The Gretsch Pages: Discussions: Modern Gretsch Guitars: Another "mistake" Country Club on ebay

Another "mistake" Country Club on ebay

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- Rated: 25 ↑
Jul 3, 2008 1:01 p.m. Scott:

Link

Apparently another "accident" Country Club has popped up in the hands of Streetsounds in NYC. A lot of people have written favorably about Rocky's establishment. His price is more than I paid for my Club 18 months ago but there are supposedly only a handful of natural spruce-topped Clubs available. He copied and pasted the Gretsch info stating the top is maple, but looking at the photo of the guitar the top is definitely spruce. Supposedly this model was made by mistake because blondes should have a maple top, spruce being saved for the Cadillac Green 6196 Clubs.

All I have to say is Gretsch needs more "accidents" like this. My Club is one of the best playing hollowbody electric guitars I've ever owned. Even at Rocky's price this looks like a pretty good deal. Any other Club owners out there wanna back me up on this?

Cheers
- Rated: 55 ↑
Jul 3, 2008 1:19 p.m. otterbean:

Yep- Its a good deal, even at the buy it now price. I hope someone from the GDP picks this one up.

I would love to have this guitar. I just don't have any spare change around the house right now.
- Rated: 205 ↑
Jul 3, 2008 1:20 p.m. Proteus:

I feel the same about my spruce-top Club.

These blond-top sprucers ought to be grail guitars. This mistake is one of the classiest things Gretsch has done in ages. Wish I could justify another Club, and could afford it.

Rocky's great to deal with, and a completely straight shooter. Given the very limited availability of this model, the price is reasonable.

If you like jazz guitars, Gretschs, and blond, I don't see how you could find a better instrument.
- Rated: 4 ↑
Jul 3, 2008 1:29 p.m. casper:

i'd hit it.

but truth told, i will have to add a 24.6 scale hollow body next. my daugter was given free choice of all my electrics at christmas time. she has been playing a year and a half now, and coming on strong. so i told her that her gift this past year would be she could pick any one of mine. she took the 6120 dsv. it is an amazing guitar and i miss it every day. but i already have the longer scale in my black pheonix. so....

but i would love to have that club. i bet the spruce top just comes alive.
- Rated: 26 ↑
Jul 3, 2008 3:35 p.m. audiodrome:

casper said: so i told her that her gift this past year would be she could pick any one of mine. she took the 6120 dsv.
Wow - what a great dad! My daughter is only nine, but she's my only one so I told her that if she learns to play (she plays piano now), someday they will all be hers (not anytime soon though I hope)!
- Rated: 40 ↑
Jul 3, 2008 4:02 p.m. gretschman36:

I have one of these (exactly as shown) and agree with the views here. Unique guitar. Sounds Great!

I just put a Gold Caddy tailpiece on it with Flats AND a bar bridge - Great sound! With the flats it's more like an L5.

Now i just need a TruArc from Tim!!!!

As some of you may remember, I bought the CC in the Spring - same situation. Dealer advertised it as maple and he was blowing 2 out on ebay. One natural - One burst. Bought it for $1200 with case - brand new ( the burst went for $900'ish).

I was going to sell it (failure to bond) but I knew I'd kick myself - NOW it's a keeper.

After the fresh set up, I've BONDED!

STREETSOUNDS: Tim is right... Rocky is a straight-shooter. I bought a roundup from him in 2006. Excellent transaction and follow thru. You can trust him.
- Rated: 83 ↑
Jul 3, 2008 4:03 p.m. Mark Synchro:

Damn you Scott! Damn you, damn you, damn you!!!!!!!
- Rated: 83 ↑
Jul 3, 2008 4:05 p.m. Mark Synchro:

gretschman36 said: With the flats it's more like an L5.
That's the case with my Filtertron equipped, spruce-top Club with a natural finish. It's the L-5 I've always dreamed of owning.
- Rated: 40 ↑
Jul 3, 2008 4:08 p.m. gretschman36:

