A Gold-Sparkle 1967 Gretsch 6120
Ex Dan Murphy (Soul Asylum) and Jeff Tweedy (Wilco)
This forty-eight year old 15 1/2 inch-wide guitar ex Dan Murphy (Soul Asylum) and then Jeff Tweedy (Wilko) weighs just 7.30 lbs. Double-bound laminated maple body with black painted f-holes with white borders. Two-piece maple neck with ebony center-strip, a nut width of just over 1 5/8 inches, a medium-to-thick profile and a standard Chet Atkins scale length of 24 1/2 inches. Ebony fretboard with 22 frets plus zero fret and neo-classic inlaid pearl thumbprint (half-moon) position markers. Black faced headstock with inlaid pearl Gretsch "T-roof" logo and rectangular brass plate secured by four pins and engraved "Chet Atkins / Nashville / Model". Bell-shaped two-layer (black on white) plastic truss-rod cover with three screws. The serial number is stamped in black on the back of the headstock. Individual closed-back Grover USA tuners with oval metal buttons. Two patent-number Filter'Tron pickups with gold plastic surrounds and outputs of 4.20k and 4.32k. Gold Lucite pickguard with pantograph-engraved Gretsch "T-roof" logo and "Chet Atkins" signature and "Nashville" in black. Two volume controls (one for each pickup) plus a three-way stand-by switch on the lower treble bout, one master volume control on the upper treble bout, plus two three-way selector switches (one pickup selector and one tone selector) on the upper bass bout. The potentiometers are stamped "137 663X" (CTS, July-September 1966). String damper with the original? white felt pad. Gretsch "Arrow-through-G" knobs with cross-hatch pattern on sides. Aluminium Gretsch 'Bar-bridge on height-adjustable ebony base and aluminium V-cutout B-6 Bigsby ("Gretsch by Bigsby") vibrato tailpiece with pivoting arm. Original black vinyl pad with gold trim and eight push-button fasteners on the back of the guitar covering the original Gretsch cream plastic control cover with only two (of eight) screws. All hardware gold-plated. Housed in the original Gretsch five-latch, two-tone gray, shaped (well worn) hardshell case with burgundy padded felt lining (7.50). This guitar was owned by Dan Murphy of Soul Asylum. Dan used it on several of their recordings. Dan purchased the guitar from Jeff Tweedy of Soul Asylum (sometime before 1996) - Jeff used the guitar extensively on stage - he can be seen on Youtube playing the guitar in a 1996 Chicago Wilko concert at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJSM9yfrW_0
Interestingly, the guitar has an original matching 'gold-sparkle' leather strap…