1930s Gretsch American 00-Size Guitar

This cool old Gretsch had been suffering a long time in storage upstairs. It arrived here with a tailpiece fit and a piece of aluminum over the (missing) original bridge location and a floating bridge fit in its place. Over time, the finished aged-in yellow in the clearcoat over the sunburst and so much of the guitar turned a bit of a strange, green-sunburst color.

Last month Ancel did a ton of work on it to get it up to snuff and it's now an excellent player and has already moved to a new home. It received a neck reset, board plane and refret, new bridge fitting and a new bone saddle, replacement ('50s) tuners, a new bone nut, and general setup-side work.

Despite the somewhat-chunky neck, it has a quicker feel than many of its contemporaries and a fairly-curvy fretboard radius. It dates to the late '30s or early '40s judging by its features and while the top is solid the back and sides are ply maple -- the same stuff used in Gretsch drum rims. It's ladder-braced and roughly 00-size in format. I think the scale was around 25" as I recall.

While some Gretsch guitars at the time were made by other firms, this is definitely an in-house product and I've worked on two others -- both slightly different in bracing -- but with the same shape.