1968 Gretsch Country Gentleman
After my Beatles tribute band Revolver started working a lot, I decided it was time to buy a Gretsch. I found this '68 Country Gentleman on Ebay for a great price. The seller claims that he purchased it from the original owner. Whoever owned it used it a lot, because it shows a lot of playing wear on the neck. Overall, it's in great condition for its age. It has that "real" Gretsch sound that the reissues can't reproduce, with its vintage FilterTron pickups. I use D'Addario Chrome flat wound strings on it as well to get that 60s tone.
The guitar was in nice shape when I received it, except for the binding.
Whatever chemicals they used in the 60s to make guitar binding continued to
react over time resulting in cracking and crumbling. This instrument had a bad
case of "binding rot" on both sides. I had it replaced by my excellent guitar
repair man Ron Kayfield at Arpeggio Guitars.
He did a fine job, matching the tint to the binding on the headstock so that it
has that vintage look. The pickguard also sports that typical crack right at the
screw that so many Gretsches have.
