As some of you are aware the wife and I have been waiting on a new arrival -our daughter joined us safe and sound 12 days ago. So at 5am, half hour after her birth, proud dad mode kicked in and I wandered off to wake the new grand parents with the news. As one does after a night of breathing exercises and encouragement, I finally checked my email, only to find sat in my inbox was what I could only conclude was a fake; an email from reverb.com congratulating me on winning their 1967 Gretsch Tennessean competition.
After ascertaining that it was indeed real and I wasn’t going to need to pay a release fee to an off shor
e account or some Nigerian prince, I understandably got a bit excited. I knew I wouldn’t be buying another guitar for a while and I’d fancied a 6119 ever since seeing one on the wall of Peter Cooks Guitar World as a teen, eager to spend my paper round savings on each succesive step up the guitar ladder. At the time it had seemed unobtainable and here I was (possibly) getting a 50year old one for free (and expecting to be told it was a mistake at any moment) and being informed of it having only just become a father!
Well it arrived yesterday, before they could pick another winner more deserving and it’s a lovely instrument. Currently sporting flatwounds it exudes a mellow warmth that’ll be great for rhythm work. There’s a real jazzy honk behind the country sensibilities of the guitar’s appearance. The neck is not insubstantial (unlike so many 60s guitars) and it really does feel like the bridge between acoustic and electric instruments.
The eagle eyed will note the upgraded bridge, heavily tarnished pickups and decal on the headstock that I believe is an addition. Binding seems complete and in relatively good condition. Wear is playergrade but not heavy (oh dear is it safe in my hands).
This is also the the first time I have used Hilo-Trons, I’m a huge fan of filtertrons but I’m not entirely put off these. The neck pickup sounds fantastic, really warm and absolutely huge but the bridge could do with a lot more clout to my ear, so I may swap this out for a filtertron in time or look at a re-wind (having searched a few threads and a quick google I notice
@TheMarlin has experience of this so I might be mining his knowledge). The mud switch as is tradition seems pointless here, so there may be mileage in swapping caps on this but more research is required first (my last Gretsch had a tone control).
All in all it’s a great guitar and I feel very lucky to be borrowing it for a while, as it is clearly my daughters (lucky girl already has the coolest guitar in the house).
It’d be remiss of me to not thank reverb.com, this is truly a stunning give away and extremely generous.
@iain.reverb please pass on my thanks.
Comments
i mean congratulations.
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Yeah I deserve shooting for being this jammy.