper with the original black sponge pad, and one string damper control with the original red felt pad on the lower treble bout. Gretsch "Arrow-through-G" knobs with cross-hatch pattern on sides. Aluminum Bigsby pre-compensated bridge on height-adjustable aluminum base and aluminum V-cutout B-6 Bigsby ("Gretsch by Bigsby") vibrato tailpiece with pivoting arm. Original black vinyl pad with gold trim and eight push-button fasteners on the back of the guitar. All hardware gold-plated.

This guitar plays and sounds just as it should. It would appear that at some time in its forty-five years the guitar was converted to a left-hand instrument and was fitted with a different tailpiece as is evidenced by three small additional holes on the end of the body under the Bigsby bracket which are only visible when the end-bracket is removed. There is also a small hole on the top of the body underneath the 'V' of the Bigsby - this again is only visible when the Bigsby is removed. There are four very small (1/8 inch) holes on the top which have been professionally filled. The frets appear to be original although they have been dressed. The biding on the neck and body has cracked over the years but appears to be quite stable. The white plastic cover on the back of the guitar which is normally secured by eight screws is missing - again this is only visible when the black vinyl pad is removed. This guitar looks is a really great player but beacuse of the aforementioned issues we can only give it an excellent (8.50) rating. We have priced it accordingly. Housed in the original Gretsch two-tone gray, five-latch, shaped hardshell case with burgundy plush lining (9.00).

"In 1962 a profound change occurred in the Model 6120 Chet Atkins Hollowbody: the company introduced its Electrontone hollowbody design, a two-inch-deep, 15 1/2 inch-wide (not 16" as the catalog noted) double cutaway body with replica, not real, f-holes painted on the guitar. So, the Model had been converted from a true f-hole, single cutaway, hollow guitar to a simulated f-hole, double cutaway, semi-hollow instrument" (Jay Scott, The Guitars of the Fred Gretsch Company, p. 83).