OK, the truth here? I've been chasing down a vintage 6120 for many years. But George Youngblood, the master luthier in Guilford, CT, always cautioned me about them: "They all either have had a neck reset...or need one." And worse still, because of how they were built, often those neck resets take scary reconstruction that would make you cringe. You can just tell when you pick them up that they are about to implode. So, since I was eaten alive with desire, I elected to pick up a modern one, from Gretsch's Professional Collection, so I got better woods and more attention to detail, and hence this 1959 limited edition. Now, I've found a '56 6120 that I'm dieing to pick up, so I'm putting this one out there.
It is an excellent placeholder, or even end game, for a classic instrument. Gretsch was attentive to detail, and outfit this just as a '59 should be, with the zero fret, classic bridgework, trestle bracing, cool thumbnail fret markers and such. They used unflamey maple, which is typical of the vintage, and I've always believed that the less flamey, the better maple sounds. Then, they added TV Jones Filtertrons, and that make the whole package really, really authentic...and it all comes without the fear that thing is going to self-destruct right before your eyes. It is perfect and has never left my house.
So help me out here, to make one of those stupid, emotion-based decisions to part from a perfectly sound instrument, in favor of an overpriced vintage one, creating constant cashflow for my friendly luthier. You'll end up the winner, almost assuredly. At $2,250, its way below you can buy it from a big-box, if you can even find one.