Exactly, Mark. But for thousands less and it has the right pedigree... Grestch!
- Rated: 83 ↑
Jul 3, 2008 4:25 p.m. Mark Synchro:

gretschman36 said: Exactly, Mark. But for thousands less and it has the right pedigree... Grestch!
And it is capable of getting pretty twangy on the bridge pickup. I find it more versatile than most Jazz guitars I've played.
- Rated: 6 ↑
Jul 3, 2008 5:05 p.m. Lee Erickson (aka rvwinkle):

Well, I've got my jazzbox. A G400CV you can see in my avatar.

Anyway, it seems to me that Gretsch/FMIC has chosen to market the best guitar in the world with green paint.

It seems to me that some natural and sunburst finish carved top spruce CC's should bring some youngsters to Gretsch.

Lee
- Rated: 25 ↑
Jul 3, 2008 7:58 p.m. Scott:

Mark Synchro said: Damn you Scott! Damn you, damn you, damn you!!!!!!!

Uh, what're you tryin' to say, Mark??

Also, I didn't mention earlier that this guitar has the rarely seen(on newer Gretsch guitars) "arrow only" knobs...no G on 'em. Very retro, very cool.

Here's a closeup of the knobs on mine:

More enticement? FWIW I also have flats on mine, and it does nail the L-5 tone exceptionally well...without having to drop as much coin on an L-5! And I know some have changed out the tailpiece for a Bigsby and changed the Synchro for a bar, but mine plays so comfortably as it is I chose to leave it unaltered. It's that good a guitar folks.

Somebody needs to jump on it. I don't need another one! (Although let it be said if I could get one for 12 bills I'd be all over it)
- Rated: 83 ↑
Jul 3, 2008 10:48 p.m. Mark Synchro:

It would make a heckuva matched set. One with Filters and a Bigsby and the other with Dynas and a solid tailpiece. Just when I thought I had conquered GAS.
- Rated: 115 ↑
Jul 3, 2008 10:51 p.m. wenzel:

I have a 6196T and the spruce really does make a difference! I obviously love mine...
- Rated: 42 ↑
Jul 3, 2008 11:26 p.m. Dan:

I think Rocky's may be a 2006 model... With no info from Gretsch on the Spruce tops, he most likely snatched the latest info (from the maple model).
- Rated: 37 ↑
Jul 4, 2008 1:17 a.m. Nobody:

It is indeed one of those special Spruce top babes.

A wonderful instrument, beautiful, with lots and lots of character. I love mine. It's exciting to see one of these show up again.

By the way, mine is an 07 model!
- Rated: 25 ↑
Jul 4, 2008 8:37 a.m. Scott:

I would be interested in finding out the date on it, just to see if the "accident" was a "blown out tire" or a huge pile-up!
- Rated: 13 ↑
Jul 4, 2008 9:28 a.m. Gigatron:

Wow! That blonde Club is the best looking guitar I've ever seen. I like my Wallace Stevens model 6120, but I'd love to have one of those.
- Rated: 205 ↑
Jul 4, 2008 9:57 a.m. Proteus:

The Man With The Blue Guitar
by Wallace Stevens, Vice President, Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company

The man bent over his guitar,
A shearsman of sorts. The day was green.

They said, "You have a blue guitar,
You do not play things as they are."

The man replied, "Things as they are
Are changed upon the blue guitar."

And they said to him, "But play, you must,
A tune beyond us, yet ourselves,

A tune upon the blue guitar,
Of things exactly as they are."
.

I cannot bring a world quite round,
Although I patch it as I can.

I sing a hero's head, large eye
And bearded bronze, but not a man,

Although I patch him as I can
And reach through him almost to man.

If a serenade almost to man
Is to miss, by that, things as they are,

Say that it is the serenade
Of a man that plays a blue guitar.
.

