Hey Dale. Fantastic work! The Gretsch looks more like a mid 60's Anniversary Model. There's no binding a round the headstock. Also, there appears to be the Diamond Anniversary plaque in the center of the headstock.
Jack - It defintely looks like you know what you're doing. Most repairmen don't. I wish you'd take more work on. I have '62 Anni that could use a neck reset!
I knew I'd meet some friends here...
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Hey Andy - Great to see you again!
Silly me! I missed your post on the 1st page of this thread... You are so lucky to have found such a master luthier to take on this noble endeavor...
The pictures that I took for you are still on my photobucket site... i.e. the neck joint and pickguard.
It's a pleasure to see this project finally come to fruition...
Kudos Joe!
Thanks everyone. OK. I am renaming this thread
"WHY I WILL NEVER MAKE A PENNY AS A REPAIR MAN"
After I posted pics of the neck joint last night I wanted to take them back. Its sort of like a painter not wanting you to see the painting until he is done. Everything can change.
I could not stand to leave the cutaway side of that neck joint with a chunk missing. I am not even sure now if that happend from the original guy or not...but none the less, I hate that I left it that way. And hate even more that I wimped out and was going to use a filler piece of old mahogany. So tonight I took a second look. It would have been difficult to match side grain on the body in that skinny of a piece. The wood I stuck in there for temp, had the grain going the wrong way. NOPE!
The difference between a good job and a Pro job is the level of detail you put in this. So after several hours of going at the neck joint again, I have the gap closed. The neck is sitting just right and it is straight.
Take a look:
What you see above is a pretty darn tight neck joint compared to last nights version. The edge of the joint has a look of white from the lacquer getting moist. Also the wood got dark from getting wet too. So it looks a little nasty, but it should be nice and tight. When I touch up the joint with lacquer, the white should go away. The joint may stay dark. Its hard to say. But I think the white will disapear.
The neck moved about 3/32" forward to get the joint closed. Because this has a moveable bridge, you will not notice it when setting intonations.
Andy, notice on 57Chets 6121 he has a bigsby bridge and a wood base? We may end up needing to do that too. The aluminum base is so low that we will be near the top of the adjustment with it. Luckily, the wood base is a standard size, so if we do have to get one, they are readily available. I have the neck set very flat to the pocket and I think it is the perfect joint. So, I don't want to lower it now. It will be very solid this way.
We are setting right at 7/8" at the bridge. I think the bigsby will go to about 1" with no problem. So it will be real close.
57 Chet,
Does the neck on yours actually have a ledge or bump on it in the cutway? This one makes a smooth transition between the neck and body. But it was shimmed toward that direction. Meaning, the shim pushes the neck to be flush at the body joint. This made the neck set really difficult. I suspect that it should be off set a little. This neck is perfectly centered as is.
Yo Andy, here is the shot with the old wood bridge base removed and the Brigsby bridge in its place. Should be no problem with downward pressure with the bigsby tailpiece now!
He he He! It's gonna be a great player.
yea imagine that.. a playable guitar afterall! 
man its coming out awesome!! what was the deal with the old bridge, was it doweled and glued on?
rosewood base on the bridge is fine. my 55 6120 has a rosewood base as well. i just had that bigsby bridge laying around for a long time, thought i would use it but no big, do not need the aluminum base, can go rosewood.
damn, that scabbed white binding sure stands out like a sore D*. 
hey 57chet! i am stoked joe has taken this on. funny thing i was more worried about fed ex destroying the guitar than sending it to someone i have never met!
yeah i am really stoked, we'll probably use your 57 pics as reference, im sure.
yeah, I cleaned off the black ink on the white binding. I am having troubles getting it off. Its too bad too, the guy that did this really could have done it right. Actually after I scraped it clean, it turns out one layer of the original binding is still there. THe binding is WBW. The first White layer is still there under the finish. If he would have just bought some black and white this would have been much better.
I did try something that looked really pretty good, but I cleaned it off. I tapped off the white binding and painted a black line thru it like the ink the other guy did. I did mine like a pinstriper does. I got the line looking great. It looked just like the original except the white on the outside layer. It would have been a little tough to tell I had painted a layer on it. I tried to yellow the white binding and the product I used cause the black line I painted to desolve. I will try again to get the binding off. Right now I can tell you that pulling all the original binding off of this one will cause the need for a refin. I won't be able to get the binding off. I will try to get the chunk out he added, but he used a product that melts the binding together. I doubt I can get the new stuff off, and still leave the old original binding that I found earlier.
