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   archive:    Gibson ES 5 '49 - Gibson Super 400 '34 - D'Angelico Excel '34 - D'Angelico Excel Cutaway '59 - Gibson Les Paul Special '61 - Gretsch Duo-Jet '59 - Gibson L-5, 1930 - Gretsch Country Gentleman, 1964 - Fender '56 and '57 Stratocasters - Gibson ES 345, 1959 and 1960 - National Triolian 1932 and Style 0 1933

GRETSCH 6120 CHET ATKINS HOLLOWBODY

Part One, from 1954 to 1958

Among the few models recognized as milestones in the history of the american guitar, the Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins Hollow Body stands in a class of its own. The 6120 features are sometimes seen not only from a musical point of view. Its flashy aesthetics have often encouraged almost-sociological, almost-anthropological analysis about the guitar and its users.  Being one of them, I'll keep it straight to the point.

When the model was introduced to the american market, so used to Gibson's austere sunbursts and naturals, the archtop orthodox image was forever upset: the new guitar had a quite traditional and graceful shape, huge F-holes, but also plenty of  western decorations everywhere, and was finished in a bright reddish-orange colour.  

The idea for such a guitar was conceived by Gretsch R&D staff after seeing the Gibson's model endorsed by Les Paul two years before. If you had to name another guitarist who could compete with Paul's popularity in those years, probably the first name that come to your mind would be Chet Atkins, one of the masters of XX century's guitar. Atkins, after long years of work as a sideman for Country Music's greats, at the time was one of the biggest stars of the Grand Ole Opry: with his style, traditional and sophisticated at the same time and with an incredible musical taste he had gained a wide and solid reputation, just like Les Paul. He was using then a heavily self-modified D’Angelico, and when asked by Jimmie Webster, business and creative Gretsch-man, he surely felt honored for being offered the chance to tie his name to one of the greatest names in the guitar industry: the deal proved to be a good one especially for the Gretsch Company, which still owes much of its fame to the Chet Atkins models. The prototype used a Streamliner body as a starting point, and after several inputs and suggestions by Chet himself, the final version was unveiled. You can see it here in this gorgeous early 1956 guitar.

The guitar has a maple, single cutaway body which is 16” wide and 2” ¾ deep, with a two-piece maple neck with rosewood fretboard, two DeArmond pickups (Dynasonic in the colourful Gretsch lexicon) with one selector switch, one tone and two volume controls, and a master volume in the cutaway, gold knobs with an embossed arrow, metal nut, Bigsby fixed-arm vibrato and pre-compensated aluminum bridge with rosewood base. Nothing extraordinary, you'll think. Right. But now take a look at the pictures and the western kitsch delirium becomes evident: the headstock is adorned with a steer's head logo in mother of pearl, and the same symbol is used, with many others inspired by western iconography, on the block-shaped fretboard inlays, rich of cactus, buffalo horns and so on.  The orange-red body has a fire-branded “G” on its top and a golden lucite-plastic pickguard with the famous “signpost logo”, a Chet Atkins signature framed by a Texas prairie signpost. Yes, you purists are right: the ’56 you see here has a Bigsby B-6 with swiveling arm, while the '55 has a fixed arm vibrato. The original package was completed by a white western-style Cowboy Case, trimmed in leather with a pattern similar to the fretboard decoration, and by the leather western strap, which was made even flashier by the red rhinestones casted in the metal buckle.  By the way, the '56, '57, '58 and '60 guitars you see in this page, which are in my personal collection, have ALL their western accessories!

Atkins, who never felt comfortable in the tout-court country guitarist role, fell in love with the musical features of the guitar much more than he did with its western look. However, soon he found that the DeArmonds could not provide the tone he had in his mind, but there was no other option at the time. Gretsch R&D staff, listening to both Chet's ideas and market's reactions, started a long process of modifications, which affected both structural and visual aspects.  

For a short time, in 1956, the fretboard pearl-blocks lost their western decorations, while the top kept its G-brand.

The 1957 version shown here features more innovations:  on the headstock front the steer's head logo is replaced by the popular horseshoe inlay, which will stay as a Gretsch trademark through all the ’60s. New humptop inlays replace the large pearl blocks on the rosewood fretboard, and the guitar's body hasn't its G-brand anymore: that means that three of the flashiest western-features are gone forever. New G&arrow knobs replace the old plain-arrow style, and a new straight bar bridge with ebony base is added by the end of the year. But, from a structural point of view, a '57 model is very similar to the first version: the maple body is completely hollow and has the same dimentions and depth, the pickups are the same DeArmond Dynasonic, the nut is still made of metal. It should be noted, however, that the Kluson Deluxe tuners installed on the ’57 you see here are absolutely original to the guitar, but were not standard, as the 6120 used almost exclusively oval-button Grover Sta-Tites .  

