This is on the Bay at the moment. What do you all think about this finish? The seller claims it's "smoke green" faded to a pale Les paul goldtop hue. He also confirms it's a 6117, so it wasn't the 2-tone green finish, even if it's a refin. At first I was thinking maybe a blast fro the past... Jag Tan. But the one photo of the back of the guitar does have a greenish tinge to it. The seller (who's a dealer) claims it's an original finish. He also said he's had it hanging in his shop for quite awhile. Looks cool. 
Refin or custom color Annie?
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Oct 3, 2008 8:18 p.m. KCeddieB:
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Oct 3, 2008 8:31 p.m. Curt:
Ask him to remove the pickguard and take a picture. If it did fade it will be much less affected under the guard.
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Oct 3, 2008 9:52 p.m. reverb11:
I don't think this seller knows Gretsch guitars very well. Did you read in his description where he claims "the strap lok was moved from the back of the neck to the top of the body" (or something like that)? I've never seen a Gretsch guitar with the strap pin attached at the back of the neck...
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Oct 4, 2008 2:03 a.m. Thomas:
I think the juniors have that, and some early country clubs as well if I'm not mistaken..
But it shouldn't be on this annie indeed.
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Oct 4, 2008 4:04 a.m. fws6:
very few pics but my feeling would be that it is legit
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Oct 4, 2008 5:17 a.m. Danman:
Hi Ed,
I don't really see anything strange, except maybe the color of the pick guard, or did they have light colored ones too. My 64 Annie has a green one.
Don't you think they are just bad pictures that don't show the color right? And I must say that many of the old Annies have a very yellowish fading to the top and that is probably what he is describing. They fade to a very different color that the new ones are, and they all fade to different 'yellow'. Both my 59 and my 64 have that.
Only the number is a bit strange. Maybe just a wrong labeling from the factory?
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Oct 4, 2008 10:25 a.m. KCeddieB:
Thanks for the input guys. Here's what's odd to me. First, if it's a 6117, that should be a sunburst. But even if that's a mis-label, if it was the 2-tone green version, even with extreme fading, the back and sides should still be different than the top. The biggest issue though is if it's a metallic finish... which wasn't clear from the seller. He referenced the Les Paul/ES-295 gold top, but never said for sure.
I agree with Curt that the finish under the pickguard might speak volumes. What about that guard anyway... did the 6117 (sunburst) come with a silver guard? If not, that may be a further indiction of a custom color example. Then again, guards are so easy to change, maybe not.
I'm not interested in buying this, although the price seems fair "if" it's a factory custom finish. As a student of the Gretsch product line, I'm always interested in odd-ball stuff like this.
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Oct 4, 2008 11:48 a.m. jukebox:
Is this the same guitar that is on Gbase?
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Oct 4, 2008 12:55 p.m. KCeddieB:
jukebox... which guitar on G-base? I just checked, didn't see any that had this finish. Post a link if you can. Thanks!
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Oct 4, 2008 3:02 p.m. Danman:
Hi Ed,
To me the sides do look different than the top. I still think these are just very bad pictures where you can't really see much of a difference. There is a very wierd blue haze over the pictures that is something that has to do with the photography. Probably several light sources and daylight (the blue) coming in from the side.
But you are right that if it were a metallic finish, it would be something else.
The pickguard is still strange. The green Annies had a green pick guard and the 6117 I think had a gold one and this looks really white or silver. But in that case probably is just a replacement. -
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Oct 4, 2008 10:39 p.m. otterbean:
I think it looks like a neat little guitar.
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Oct 4, 2008 10:58 p.m. jukebox:
KC I was mistaken!But I do believe it is an Annie in bad lighting. On Gbase there are several there that are 6118 Annie's and show that color because of bad lighting. My computer at work shows more brown/tan color than this computer. This computer shows a tint of green to it. Yes, it still shows tan,but you can tell its green in color.
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Oct 5, 2008 12:15 a.m. Setzer:
Is Jaguar Tan a metallic finish or a solid color? Does it age to say a Mustard color?
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Oct 5, 2008 4:02 a.m. Danman:
Hi Ed,
I enhanced the images a bit so you can see that most is in the pictures. I'm not claiming these are the real colors but you can now see that there is a difference between front and back.
edit: it looks very different in photoshop but I think you get the picture.
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Oct 5, 2008 11:17 a.m. KCeddieB:
I don't know if you all recall this, but earlier this year Chris Deitzel made a rare appearance back on the GDP (under his Guitar Trader user ID) trying pitch a "rare blue custom" finished Annie. He posted images of the pickups removed, and the color in the cavities was clearly a blue, but most of the guitar had faded out to what I'm thinking this Annie looks like. I never got the serial number from Deitzels, but I'm wondering if it were to be determined it was from the same batch as this one, the idea of a few custom color blue Annie's suddenly gets more plausible in my mind.
I'm no good at "searching" the current GDP (via google?)... perhaps someone who is could check the "garage sale" page for this other guitar. Knowing a little bit about color (from my printing background) it is not unreasonable to think a metallic blue "could" fade out over 40 years of exposure to UV light, leaving the base metallic pigment.
Paul... the Jag Tan finish is metallic, and in my experience fades to more of a greyish champagne color, of course fade varies from specimen to specimen. With different monitor calibrations it's impossible to represent any color on this site, and have it be faithful to an actual color for all of us... but here's the photo of my Jag Tan Streamliner (from my avatar). This photo, on my computer appears ever-so-slightly too warm to the actual guitar.
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Oct 5, 2008 11:40 a.m. Danman:
sorry
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Oct 5, 2008 11:40 a.m. Danman:
You mean this one?
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Oct 5, 2008 12:11 p.m. KCeddieB:
Danman... YES! That's it. Thanks for doing that legwork! I gotta tell ya, after comparing these two I think I'm on the side of this being a legit custom color. The fact that the pickguards are the same scalloped silver style is convincing. Interesting however that the Ebay Annie is older (paper label), but has the second style G-cut tailpiece, and the Guitar Trader Annie younger (s/n# on the back of headstock) but has the first style G-cut tailpiece... but tailpieces are easily switched, so who knows. Here's a photo from the link, just to make it easier for other to compare.