JD
JackDaniels said: "WHY I WILL NEVER MAKE A PENNY AS A REPAIR MAN"
I don't know about that. In this particular journey I have no qualms in admitting you are a better man that I.
Yours
Drew
I dont know, if you are this deep into it, I think I might go ahead and replace the binding before you glue the neck back on. If you are just looking for a player, or the budget is running short, I understand, but man,it's a 6121! ,and this is the time to do it. You may be able to pull it off without a refin, but, as you know lady luck will have something to say about it. Good luck guys. Awesome project.
Joe said: The aluminum base is so low that we will be near the top of the adjustment with it.
Joe, Andy. I have a vintage 50's fat Bigsby base...the real deal. Let me know if you are interested and want to try it.
Jazzy. I guess that fact is: It IS a 6121! Not to many of them around, thats for sure. So where do you draw the line? When the budget runs out or when you reach the law of diminishing returns?
I told Andy I would clear my head and take another look this week. I have the neck off and now is the time to address this, but I have concerns too.
1) If I try to pull all the bining off, I could damage two things. A) The top finish which I can't seem to match. B) I am concerned that lifting the binding could cause the top laminent (plywood) to splinter. The top already shows signs of some seperation near the center of the top. It has been contained and looks ok, but I know that means the top is a subject of concern. If the top gets messed up I have to do a top refin at a minimum. At that point, I might as well do a total refin to get the back color right too. Now you've doubled the cost and the labor.
2) If I can get the repaired patch off, I know I can replaced the binding to match the original size. But Getting the color on the white section correct will be really tough. The original has almost gone translucent with a bit of yellow to it. So its not just a creme or lacquer color thing. The binding's properties have changed. I have to figure out how to simulate this.
If I can't get the binding off without damaging the guitar, its better to leave it as is, and mask the the bad repair. I don't want to end up with and expensive piece of shit on my bench.
What I told Andy was this: If it was my personal guitar, I repair or pull the binding. I probably wouldn't give it a second thought. But I know I am capable of getting it back together to some workable version. I basically have an unlimited time budget for my own work. I am also ok with living with my mistakes. BUT the guitar is not mine and I don't have an unlimited time or money budget to repair it. I will not be the only one living with my mistakes (or me trying to cover the mistakes of previous repairs). So if I screw it up and can't fix it, where does it leave this 6121? Right now it is a very cool player that looks pretty darn good too.
Let me think about it and do some investigation on the removal process.
J
yup, thats exactly what joe and i are discussing right now.. i would hate to have joe set the neck perfectly with the idea that it one day it would have to come back off again to have the binding done...
Shot of the 50's base and a 70's...big difference:
Shot of it laying next to my Melita on my '57:
If you do take the binding off, I use a router or laminate router type jig, like this, works great. I'd lend you mine if you were closer. It just routs the stuff off clean, and you can take off as much as you like at a time. They also make a dremel attathcment thing, but you reall need more torque from the motor.
Yea Paul that would be more than enough. I think Andy may have a wood base laying around too. If not I can pick one up. But that tall bigsby Bridge would work for sure. Right now, the short one will need the wheels about 3/4 of the way up.
This is not a bad problem to have!!!! It's easier to get a taller bridge. It's impossible to get one much shorter than the one that was on there LOL.
Hmm...JBJ. I had not really thought of that before. Well I sort of did, but not really. So your thinkinig to use the binding router jig to cut off the old binding? Very interesting. I don't own one of those, but I could make one......!!! I have seem quite a few of them being used in the past. I would probably need to buy the collar that floats on the top of the guitar as well as the bit.
Let me think about that.
ANYONE HAVE A CHUNK OF OLD BINDING? I am still considering the options.
Damn JBJ, you got my gears turning. THINKING OUTLOUD....
Do you think the router could cut without burning/melting the plasic? (if I was to leave some of the original binding in place?)
Andy, it regards to your question: Yes the old bridge was glued down to the top with Super Glue. Someone did that to one of my 50's gretsch's too. It looked like it was pinned to the top too, but once I got a little heat under it and started to lift, it popped right off. No screws or dowels pinning it. The brige itself appear to have been pinned at one time, just not on this guitar. I did a small bit of drop-fill to the top with some Nitro. Good thing it was finished with lacquer. I have done several fills on this already. I'll do a final sand/polish before putting it back together.
I hope you don't need that bridge back? Well you can have it back, but I had to break the posts off during the process.
