Gretsch 6038

This is a 17 inch full depth cutaway archtop guitar manufactured around 1958. A really nice looking sunburst, full (25.5 inch) scale, lots of fancy binding. There is an odd mix of features; classical half moon inlay and stair step bridge, that make the date and model number difficult to nail down. There is a picture of this same guitar in the Jay Scott Gretsch book (the sunburst shading matches exactly) that suggests that it was a Fleetwood body that left the factory as an Eldorado. Whatever the model, it was at the very top of the Gretsch line (as one would expect of a guitar named after a cadillac), meant to compete with the Gibson L-5C. From old catalogues and books, this was a $500 guitar at the time.

The pickguard is long gone. The guitar originally had gold grover imperial tuners, but these had been replaced with later imperials sometime in its long history. I replaced these with new waverly butterbeans. The tailpiece was originally gold, but all that remains of the gold is barely visible in the string holes; I think a prior owner probably intentioanlly remove the gold finish when it started to wear off.

I added a repro gretsch 6040 pickguard and a vintage dearmond model 1000 pickup, but I prefer to play it as a straight acoustic.

The neck is large with fancy binding, but no baseball bat. Gretsch necks in the 50s had a pretty slender profile.

These are fairly rare guitars. Freddy Green played the 18 inch noncutaway version of this guitar in the last decades of his life, but the guitar is fairly obscure otherwise. I have exchanged messages with Dan Duffy, the Gretsch QC guy when the guitar was manufactured, and he indicates that the top would have been hand carved by Gretsch's number one artisan, a guy that had been there for decades.

I am going to give it a 9 for features. But compared to an L-5C, its closest competitor, it is slightly (and I mean slightly) less fancy, and the back is not flamey, so I will deduct a point.

It sounds just like a 50 year old high end 17 inch archtop. I have only one guitar that I could AB compare it with, a 16 inch 1944 epiphone olympic. The guitars are on different planets sound wise. The gretsch has much more warmth, more pleasant highs, and more low end. I have owned lots of high end Gibsons in the past, and one's hearing plays tricks on you, but it is hard to imagine a better sounding musical instrument.

The factory neck join failed over the years; a common complaint about 1950s gretsches, but I had it reset, and it now plays phenomenal.
Evertything else was done beautifully. The sunbursting is flat out gorgeous: here is a photo: http://www.fenderforum.com/userphotos/index.html?recid=33047.

The back is fairly plain for a high end archtop; no real flame.

The guitar has made it for 50 years without any cracks, but it is strictly a Sunday driver. It is light as balsa wood, and I would never take it to a club.

NA

I have been playing for about 35 years, and have owned many desirable vintage archtops; super 400, L-5, L-7, etc. I am completely satisfied with this guitar, and plan to keep it forever.