Gretsch 6120TM

this is one of the most beautiful guitars made in my opinion. It has a wonderful finish and a perfect flame. The only problem I see with it is that the hardware does not match. I suppose I was blinded in the guitar store but I didn't notice that the pickups were gold, the bigsby chrome and the sperzel tuners were a matte type finish. Lastly this is my first guitar with a bigsby, definately not the easiest to change strings on but so what huh it's a Gretsch.

I love the sound that comes out of this thing. It did take awhile to figure the right amp adjustments it's not anything like a solid body wich I mostly play( strat and g&l asat). The feedback troubles some have i have not and often i use heavy overdrive. For the more tame sound usualy I run a bit of chorus or delay and it is realy just a heart melting sound very haunting. Overall I have been very happy with the sound

The finising touches on this guitar leave something to be desired. Every piece of hardware on this guitar began to oxidize about 4 months after I bought it. The pick guard was loose and even after tightening the screws several times it contiues to wobble around. For the amount of cash put out for one of these guitars this become very big problems in your head

Again the rating goes down here I cannot keep this thing in tune. I have played live with it and I've gotten maybe three songs at best out of it ( in rehersal sometimes not even one) before it is noticably out of tune now i only bring it with me in case of string breaking on my other guitars. I have sprezels on my strat and they work great but not on this thing. Finaly the strap buttons do a great job holding the strap on but I have had problems with the top piece ( theone thats supposed to come off) locking into the anchore and unscrewing that from the body and I don't want to put it back in the case with the strap on it for fear of ruining the finish

Not bad. I had a question about the paperwork with the guitar and e-mailed them and got a response in a resonable amount of time. I did fight my way through the crowds at the namm show in the fender booth and asked about the hardware and was met with "yeah that happens just play it more and maybe it will rub off" it seemed cold but I' not sure what I thought I'd get out of them anyway.

I've been playing 20 years now and have owned many guitars. I'm now at a stage in my life where I can afford my dream guitars and am finding out there not all there cracked up to be. It's like that beautiful girl in high school when you do get her she still looks great but maybe she isn't put the together the way you thought she was weather it's loose screws or buckle rash, your dreams are always better than reality

Preamble: When I looked around for a new guitar on harmony-central, I was very disappointed. If you are currently reading this, you problably are looking for "that great gretsch sound" without having to pay the absurdly high price vintage gretsch go for these days. But you also probably heard of the many problems some have experienced with the reissues. You probably know too about there [non-]after sale services. When I check the harmony-central database, most if not all the few reviews about 6120s of any kind, were made by people who bought theirs yesterday. This is why I waited for more than one year after I purchased mine before to write my review here. As of this day, I've been the proud owner of a 92 Gretsch 6120 Tiger Maple since august 2000. Now to the guitar !

This is a 24 frets hollowbody guitar. Exactly the same specs as the standard 6120 ( http://www.gretsch.com/Gtr1/6120.html ), but with few differences: a gorgeous flame top (like the Setzer signature) and the neoclassic fret marker (also like the Setzer signature). I won't copy all the feature you can read on the site I linked. Go look there. ORANGE. You want vintage orange looking guitar, this is the one !

Comes with a hardshell case written "GreTsch" on it.

It is one the the very first TM made (the 25th) and is very well made.

10 because all is there: Filter'Tron pickups, BIGSBY, tone knob, two volume one for each pup and one master volume. What else would you want ?

I play music ranging from 60'garage rock (almost punk) to rockabilly and country. I played it through a:

- Marshall JCM 900 SL-X 50W
- Various re-issue fenders
- Fender Tremolux 1966

Sound very gretschy in every amp. Trebly with bridge pickup, twangy with both pickups and jazzy with neck pick up. In every case, sound fat yet trebly. Very good for what it's supposed to do: rockabilly and country. Played plain, without amp, it sounds very good.

Some people have experience feedback problems. I never did and I played it with my marshall for a long time (I bought my tremolux last weekend: the review next year ;-) ) and with the preamp cranked at 12'o clock. That aLOT of distortion. The only time I had feedback problems was in a amateur contest were we battled with acoustic+vocal artists. You know, the ones that can't get enough of them in the monitors ? I guess the feedback was more the soundman's fault than the gretsch's. I personnaly greatly dislike the reissue fender's tone so I won't comment on this. But the amp you need for this baby is an amp that gets the richness of the guitar. If you play the guitar at low volume and can't make the difference between the sound straight from the guitar against the sound from the amp, you're in buisness. Vintage fender comes obviously to mind, but there may be other less expensive options. This s the guitar to get the Setzer sound. If you're more into Cochran et al you may prefer a Cochran tribute model (6120W-1957 if I'm not mistaken) or a Duane Eddy. These two guitars have single coils pickups instead of the Filter'Tron Humb.

One but, buzzy noises. My roller bridge makes some buzzing noises, I'll have to fix that. Since I can't hear it through the amp it's not a real issue. But many, if not all, hollowbody gretsches buzzes.

Therefore a 9.

