1962 GRETSCH 6122 CHET ATKINS COUNTRY GENTLEMAN

A beautiful 1962 Gretsch PX6122 Chet Atkins Country Gentleman Harrison-spec, in very nice original and preserved condition.

The Country Gentleman is one of Gretsch’s most recognizable models, the fourth to be designed in collaboration with musician Chet Atkins alongside the 6119, 6120 and 6121. Introduced in 1958, it originally featured a single-cutaway thinline body with two Filter’Tron pickups, and retailed for a considerable $525 – just behind the flagship White Falcon model. In fact, the Country Gentleman took its place at the top of the Chet Atkins signature guitar line, enjoying commendable success without generating particular enthusiasm. In 1962, the model would be equipped with the new Electrotone body type, this time with a double cutaway, without sound holes whose shape was stenciled on the top, a Bigbsy vibrato tailpiece and a system of double mutes (one half under the three bass strings and the other under the three treble strings).

It was in this form that the Country Gentleman would prove to be Gretsch’s greatest triumph, since the Beatle George Harrison would tacitly become its champion by acquiring two of these instruments – a 1963 model, which would notably accompany Harrison on stage during the Beatles’ performance on the Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964 and would in the process catapult the popularity and sales of the Gent; and a 1962 model, supposedly identical to the guitar featured here, which was apparently left in pieces on the side of the road after it fell off the back of the band’s car in the spring of 1963. The only notable difference between the ’62 and ’63 models is the mute system, which is operated by thumbwheels on the former and levers on the latter, but both variants are considered by collectors and enthusiasts to be the same Harrison-spec. Other features include a pair of gold-plated Filter’tron humbuckers stamped with the 1960 patent number; a metal bridge with a gold-plated Gretsch-Bigsby vibrato tailpiece; and the aforementioned dual-mute system; to control the pickups, a three-way selector switch, a volume potentiometer for each pickup, a master volume potentiometer, a master tone selector and a standby switch to mute the signal coming out of the guitar altogether; the body of the guitar is constructed from a superb flamed maple, finished with a Walnut stain that further enhances the contrast of the wood patterns; the rear of the body is covered with a pad covering the access to the body cavity.

Following the association with Harrison at the same time as Beatlemania was sweeping through America, sales of Country Gentlemen grew exponentially in the mid-60s despite their high price – on the other hand, the 1962 models that predated this rise in production are relatively rare and have in fact been sought after by collectors for decades. Interestingly, the instrument presented here has a serial number corresponding to the year 1961, however the codes present on its original electronics allow us to place its completion date at the beginning of 1962 – it could therefore be one of the first models produced after the change in the body shape!

The instrument has been fully optimized for playing in our workshop, work including its complete refret, the making of a new bone nut adjusted to the string gauge, the complete setup of the guitar to recover a low action and accurate intonation. Fortunately, the guitar does not suffer from the degradation of its plastic bindings, a problem notoriously affecting Gretsch of the 60s, and remains superbly intact 62 years after leaving the factory.

Sold in its original Gretsch hardshell case.