How to find this Vintage guitar?

[Wolvee]

Hello everyone. I'm Wolvee from Michigan.

Last night in a manic fit I was searching to Identify this Guitar that belonged to my father. It was his first Guitar and when he pasted away the Guitar went to his dad instead of me and now it's gone. While I was waiting for my account to be activated I went on Reddit/r/music and some people in the IRC helped me narrow it down to a Gretch G6119-1962HT Chet Atkins Tennessee Rose.
http://www.gretschguitars.com/products/ ... 2401314866

Where would I look to find one of these vintage? If I do find one, what kind of cost would I be looking at? On Gretsch's website New they are MSRP of around $3000 but I'd like Vintage if I can afford it.

I have never bought a Vintage guitar and I've been terribly mutilating a Gibson SG for the last 17 years. This guitar just means a lot to me.

If there is any difference that I need to be aware of from a vintage to a new production?



Thanks
Wolvee

[VintAxe]

Hey Wolvee.

The vintage 60's model would run around $2,500 in VG+ condition although price will vary a bit by year of production. The two pup version was made from 1961 to 1980. A 70's model is valued closer to $1,600. As always, the trick is finding one. You may want to start with my list of vintage guitar dealers here:

http://www.vintaxe.com/links_dealers.htm

I don't know about the pros and cons of new versus vintage on this model since I've never played either. I'm sure Gretsch priced the new one a bit over vintage price for those too impatient to search out an old one. The old one will be more likely to appreciate in price compared to the new one.

[jfine]

That's a '60's one, and it's called a Tennesseean. It was the lowest-priced model in the Chet Atkins series, although they weren't cheap--$400 in '64 was a pretty good chunk of change, when you consider that a Fender Strat with case was around $330. When George Harrison lost his Gretsch Country Gentleman on tour with the Beatles, he replaced it with one of these, and used it on several tours. The Tennessean was quite popular back then--David Crosby used one with the Byrds for a while. The Tennessee Rose name wasn't used until Gretsch started up guitar production in Japan around '89. They couldn't use any of the names of the old Chet Atkins models, as Chet had a deal with Gibson by then.