The Prototype Of The Few Rare Black-Finished Country Gentlemen…

This extremely rare black "top dog" of the Chet Atkins models weighs just 8.90 lbs. and and has a nut width of just under 1 11/16 inches, a really comfortable medium-to-thick neck profile, and a scale length of 24 1/2 inches (like all of the Chet Atkins models). Laminated maple body, three-piece rock maple neck, and ebony fretboard with 22 medium frets plus zero fret and neo-classic inlaid pearl thumbprint (half-moon) position markers. One Super'Tron II (neck) pickup with an output of 4.11k and one Filter'Tron (bridge) pickup with an output of 4.14k. Painted f-holes. Gold-plated 'space-control' bridge on the original ebony base and gold-plated V-cutout B-6 Bigsby ("Gretsch by Bigsby") vibrato tailpiece. All hardware gold-plated. This guitar is in near mint (9.25) condition, with very little playing wear to the original frets. This is the only example of a 'black' Country Gentleman that we have ever seen and we believe it to be the prototype based on one of the very last 'third versions' of the "few, rare black-finished Country Gentlemen [fourth version] as mentioned in Jay Scott's book. A real collectors gem. Housed in the original Gretsch two-tone gray five-latch hardshell with maroon plush lining (8.75).