Original Photos. This is how it arrived. It had been painted with what appeared to be redwood fence paint and a pretty sloppy job at that. I have pretty well nailed it down to a 1945 vendor built guitar however it does not exactly fit George Gruhns description as it has a solid spruce top and the logo is different.

Well, you can see the difference. Thanks to ebay, I was able to find a Gretsch stair step bridge and a proper Gretsch tail piece with Gretsch embossed in the hinge. I used nitrocellulose lacquer for the finish which is yet to be final sanded and buffed. The pickguard is one I made using a picture of a 49 New Yorker.. This guitar will never be what it once was but it is certainly a very nice playing guitar.

I wasn't able to do much with the cracks in the back. The previous owner had the back off and then glued it back on with epoxy. No way to get it off with out destroying it. I cleated the  cracks  that weren't previously repaired and then cleaned them out. The previous owner had tried to fill them in with the same goo he glued the back on with. I then made thin slips out of maple and worked them into the cracks. Not perfect but not bad. You can see the major cracks it the original photos. The back is a beautiful birds eye maple that must have been gorgeous when it was new.The fretboard has been cleaned and oiled.   I had to replace the binding on the back due to another failed repair job. 

I made the Headstock out of pickguard material. I drew the logo using Corel draw and had a company make the decal for me. I also installed Kluson deluxe tuners.