1956 Gretsch Town & Country Jumbo Guitar

This beaut was just in for some glorified setup work but I definitely had to snag pics and a video. These don't appear out in the world all that often!

I've worked on several similar models (see here, see here, and see here) made by Gretsch but this was the first time one of these Town & Country (like a fancier Gretsch Rancher) models has graced the shop.

It's a pretty guitar and, like all Gretsch instruments, has a very distinctive style. It also has a very distinctive bridge design that, combined with the ladder-braced top, yields a guitar that flits somewhere between flattop and archtop in sound and vibes. It would make a really good "chord-snapper" for band use where you might be chopping chords all night to keep a group together. It has a lot of bite.

Ancel did the work on this one so I just had to reap the reward of getting to snuggle with it for 15 minutes or so after it was fixed-up. It arrived in pretty good condition, though, and needing only minor adjustments.

These old Gretsch flattops are solid in the top and ply in the back and sides and, like this guy, usually have a fairly long scale and quick, modern-feeling necks.