Two of the problems pointed out by Atkins himself were not solved, however: DeArmonds' efficiency and sustain, and electric feedback (larsen). Gretsch R&D efforts led to new improvements that allowed to keep pace with competition (read Gibson) which in those same years were developing some of the greatest guitars and pickups in guitar's history. 

Left: 1956, large headstock, steer's head logo, metal nut.   Middle: 1958, horse-shoe logo, bone nut.   Right: 1960, small head, zero-fret

Part two, from 1958 to 1961  

The new version of the Gretsch Chet Atkins HollowBody which saw the light in early 1958, shown here in a beautiful original example, had a single cutaway body with the same width of 16”, but it was a little less deep with its 2” 2/3 dimentions.  Much more important, looking through the F holes you could see the new sound-post, a wooden device conceived to reduce feedback when the guitar was played loud next to its amplifier. This effect, one of Chet Atkins' requests, was achieved by connecting the top to the back of the guitar, to enhance its rigidity.  It's interesting to note tha also Gibson was working at the same problem in that year, in a research process that finally led to the even more radical solution of the semi-solid 335-style guitars.  And it's also interesting to note that such innovations were commanded by the changes in the musical tastes: the problem of the loud volume could be not much important at the times of T-Bone Walker or Charlie Christian, but by the end of the ’50s american musical scene had already been shaken by electric blues and rock & roll, and louder amplification was an essential requirement that musical equipment had to fulfill, developing at the same time more efficient systems to control amplification's "undesidered effects"..

The ’59-’60 version featured more innovations (here is pictured a nicely flamed 1960 guitar): the bone nut is replaced by a string-guide, while the actual nut function is performed by a so-called zero-fret, a "super fret" which actually works as vibrating-string starting point. Compared to ’58, the electric circuitry is unchanged. Also knobs, pickups, bridge and sound-post are the same as the earlier version. The headstock shape is smaller, although the horseshoe inlay is always the same. More important, the guitar's body thickness is once more reduced, measuring now only 2” ½ . Another new feature is the vibrato: the old B-6 Bigsby is replaced by the V-Cutout “Gretsch by Bigsby” model, with a distinctive V shape on the body front. The two Filter-Trons have the patent number stamped on the cover and the standard plastic rings replace the early, unsculpted ones. This guitar has the rare five-ply laminated neck, found almost exclusively in 1960.

The last guitar we show here is a model from 1961, the last year of single-cutaway 6120 before the radical restyling which led to the '60s version with fake F-hole, double-cutaway  thin "Electro-Tone" body.

This guitar has many unconventional and transitional features, and is a rarity even if compared to other 6120s produced in the same year. The body is even thinner than the '60 version  (2” ¼ ), and the neck-body joint is renforced by a “neck-dowel”, a wooden insert which strengthen the area: besides that, a typical early '61 guitar doesn't differ much from the earlier version. Zero-fret, ebony fretboard, half-moon inlays,   signpost logo pickguard, Gretsch by Bigsby tailpiece, twin Filter-Tron circuitry and sound-post are all unchanged. But the rare guitar shown here has the new pickguard with Gretsch and Atkins signature but no signpost logo, just like early 60s double-cuts. What's even more interesting is the new stand-by switch, "officially" introduced only with the later version. The neck heel is shorter, probably revealing it was built to fit a thinline body rather than a single-cutaway. These details make me think of  the assembly of older and newer version parts, at a time when production process was already set on the new way, but had to use leftover parts from the earlier version. An old style body with a modern-style neck, electronics and hardware. Even the reddish-orange finish, which was itself a model's trademark,  was changed to the pale orange typical of early double-cuts, which would be called “Nashville” since the mid-late '60s.

The advent of the double-cutaway thinline marks the beginning of a new story and the end of ours. The new and commercially lucky ’60s version of the Chet Atkins Hollwbody won't be able to replace the old single-cutaway in the heart of the hardcore Gretsch lover. The success of the older version went well beyond the Country target it was originally aimed at.  Thanks to such artists as Eddie Cochran, Duane Eddy, Brian Setzer it has become an essential part of rock iconography. Recent vintage-mania has made of this model one of the most desired items: the intriguing mix of elegance and kitsch, the distinctive sound,  the over-the-top look, the rebel soul, will bring you back to the times when - with your 50s hairstyle, your convertible car, your girlfriend by your side - you could feel on the top of the world while hurrying to the  drive-in.

Nino Fazio

www.realvintage.it 

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