Country Gentleman Question - Possibly heretical

[peterjschwartz]

Is it possible to get a Gretsch Country Gentleman without the simulated F holes. The Country Gentleman has always been one of my favorite guitars but I always thought the simulated F holes detracted from its appeal and made it look second rate.

I like the single cutaway model and was wondering if it was ever made with real or possibly no f holes. I realize this may buck tradition so I apologize in advance to the purists.

Peter

[Norm]

Baldwin made some double cutaways without f holes but I don't know if they made single cut Gents without f holes.

Why not get a Country Club and put a Bigsby on it? The sealed top was at Chet's request, to try to increase sustain and the fake f holes made for esthetic reasons. People expected something to be there

[guitarchuck]

Peter,
Gretsch no longer produces the guitar that you desire but you can find them used. There is one on Ebay now:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/GRETSCH-G6122S-COUNTRY-CLASSIC-2000-/290662032500?pt=Guitar&hash=item43accea474

It's not named "Country Gentleman" but "Country Classic I". They made these for a while before Fender started distributing them. Now they are made historically correct and they have Chet's name on them again. The tone is somewhat different with the closed f-holes and they do have more sustain that Chet desired. (By the way, BB King had Gibson delete the f-holes on his signature Lucille model too. Although they didn't paint any on.)

[Norm]

The seller has a good reputation, too. Looks like your wish came true

[bill park]

The 70's-era Gretsches had real, open f-holes....

[captainvideo]

I used to love the oversized F holes of the 6120 and one of the reasons I steered clear of Gents was infact of the closed fake f hole. I thought it looked weird. But after you look at em for awhile they do start to grow on you. Especially after you take possession of one.

[guitarchuck]

Peter,
I just looked up the info for the single cutaway with real f-holes:

Country Classic I 6122S made from 1989-2003.

There is also a few very, very rare examples, possibly special ordered Country Gentleman's with real f-holes made in the late 50's or early 60's.

[Mike Nye]

Tracing paper and a Dremel solves that issue inna JIFFY ! ! !

[Vidar Lund]

http://www.gretschguitars.com/products/ ... 2401136892

[David Elliott]

I believe Gretsch did indeed produce a 6122 Country Gent with real open f-holes, (at least one of them!), as it's pictured in "The Guitars of the Fred Gretsch Company" by Jay Scott. The particular guitar that is shown is a 1961 model, but as Chuck Schwickerath points out, it may well have been a special order item. This instrument is (or was) owned by a Mister Jim Hilmar, at least at the time this book was published. There's a 1960 Gent shown on the same page, and also owned by Hilmar! Beautiful guitars!

These two examples of the original single cut Country Gentlemans, are the primary reason I've never bought one of the new G-6122's, and that's because I felt Gretsch dropped the ball so to speak, with the color of the newer guitars! They just don't look like the old Gents I remember!

I always felt that the original, single cutaway Country Gentleman, was the most beautiful factory production electric guitar ever produced, and while the newer ones are no doubt built better than the older ones, they are not as "pretty"in my opinion. I realize that this has nothing to do with "playability" and/or sound, but I think it's too bad that after all the efforts of Paul Yandell to "resurrect", and duplicate the Country Gent's "mods" to make it nearly the same as Chet's, somebody at Gretsch decided to make the thing in a color that Chet wouldn't have recognized!

Oh well... I know, big deal...

David