A SOLID-BODY ELECTRIC GUITAR, CHET ATKINS, 6121

Details

THE FRED GRETSCH MANUFACTURING COMPANY, BROOKLYN, 1957
A SOLID-BODY ELECTRIC GUITAR, CHET ATKINS, 6121
Inlaid at the headstock with the logo Gretsch and applied at the pickguard, along with Chet Atkins, the control cavity cover inscribed 23490, with original hardshell case bearing a label inscribed GRETSCH 6121 ORANGE - CHET ATKINS #23490 SERIAL NO. DG1067; accompanied by the original sales invoice from Gruhn Guitars, Inc. to Pink Floyd, dated 26th June 1978, a letter from Dave Gilman to Pink Floyd, dated 27th June 1978, confirming that the instrument had been placed on hold, a facsimile air waybill addressed to Pink Floyd, dated 11th July 1978, a shipping invoice from Dacair Service Limited to Britannia Row Leasing Ltd., dated 27th July 1978, a handwritten note on a Pink Floyd headed compliments slip reading Dear Vic, Please find enclosed the invoices for the two guitars that should be arriving shortly, Phil, a facsimile repair receipt from Charlie Chandler’s Guitars, Middlesex to David Gilmour Music Ltd., dated 27th July 2009, a handwritten note to David Gilmour by guitar technician Phil Taylor on a sheet of Astoria headed notepaper outlining the repair and modification work performed on the guitar, and a color screenshot of David Gilmour playing this guitar at Olympic Studios, London, circa July 1993 [not illustrated]
Length of back 17 7/8 in. (45.3 cm.)

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Lot Essay

The 6121 is the solid-body companion to Gretsch’s famous hollow-body guitar the 6120 Chet Atkins (lot 40). Purchased by David Gilmour from Gruhn Guitars, Nashville, Tennessee, in June 1978, the guitar has seen a good deal of studio use, notably during recording sessions for Pink Floyd’s 1994 album The Division Bell at Gilmour’s Astoria houseboat studio and Olympic Studios, London, circa July 1993. Between 2013 and 2014, material from the 1993 recording sessions for The Division Bell was revisited and reworked with 21st Century digital technology and supplemented with new material for the last Pink Floyd album The Endless River. Studio footage exists of Gilmour playing the 6121 during a 1993 jam session at Olympic that would become the instrumental Nervana, the third and final bonus track on the deluxe edition of The Endless River. Following a distorted intro, Gilmour plays a heavy metal riff and ends with a two-minute solo on the Gretsch 6121. Released in November 2014 as a tribute to keyboardist Richard Wright, who had passed away in 2008, the predominantly instrumental album debuted at number one in the UK, France, Germany, Portugal, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, New Zealand, and Canada.

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