Gretsch G6120TG-DS Players Edition Nashville Hollow Body, Roundup Orange

Gretsch’s Players Edition guitars are designed with the today’s modern player in mind without losing sight of what made the original Gretsch Guitars so iconic. The Gretsch G61120TG-DS Players Edition is no exception but that’s a lot of letters and numbers, so let’s break it down.

G6120 refers to the Nashville body style. This famous body style is a single cutaway full-hollow construction with the top and back constructed of arched laminated maple. This model is braced with the “ML” bracing pattern which combines two of Gretsch’s iconic vintage bracing systems for the best of both worlds. Parallel bracing is two struts running the length of the guitar underneath the top, for support. It leaves the guitar completely hollow which gives Gretsch guitars a ton of their unique resonant woody sound.  Trestle Bracing was introduced later, and it has two struts running the length of the instrument that connect to the back of the guitar as well with four “feet”. This reduces feedback and increases sustain. “ML” bracing is two body length struts with only 2 feet connected to the back, near the bridge, which give you the openness of Parallel Bracing, with the feedback and Sustain of Trestle Bracing.

TG refers to the String-Thru Bigsby Tremolo system with key features throughout the instrument that lend to the rigors modern music making. String-Thru means that the strings are actually installed through a hole in the roller bar on the Bigsby, as opposed to having to hook the ball-end of the string on a pin and wrap it around the bar. This makes string changes a breeze and shortens the string break-in period. The Adjusto-Matic bridge is mounted on an Ebony based that is pinned to the body. Its sitting on retaining pins that fit into the base of the bridge to allow it to stay in place without actually being hard fastened. Up top the Graph Tech TUSQ nut guarantees slipper string passage through the nut slots keeping your guitar in tune while you put the Bigsby into action. Locking tuners minimize wind requirements, which shortens the string stretching/break-in period, and makes string changes a breeze.

DS refers to the Dynasonic pickups in the bridge and neck of this guitar. Dynasonics were early Gretsch pickup designs and the feature a unique mechanical pole adjustment via a small, flathead screw. On this guitar they are controlled by independent volume controls as well as a master volume with a treble bleed. The treble bleed retains the high frequencies as you roll down the volume through the pairing of a resistor and capacitor soldered the first and middle lug of the volume pot. The master tone control is also spruced up for the Players Edition by way of a No-Load Pot. When turned all the way up, the tone pot actually becomes true bypass skipping the circuit altogether to remove any tonal coloration you might get from a tone pot even all the way up at 10. Standard 3-way switching via toggle controls your pickup selection.

This G6120TG-DS is finished in the iconic Roundup Orange, in a durable gloss urethane. Built by hand in Japan, hardshell case included.