The Country Gentleman Chet used for most of his recording from the sixties onward had a nut measurement 44.16 mm or 1.7585 inches at the 5th fret it's 48.00mm or 1.89 inches at the 12th fret it’s 52.75mm or 2.0765.

This is, of course, a little wider than the "standard" Country Gentleman neck.

My question is: Do you know if Chet asked the company to make him a wider neck from scratch or was a wider neck a Gretsch custom option in those days?

Just for comparison, my vintage Gent with a standard neck measures, 1.660 at first fret, 1.835 at 5th fret, and 2.012 at 12th fret

I always thought Chet's Gent had a 1 3/4" width at the nut. My extremely early Gent (lowest documented SN) had a 1 3/4" nut, as did the one that belonged to Chet and was later given to Jethro Burns, and later sold by Gruhn.

The one John Burns was selling was a '58.

Paul Yandell said Chet didn't care for the first issue.

And you have to remember, Chet gave away a Lot of guitars.

Now when they talk about "6122-59" they are describing that partiuclar model which was the one with the zero fret (which John's did not have. His was actually a 6122-58) and the V cutout Bigsby. That model was made until 1962 when it was dropped for the double cut version.

Dan isn't responding to the question and thinking about it I think most companies offered their more popular models with optional neck widths but only on special order and something they never made a point of in their ads.

Chet had been fooling with classical guitars by that time and as he put it once "for them to use a wide fingerboard for hundreds of years they must have had a reason" and probably ordered one to see how it would fly. As pointed out before, that particualr model played more accurately than others so he held onto it

31444 is the serial number on his guitar for those interested

He did have a guitar made with a wider neck. Spec's and when I can't remember. Wider necks or narrow were made on order for anyone.Dan Duffy

Thanks, Dan!

I figured as much but this will go a long way to clarify this for the trivia freaks.

afire said: I always thought Chet's Gent had a 1 3/4" width at the nut. My extremely early Gent (lowest documented SN) had a 1 3/4" nut

I thought so as well. And the figures cited by the Norm confirm that (if it's more than 1.75" but less than 1.76", I'm calling it 1 3/4").

For what it's worth, my '57 (same batch as the one afire mentions) has the exact dimensions that the Norm quotes above, on a 5 piece neck, with a very flat "D" profile (yes, alot like a classical neck), and scale length of 25 3/8".

Mine was long scale too. If you're comfortable posting, what's the SN on yours? So far the only ones from that batch I've seen with the wide and long neck have been 26405, 26406, and the unnumbered one given to Chet, then Jethro Burns. I know that by 26413, the necks were the usual 24 1/2" scale and three-piece with the narrower width. I'm guessing yours must be between 26406 and 26412? Here's my old Gent: