Gretsch 'Burl Ives' 1953 | $775 | (v2502) Raise your hand if you were a big Burl Ives fan back in the day? ...yeah, thought so. If you came of age in the sixties you might have seen him on one of the TV variety shows, or maybe heard him sing on the radio when stations played a wide variety of music. But Burl would have seemed 'old fashioned' to any aspiring hippy and not 'authentic' enough for the folkies of the day. But Burl had quite the storied past! In 1929 he dropped out of college and became an itinerant musician, traveling the US doing odd jobs and playing music. He even did some jail time for vagrancy and singing a bawdy folk song called 'Foggy Dew'! He went on to become a radio and TV personality, and acted in movies and on Broadway! Many have likely heard him as Sam the Snowman in the TV production of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. So it's not at all random that in the early 1950s Gretsch named a guitar after him!
The Burl Ives model is the Gretsch 6004. The top is solid spruce, ladder-braced with b/w/b binding and sound hole rings and features a faux-tortoise pickguard. The back and sides are laminated mahogany, with the back showing attractive grain. The patented Gretsch 'Miracle Neck' is mahogany, carved in a traditional 'C'-shape. The fingerboard and bridge are Brazilian rosewood. The headstock is painted black with the Gretsch logo in gold and Burl Ives in red. The soundhole features a large label with the model name, serial number and a smiling Burl Ives. The individual tuners are original.
The body measures 14 3/16". The scale length is 25 5/16". The neck measures 1 11/16" across at the nut, with string spacing 2 1/8" at the saddle. Action is set at 6 & 7/64".
We recently: reglued the pickguard; leveled and dressed the frets; cleaned and lubed the tuners; replaced tuner buttons. It appears that the guitar has had a previous neck reset and there was a chip out of the heel that was repaired and touched up. The top is crack free and the finish is in excellent condition with minimal nicks and dings from age and use. There is some off-gassing of the celluloid back binding evident in the lower bout.
Overall, this a pretty clean 00-size guitar with ladder-brace punch that retains some historic significance. The guitar is comfortable to play, especially for fans of the modern 'C'-shaped necks.
Comes with what could be its original soft case.
Check out the sound clip!
The Burl Ives model is the Gretsch 6004. The top is solid spruce, ladder-braced with b/w/b binding and sound hole rings and features a faux-tortoise pickguard. The back and sides are laminated mahogany, with the back showing attractive grain. The patented Gretsch 'Miracle Neck' is mahogany, carved in a traditional 'C'-shape. The fingerboard and bridge are Brazilian rosewood. The headstock is painted black with the Gretsch logo in gold and Burl Ives in red. The soundhole features a large label with the model name, serial number and a smiling Burl Ives. The individual tuners are original.
The body measures 14 3/16". The scale length is 25 5/16". The neck measures 1 11/16" across at the nut, with string spacing 2 1/8" at the saddle. Action is set at 6 & 7/64".
We recently: reglued the pickguard; leveled and dressed the frets; cleaned and lubed the tuners; replaced tuner buttons. It appears that the guitar has had a previous neck reset and there was a chip out of the heel that was repaired and touched up. The top is crack free and the finish is in excellent condition with minimal nicks and dings from age and use. There is some off-gassing of the celluloid back binding evident in the lower bout.
Overall, this a pretty clean 00-size guitar with ladder-brace punch that retains some historic significance. The guitar is comfortable to play, especially for fans of the modern 'C'-shaped necks.
Comes with what could be its original soft case.
Check out the sound clip!