What is This Custom Gretsch?

[drmilktruck]

Saw this one today on Reverb.

Gretsch Custom Shop L 953 - RARE

https://reverb.com/item/40109557-gretsch-custom-shop-l-953-rare

Was that part of the recent auction?

Seems more like a Gretsch neck grafted onto a random body.

 

[thunder58]

Seems more like a Gretsch neck grafted onto a random body.

Now where have i seen that body before ???

 

[larryr]

Some might call it.....Yours soon ?

 

[j.s.c]

I Know that Somewhere in Time during the WWII Gretsch used the Chicago guys' of Harmony as manufacturer under the Gretsch brand. Thus sole gretsch are Harmony made guitars. Here the body is clearly from Harmony and it probably has been modified with a cutaway addition. Of course I sure of nothing.

 

[Hammerhands]

Julien’s Auction.

It’s in the catalogue…p.24 lot 186.

"A custom archtop guitar, natural finish, no serial number, single florentine cutaway body with F-holes and one forward neck pickup. Includes a hardshell case. From the Bachman-Gretsch Collection. 41 1/2 by 16 by 3 1/2 inches $ 1,000 - 2,000"

You can download the catalogue from this page:
https://www.juliensauctions.com/about-auction?id=363

Direct link to PDF catalogue:
https://www.juliensauctions.com/auc...Property From The Gretsch Family Archives.pdf

 

[j.s.c]

Btw the humbucker is very cool and strange piece, never saw this one before... So yes rare and perhaps unique Beast.

 

[drmilktruck]

Julien’s Auction.

It’s in the catalogue…p.24 lot 186.

"A custom archtop guitar, natural finish, no serial number, single florentine cutaway body with F-holes and one forward neck pickup. Includes a hardshell case. From the Bachman-Gretsch Collection. 41 1/2 by 16 by 3 1/2 inches $ 1,000 - 2,000"

You can download the catalogue from this page:
https://www.juliensauctions.com/about-auction?id=363

Direct link to PDF catalogue:
https://www.juliensauctions.com/auctions/2021/Gretsch/Property-From-The-Gretsch-Family-Archives-Flipping-Book/files/assets/common/downloads/Property From The Gretsch Family Archives.pdf

What did it go for at the auction? If it were cheaper, it'd be a fun modding project. (I still think there's a chance Randy B and Gretsch were bamboozled.)

 

[Hammerhands]

$1920

https://www.juliensauctions.com/auction-results?id=363

 

[Highroller]

Florentine jazz box! I like it! That is, until I saw the neck joint ...



Looks a bit worrisome to me, and especially so at $2500! Too bad, otherwise it's such a pretty guitar.

 

[Henry]

Aren't all the custom shops rare, if not unique? The only gretsch thing about it aside from the name is the zero fret.

 

[Wayne Gretschzky]

Just a parts guitar... probably plays great!

 

[drmilktruck]

Just a parts guitar... probably plays great!

The first part is what I'm thinking.

 

[sgarnett]

A “prototype” would need impeccable provenance and a great price for me to be interested, but the two rarely go together.

 

[Synchro]

I’m thinking parts guitar, myself. I suppose that it’s possible for Gretsch to have built this as a one off, back in the day, but I’d need a lot of convincing before accepting that as fact. To me, it looks like a Gibson L4 body with a Gretsch neck grafted on.

 

[Hammerhands]

Whatever is written above L 953 in the f-hole must have been written with the front or the back off. It’s either the way it was built or it has been refinished.

Whatever it is, it’s not from the Custom Shop.

I’m guessing it has lived many lives.

 

[Synchro]

Whatever is written above L 953 in the f-hole must have been written with the front or the back off.

Whatever it is, it’s not from the Custom Shop.

Good call. The concept of a Custom Shop from guitar manufacturers is a fairly recent thing, perhaps for the last 40 years or so, and many of those are more accurately described as Custom Paint and Accessories Shops. In the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s, some companies would do “special orders” such as a friend that ordered a Gibson Johnny Smith with sunburst back and sides and a natural top, to match Johnny Smith’s D’Angelico, or another friend who ordered an ES-175 with a bound headstock.

I’m not sure just what to make of this Gretsch, but I’d wager that it didn’t come out of Brooklyn like that.

 

[stiv]

May it be some kind of one-off custom Rambler?

 

[Ricochet]

Whatever is written above L 953 in the f-hole must have been written with the front or the back off. It’s either the way it was built or it has been refinished.

Whatever it is, it’s not from the Custom Shop.

I’m guessing it has lived many lives.

I have no idea but I will say the handwriting is a deadringer for the Gretsch script logo…

Maybe not deadringer, but I could easily see someone at Gretsch stylize the handwriting into an inlay.

 

[j.s.c]

ok from Chicago's Kay manufactury... under Silvertone's logo for Sears : 1959-early '60 with several variants some with longer life : So first came the 619 models family originally discontinued in 1960/61 then 627 / 630 changed to 619 / 618L Introduced in the fall / winter of 1959 and all models were retired in 1969.

Btw the 619 seems to be the largest-selling guitar model in the whole Sears' history !
Here is an exemple : https://reverb.com/item/18748734-silvertone-f-hole-arch-top-57-619-6-string-1960-s-sun-burst

Of course, none with a cutaway, so this box had to be open to the winds and marked "custom shop".

 

[Synchro]

ok from Chicago's Kay manufactury... under Silvertone's logo for Sears : 1959-early '60 with several variants some with longer life : So first came the 619 models family originally discontinued in 1960/61 then 627 / 630 changed to 619 / 618L Introduced in the fall / winter of 1959 and all models were retired in 1969.

Btw the 619 seems to be the largest-selling guitar model in the whole Sears' history !
Here is an exemple : https://reverb.com/item/18748734-silvertone-f-hole-arch-top-57-619-6-string-1960-s-sun-burst

Of course, none with a cutaway, so this box had to be open to the winds and marked "custom shop".

The body of the Gretsch in question appears to have a solid spruce top. The construction and cutaway look like a Gibson L-4 to my eye, but I suppose that it could be merely similar in style.