Gretsch Guitars Master Built By Steve Stern Custom CVT Electric Guitar

Introduced in 1961, this guitar was Gretsch’s first true solid-body instrument. That classic design is once again available in the Master Built By Steve Stern Custom CVT Electric Guitar, with an ultra-slim body, mahogany set-neck, dual TV Jones Power Tron pickups, Tun-a-Matic bridge, chrome-plated hardware, Bigsby tailpiece, and beautiful TV yellow finish.

Representing the pinnacle of guitar craftsmanship, the U.S Gretsch Custom Shop in Corona, CA, presents a Limited Run of classic Gretsch guitars. Each is an exquisite, hand crafted instrument; built the way they once built them for early Gretsch enthusiasts such as Jimmie Webster and Mary Osbourne. Indeed, they infuse the same passion into each Gretsch U.S Custom Shop guitar as do the talented artists who play them.

Stephen Stern
Senior Master Builder
As one of the preeminent archtop builders at the Custom Shop, Stephen Stern has studied under two of the world’s greatest archtop luthiers—Jimmy D’Aquisto and Bob Benedetto. Stern got his start apprenticing at a high-end cabinet shop straight out of high school. Five years of that prepared him for his first job as a builder at Jackson/Charvel Guitars. Stern came to the Custom Shop in 1993, working with D’Aquisto on the latter’s namesake line of guitars until the great luthier’s death in 1995.

In the late ’90s, millionaire collector Scott Chinery commissioned a number of custom archtop guitars by two dozen of the world’s finest living luthiers; Stern contributed a custom-built D’Aquisto Ultra. Chinery’s “Blue Guitar Collection” is now housed in the Smithsonian Institution. Stern also built a handful of exquisite archtops in collaboration with the Walt Disney Co. to commemorate the anniversary of the animated classic Fantasia.