The Chetboard

I saw this offering on eBay today. It is just a body and no hardware. The description has some historical references to Gretsches made in Mexico and in Arkansas. It said that the ones made in Mexico were almost as good as the ones made in Arkansas...is that damning with faint praise or what? All you have to do is buy pickups, tuners, a Bigsby, knobs and wires, and some strap holders and you will have an actual electric guitar. This is a REAL project!
Ray

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Gretsch-Vintage ... 1e761293be

Uh...no thanks. Too rich for my blood by the time you buy all that it needs.

Those unfinished Southern Belles are popping up on the Gretschpages from time to time. This blonde beauty is the most recent.

http://gretschpages.com/forum/vintage-g ... 965/page1/

They may end up being excellent guitars proveded a good deal of work and money is put into them. They are in effect the last Country Gentlemans, alhough with a Baldwin flavour, before they reemerged as the Country Classic ca 1989. There were made just around 100 of them, as stated in Jay Scott´s Gretsch book. The information on e-bay is probably from that book.

Their owners on Gretschpages really seem to love them. And they are very rare.

Vidar, that blonde Southern Belle was a great looking guitar and the owner obviously liked it. Sounds like his money was well spent. I'd have a problem doing that fixing up for 1200 pounds - is that around 18 or $1900? I got a 6122-1959 Nashville Classic for right much less than that and it has the TV Jones pickups and wiring already in it and it came with a case. You pays your money and you takes your choice as the old folks used to say.
Ray

Here´s another Gretsch 7176 Southern Belle from the guitar treasure chest of the Gretschpages with a lot of interesting details.

http://gretschpages.com/guitars/models/ ... ern-belle/

Naaahhh