It’s the summer of 1963, and Ivor Arbiter’s Sound City music store in central London is busy. Among those shopping for a quality American-made guitar is Beatles’ guitarist George Harrison, who is ready to step up to a more prestigious model than the Gretsch Duo-Jet he had been playing up to that point. As the exclusive Gretsch dealer in the UK, Sound City was the only place George could have left with what most agree is a 1962 Gretsch Chet Atkins Country Gentleman, which would become his number one guitar for that upcoming gig on America’s Ed Sullivan Show. In fact, today that specific guitar is called the “King George” version by Gretsch collectors, so it’s only fitting that the reissue Country Gentleman is a duplicate of George’s dual-cutaway, walnut-stained Model G6122. The most distinctive features include a Bigsby vibrato tailpiece, “screw-down” mutes (which nobody used), and painted-on f-holes. That guitar sold in 1963 for the princely sum of $740, the equivalent of $4,600 in today’s money! Which makes this Gretsch reissue a bargain!
Check out the photos of today’s Guitar of the Day and you’ll see this guitar is uncannily like the one George chose to purchase in 1963! It has the correct walnut-stained finish, dual Filter’Tron pickups, a 17-inch wide, 2-inch deep arched, laminated body with a 3-piece, 22-fret (plus zero fret) maple neck (also stained walnut), two volume controls plus a master volume, an ebony fingerboard with those distinctive neo-classical thumbnail position markers, multi-ply binding, and Grover Imperial die-cast tuners. As you’d expect, all the hardware is gold-plated, including the Bigsby B6G vibrato tailpiece. There’s one 3-way pickup selector switch coupled to a 3-position master tone switch. And though you’ll probably never use it, for authenticity’s sake the dual mutes are there between the bridge and bridge pickup. Naturally, this amazing replica comes with a deluxe, plush-lined hardshell case and includes free FedEx shipping direct to your door! Now all you need is a Vox amp…
