1967 Gretsch Tennessean

A few months back, a new customer brought down a little time capsule for me to polish up. It was an original Chet Atkins Gretsch, which had scarcely been touched. A real "barn find." However, the years had still left their marks here and there; a few things needed straightening out.

For starters, there was the classic binding rot. Gretsches are particularly known for this, every other restoration calling for a total replacement. This one was not so bad, owing to the inconsistencies of manufacture back in those days, this binding was accidentally very stable. Still, it was broken in about fifteen places with a few pieces missing.

So, a cup is filled with special glue which will adhere to the old binding without hurting the finish.

Then there was the little matter of the neck joint. Famously flimsy, these tenons don't often stay in place and you can see this one lifting off. This of course sends the geometry all wonky, giving high action at a minimum.

Knowing this weakness, Gretsch had at some point added a special reinforcement screw, conveniently located under a lacquered mahogany plug. I donned my special magnifying head set and carefully scored around the plug with an exacto knife.

After the plug has been removed, so can the screw be. Luckily the screw came out very easily.

It doesn't take much heat to remove such a loose neck, and we can begin to see why.

This tenon was cut way too small and padded out with many shims, some of them cardboard. I do believe this to be the factory joint!

And the same was true on the receiving end! This was a very tricky job because the shims needed to be consolidated, but without them the neck just floated in space, so there was nothing to index against. Also the side of the joint near the cutaway had nothing holding it square against the neck tenon. So, it needed to be clamped in all sorts of directions.

Nevertheless, the neck gets glued back on at the proper angle. Here you can see an aged replacement heel cap which I made to replace the old one that crumbled like so much Gretsch plastic.

Next, a longer screw is inserted and a replacement for the lacquered cap is made. Now to glue it in very carefully...

Here it is all back together again! Click below to hear how it sounds.