Gretsch Guitars

Up for auction is a great playing, excellent condition Heritage Millenium 158 Classic semi hollow guitar with Bigsby.  To keep it short, Heritage was started when a group of Gibson employees elected not to relocate to Tennessee and instead purchased the factory from Gibson, where they continued to make Gibson-esque guitars the old way.

The Millenium is their own take, however.  Although it's a sem-hollow, it is not like the 335 Gibson.  Think more of a Les Paul, semi-hollow, significantly lighter, with more "woodiness".  It's a great playing guitar.  The neck is C shaped, medium size.  I'm guessing the frets are 6150's. Neck is straight and frets have lots of life left.  I believe that the Bigsby is factory original.  I've seen them use the plate before.  Pickups are factory Seth Lovers, per the paperwork and warranty card (long expired).  The guitar is in great condition with no obvious flaws that I have noticed.  No buckle rash, etc.  I don't want to claim it's mint but it's in very good condition.  The Bigsby is a marvel.  I love them but the tuning issues on most drives me nuts.  This is an exception.  Holds tune extremely well as long as you don't try to dive bomb, in which case you want something other than a Bigsby.  I'm sure the graphite nut and locking tuners contribute to the stability.  The only other guitar I have played with a Bigsby this stable is a Gretsch Rev. Horton Heat. 

Sonically it's a chameleon.  It can do incredibly satisfying jazz stuff from the neck pickup and screams from the bridge.  It doesn't have quite the chunk of a Les Paul, partially due to the very open sounding Seth Lovers.  Factory case is clean with one faint mar on the finish, not a scratch, just looks like it rubbed against something.  Should be visible in the case picture.  The guitar originally came from Jay Wolfe in Florida.  Jay is/was the largest Heritage dealers in the country and seemed to get the cream of the crop.

U.S. and Canada sales only. 

I am selling because I'm losing my vision and need the funds.  I'll make the same bad joke as my other listing: My loss is your gain.  I know how tough it is to buy a guitar sight unseen.  Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

On Sep-01-10 at 10:16:32 PDT, seller added the following information:

I did notice asmall ding on the back side of the headstock.  Looking at the tuners from the back, it is about an inch above the top right one.  You can see it in the picture if you look closely. Minor but I did want to mention it.

This item was sold but decided to play it "one last time",  I'm glad I did. There was a hum problem that was not there before. I canceled the sale and had it repaired at Mass Street Music, a highly reputable upscale shop with two excellent luthiers. The ground had come off of the bridge. I wanted them to do the work since it's a semi-hollow.  While they had it I asked them to thouroughly look it over and they found no issues other than the ground wire.