Though Gretsch, the originally Brooklyn based manufacturer, is most famous for their thin line electric guitars often seen in the hands of players like Malcolm Young, Chris Cornell, George Harrison or his hero, Chet Atkins, they made a killing in the pre-WWII era building affordable archtop jazz guitars to compete with Epiphone, Gibson, and to a smaller degree, local builders like D’Angelico.

This pre-WWII Synchromatic 75, visually nearly identical to the 100 model save for the Gibson shaped headstock, is a bit of a rare bird. The 75 model, being used for many different guitars over the years including different archtops and a flattop jumbo, seems to only have resided on the label of this particular style of archtop for a few years in the early 1940’s.

The top on this guitar, per the one advertisement for this model we could find, seems to be carved spruce, paired with laminate maple back and sides.

The original pickguard is missing, the bridge has been replaced, and the tuners are newer grover Kluson copies.

The binding on this guitar is fairly rotted, unfortunately, but it’s been glued and is stable.