“Vintage Gretsches can be hit and miss. A former Gretsch employee told me they would go out and have five-Martini lunches and then try to put guitars together in the afternoon”: When Gretsch took on Gibson with the 6130 Round-Up and 6121

Gretsch 6130 Roundup.

The Gretsch 6130 Round-Up premiered in 1953, but customers didn’t start seeing it until 1954. The Western motif inlay at the 1st fret didn’t appear until 1955, which is the year this one was made.

“The knotty pine top wasn’t something that could be ordered and some of the guitars just came that way while others didn’t, with no explanation from Gretsch,” says Dave Davidson, owner of New York’s Well Strung Guitars. The pine was usually very thin, and if these guitars aren’t packed well and there’s an accident, the control knobs can push right through the top.