A rare bird and even rarer guitar, the Gretsch White Penguin is an ultimate collector’s guitar. There is rarely a guitar to cross our path here that holds such a high accolade in its rarity and performance. So much attention is passed onto larger counterparts like Gibson “Bursts” and Early 50’s Fenders that hold an iconic stance in pop culture, however neither are close to the level of singularity in the White Penguin.
An estimated number of White Penguins lands between 30 and 50 instruments with a number of those existing with stereo electronics and an even smaller number with factory Bigsby tailpieces, this guitar is the non-bigsby mono output example. Only produced between 1956 and 1962, the Gretsch 6134 did not get much love from the marketing department outside of one or two appearances in print. A 1959 price-list shows it retailing for less than $500.
The Duo-Jet chambered Mahogany body houses Filter’Tron pickups beneath gold hardware and a beautiful white finish. This paint has seen a small amount of oxidation and some areas of chipping. While the damaged paint may instigate a sense of impurity, we think it adds to the story of the instrument as a remarkable playing and sounding guitar from the late 1950’s. In the Golden Age of Gretsch guitars, we see this premium example of a rare vintage Gretsch maintaining its aesthetic and structural integrity. Repairs are extremely minimal on the instrument, there are a few areas of slight binding separation, a replaced control cavity cover, one replaced screw in the pickup ring and four replaced screws between the four cavity covers. The headstock began to delaminate which was properly repaired in-house and one of the knobs is missing its pearl inlay, the guitar also has an older refret. The distinguishing gold sparkle accents and gold Penguin pickguard are all stark and dazzling in the light.
This guitar comes with its original hardshell case in wonderful condition with very small areas of slight covering delimitation.
