[Steve DeRosa]

Those are the controls for the twin flip-up mufflers, which selectively allowed the player to mute only the lower strings (for Chet-style bass lines), the upper strings (rarely if ever done IME) or both together (great with the bridge pickup for "Mrs. Brown" quasi-banjo rhythm, or certain surf material of the day); the "orange dots" beneath either knob are actually red felt washers, intended to prevent inadvertent damage to the guitar top when the levers are hastily flipped (BTW original '62/'63 "red felt" Falcons/Country Gents/Nashvilles are held in high regard by hardcore Gretsch collectors - they were changed to black felt in early-/mid-1964, and the latter are linked to a decline in quality in the wake of massive demand triggered by you-know-who)..

FYI from a historical standpoint, the '62 and early '63 mute-equipped models had dial-up levers, topped with knobs that matched the volume controls (post-1958 Gretsch instruments - with the exception of the single-pickup Clipper/Corvette/Princess/Sal Salvador guitars - had a 3-way tone switch on the upper bout); Neil Young's seldom-seen double-cut '62 Falcon Project-o-Sonic had dial-up mutes, as did George Harrison's first '63 Gent - as stated above, the combination of flip mutes/red felt/sparkle f-hole binding (the '62 f-holes had black/white binding due to a problem with the gold material) make the Street Sounds reissue a late '63 rather than a true '62...