A tune beyond us as we are,
Yet nothing changed by the blue guitar;

Ourselves in tune as if in space,
Yet nothing changed, except the place
Of things as they are and only the place
As you play them on the blue guitar,

Placed, so, beyond the compass of change,
Perceived in a final atmosphere;

For a moment final, in the way
The thinking of art seems final when

The thinking of god is smoky dew.
The tune is space. The blue guitar

Becomes the place of things as they are,
A composing of senses of the guitar.
.

Tom-tom c'est moi. The blue guitar
And I are one. The orchestra

Fills the high hall with shuffling men
High as the hall. The whirling noise

Of a multitude dwindles, all said,
To his breath that lies awake at night.

I know that timid breathing. Where
Do I begin and end? And where,

As I strum the thing, do I pick up
That which momentarily declares

Itself not to be I and yet
Must be. It could be nothing else.

The comedian as the letter G?

I hadn't thought of Wallace Stevens for years, though his thought was my constant companion for years, and TMWTBG is as concentrated a version of it as you could want (though a little academically abstruse in the third stanza, which may be the dearly loved explanatory verse a merciless songwriter would take out of the final version).

Maybe this has been the subconscious rationale for all my own blue guitars.

Though my Club is green. An urge to escape the guitar back into the day?

And the Clubs we celebrate herein are natural – fusion of guitar AND day? Do we club the country with them, or do we join a club which celebrates country?

However it works, thanks Gigatron for the set of associations. (And you do know it's a cardinal rule NEVER to mention poetry on the GDP? We'll be weeks shedding the ick.)
- Rated: 13 ↑
Jul 4, 2008 10:57 a.m. Gigatron:

I'll be sure never to mention BAD poetry on the GDP, but the line of the luthier's art or a sweet rockabilly lick - now that's pure poetry.
- Rated: 205 ↑
Jul 4, 2008 11:43 a.m. Proteus:

As I believe WS would agree.
- Rated: 6 ↑
Jul 9, 2008 2:38 a.m. SaltyDog:

Yup, ... I have one of these beauties, and I will add my personal accolade. I, however, have TI round 11s on it, and it sounds so good, I haven't considered going to flatwounds. What I will do, though, is remove the goo under the Melita style bridge the best I can next string change.
I've seen better economic times, and the thought of putting it up for sale has crossed my mind, but then I play it ...
- Rated: 37 ↑
Jul 9, 2008 7:57 a.m. Nobody:

Ah, I see it got snatched.

I've got some big ole' Flatwounds on mine right now. I like them pretty well...but then I suspect Rounds may be...livelier? More texture. So I may make a swap soon just to see.

Dan, I don't think Gretsch ever released any marketing specs on these anomalous guitars. It seems that few who received them realized they were different. We never found information on them anywhere in print or web, but simply spotted them and sorted it out.

That, to me, adds a bit of "one-off" flavor to them. Never documented. Never really in the line. That's the way it seems, anyway.

Since its beginning, Gretsch has always continued model evolutions throughout fiscal years and shipped as built, not necessarily by spec in the catalog. The guitar I bought from Joe was returned by a dealer because it was not on "spec"...it had a Spruce top! On top of that, Gretsch was giving a crazy deal on them. Go figure.
- Rated: 42 ↑
Jul 9, 2008 8:12 a.m. Dan:

Nobody, I agree, the Clubs are absolutely great guitars
- Rated: 13 ↑
Jul 9, 2008 9:24 a.m. DeArmond:

I have one of these. I have a blonde in spruce top. Great guitar.

Scott when you say with flats it nails the L-5 tone can you clarify that? L-5s I think came with Alnico V Staple Magnet pickups then later with humbuckers. Maybe even P90s at one time therefore there are lots of different configurations. What configuration does it nail with flats? I have flats on mine, Pyramids and they last for along time and are about on their way out finally so I'm following Wenzel's suggestion and installing some Thomastik BeBop rounds on it. I like flats but time for a change.

Thanks