Great set-up, no flaws. CHECK YOUR GUITAR BEFORE BUYING. Where I bought mine, there was a dented blue sunburst. I don't know if it's the factory's fault or the store's but it's a real bugger. And the finish on these guitars don't scratch easily. I use mine as my main guitar. I've made lots of gigs with it since I have it. And no scratch anywhere. The flammed top is bee-you-tee-full ! You may also have heard of noisy electronics. In a whole year of heavy use I never had a problem. It seems to be a win or lose case. When I bought it, it was already 8 years old. Either the noisy components were already changed or they never will be.

I slight thing. There is a tiny crack along the neck joint. Not a big deal, and entirly my fault. Don't leave this baby in the cold. We had too gigs where we had to drive 30 mins at -40?C. That's what caused the crack. Since then (about 8 months ago) it was stable.

Beautyful to the eye with the gold hardware and all.

Change the strings. Mine came with .11 but I heard they usually come with .10 or .9 put .10 at least .11 is better and .12 is best to my taste (although I never tried .13). I always used roundwounds but I heard flatwounds works better.

Some people had problems with the floating bridge. I never had any problems with it with any strings ranging from .10 to .12 and I plam mute alot and pick pretty hard.

This guitar withstood live playing. The gold wear off. Especially live. Gold and sweat makes a bad mix. One strap button was loose. No big deal. Fix it with toothpick and wood glue. The rest is strong as hell. There's no way the hell you can scratch the finish. I never broke a string. Built like a tank

Never had to deal with them. If you need customer support, never mind the company. Go there instead : http://www.gretschpages.com/discus/index.html the only thing you need to know.

I've been playing guitar for 8 years and I went from lada to caddilac. I never owned any other real guitars, beside my crappy 50$ crappocaster immitation. But I tried epiphone LesPaul, LesPaul, vintage Stratocaster, LesPaul copies, and for retro rock'n'roll, rockabilly, garage rock (even punk) there's nothing like a Gretsch ! This is and always will be my main choice of guitar for my style. Don't forget to buy an old fender for you Gretsch.

If you compare this guitar to any guitar of the same value, you'll discover that it's a GOOD deal. I strongly believe a guitar of this quality should be worth more. Buy them before Gretsch Co. figure that out and fix their less than nothing puny "issues".

Here is another CoolSurgn review. I have over 2 dozen guitars and this one is definitely one of my favorites. The 6120-TM is a reissue of the old Nashville 6120's. Some vintage purists would disagree, but I think the new Gretsches are made better and more consistent than the old ones. The "TM" stands for "Tiger Maple" in which the top has this beautiful Tiger flame texture to it. This adds about $300 to the list price. Mine is "used" but essentially new condition. Came with Gretsch HSC. Nice features, too: 2 Filtertron pick-ups, volume knob for each as well as a master volume, one tone, 3-way selector, and Bigsby vibrato. Big laminated maple hollow-body with white binding and a set neck. Bright "Gretsch" orange color. Rosewood fretboard with "thumbnail" fretmarkers on the bass side.

This baby has serious tone (or "tone to the bone", as we say). Very resonant and organic. Beefy midrange, not muddy. As expected, great for blues, classic rock, country, and jazz. Not great for metal, punk, or thrash. Being a hollowbody, feedback has been a problem at loud volumes or with high gain settings, especially the bridge pick-up. This axe needs a good tube amp, and I recommend the lower wattage amps. It sounds great through my Vox AC-15 and Fender twin. Sounds good through the Marshall JCM 2000 half-stack, but don't crank up the gain too much. Clean and overdriven sounds are where this guitar will give you chills. Typical overdrive pedals sound good also (think Tubescreamer, Green Rhino, Bixonic Expandora, Blues driver). So basically, this guitar has one of the best tones I've had the pleasure of hearing as long as you do something stupid to cause feedback.

The finish is breathtaking. I get compliments everytime I show this guitar to somebody. The neck feels good, meaty yet not too fat. Definitely not thin or narrow. Fret size is a nice medium-large feel. Very easy to pay. Leadwork is also a breeze, but you can't go much above the 10th fret (hence the "9" rating). Bluesy licks in the 3rd to 8th fret range are the most rewarding. Even the Bigsby (which has a mixed reputation at best) works pretty well on my guitar. Best for mild vibrato or surf-type swells. Not for whammy dive-bombing, But if that's what you're looking for then you are probably not reading this.

It's a well made guitar, but I don't think it's a tank, though. The large hollow body is not exactly aerodynamic. It would not be my axe of choice if going into battle. I think the finish is too nice to risk exposing this guitar to potential trauma, but would probably wear pretty well. Bigsby's are not known for durability, but this one seems pretty solid. The strap buttons screw into the body and are very solid and reliable, but don't plan on changing or removing the strap frequently. I would not use this at a gig without a back up.

Don't know and I hope I don't ever need them.

I proudly display this guitar as one of the flagships of my collection. I have 26 guitars (some more expensive) including Gibsons (LP & ES335), Fenders (usa strat, usa tele, jazzmaster), Parker, Martin, Taylor, Hamer, Rickenbacker, yada yada yada. It is one of my favorite ones to play despite its larger size. I also think the Tiger Maple option really adds more than the price of it. I would definitely replace this guitar if lost and I couldn't hunt down and kill the bastard who stole it. Enjoy!