Gretsch Guitars
Gretsch is a U.S based company which makes most of
its money selling electric guitars and drum kits.
Gretsch was founded in 1883 by a German man called Friedrich
Gretsch who had emigrated from Germany to America. The first
Gretsch shop mostly manufactured; drums, banjos and tambourines. After
Friedrich's death when he was 39 his son Fred took over the shop. He listened
to what the people wanted and the people wanted guitars. This meant
building and selling guitars due to public demand. He moved it to a ten
story building in the Williamsburg district. this meant Gretsch became
one of the prominent musical instrument makers in America.
Initially, Gretsch offered acoustic archtops aimed at jazz musicians,
and a handful of flat-tops for country-western performers.
In 1935 Duke Kramer joined the Gretsch team and he was a mainstay due to
his great counsel.
"That distinctive sound was our product, the sound that energized the
market for decades," (Duke Kramer).
Fred Gretsch sr retired from the company in 1942, meaning his sons, Fred
jr and William had to take control.
Fred Gretsch, Jr. managed the company briefly, then
left the company to serve with distinction as a commander in the Navy, and Bill
Gretsch became president. Kramer recalls, "Bill was a man with a
subtle talent for inspiring people to do their best and a genius for
constructive counsel. His sense of humor was irresistible. When he passed away
in 1948, a legion of individuals felt they lost their best friend."
Command was again passed to Fred Gretsch, Jr. and the Navy veteran led
the company into a new age of prosperity in the "atomic age" '50s.
Gretsch, being the first to use custom color finishes, and offering a
wide variety of space age gizmos and gimmickry, was uniquely positioned to
succeed in the era. Through the 50s, they even outsold Leo Fender's wonderful
new creations. High-profile artists and endorsers like Chet Atkins.
The general opinion is that Gretsch's best years were around the 1950s
and 1960s. around these years Gretsch made several of its greates
models. This included the 'White Falcon', '6120 "Nashville",the duo
jet chambered 'solidbody', and the 'Country Club'.
Chet Atkins was a great contributor to Gretsch as an
endorser. He gave Gretsch a greater name meaning they could compete more
with Gibson and Fender. Chet Atkins has is name on many styles of Gretsch
guitars. For example the ;'Chet Atkins Tennessee Rose'. Gretsch
guitars in the 50s were also played by other big names like, 'Eddie
Coochran', and 'Duane Eddy'.
The '60s brought a further boost to Gretsch when George Harrison played
a succession of Gretsch models.
In the late 60s Fred Gretsch retired from the company and sold it on to
'Baldwin Manufacturing'.
The "Baldwin era" is not generally considered a high point in
Gretsch history, though new models were introduced through the seventies
and old favorites soldiered on. Solidbody guitars rose to prominence in rock,
with the harder styles of the era favoring Stratocasters and Les Pauls, and
hollowbodies fell in popularity. At the same time, buyers felt Gretsch
quality slipped as production moved from Brooklyn to Arkansas. It also didn't
help that there was 2 factory fires in the early 1970s which caused serious
problems.
With sales down and the head office increasingly disinterested, Gretsch
limped through the 70s.
In 1979, after Fred Jr's death, Chet Atkins withdrew his
endorsement in response to quality problems and Gretsch's unwillingness
to pursue his vision of a solidbody nylon-string guitar. Then in 1981
Baldwin Manufacture stopped production of Gretsch guitars.
In 1989, another Fred Gretsch, nephew of Fred Jr., and his wife Dinah
once again acquired their namesake company. The first new model was the very
unGretsch-like Traveling Wilburys model, an Asian import which looked
much like a Danelectro; the model was suggested by George Harrison, who wanted
to honor his own Gretsch history.
After numerous attempts to acquire facilities or contract production in the
United States failed, Fred Gretsch and long-time Gretsch employee
Duke Kramer, who advised Gretsch, turned to Terada of Japan, and
production began anew. A range of reissues appeared throughout the nineties to
mixed reviews. They were of generally high quality, but with notable
non-vintage details and features; occasional US-built "Custom Shop"
models were offered at significantly higher prices
In the 1980s, rockabilly revival player Brian Setzer
rekindled interest in Gretsch with his band The Stray Cats. His
influence continued through the 1990s with The Brian Setzer Orchestra and its
fusion of "hyperbilly" guitar and powerful big band
arrangements. In 1990, he became the first player since Chet Atkins to be
honored with a signature-model Gretsch, the Brian Setzer 6120, which is
now one of an extensive line of Setzer signature models. Setzer has been as
important to Gretsch's fortunes in the 1990-present reissue period as
Chet Atkins was in the fifties and sixties, and the visibility of
Gretsch in his hands has led to the brand's becoming a prominent choice
of rockabilly revivalists and psychobilly artists alike.
In rock, Malcolm Young of AC/DC played a Gretsch double cut Jet Firebird
(with the top finish stripped off and one pickup removed), and a Gretsch
White Falcon (as seen in the video "Back in Black") during the band's
career. In the 1990s
In late 2002, Gretsch and Fender reached an agreement
giving Fender most control over marketing, production and distribution of
Gretsch guitars (although the Gretsch family still owns
Gretsch Guitars).
Fender decided that the new Gretsch models were not enough like there
vintage kinds and so Fender changed many thinfgs to make the Gretsch
guitars sound and look more vintage.
Body and headstock shapes, which on reissues from the 90s and early 00s had
varied from 50s-60s practice, were made more vintage-correct. Hollowbodies were
returned to 3-ply construction rather than the 5-plies of the 1990-2002 period.
Filtertron double-coil pickups were redesigned by TV Jones to sound more like
vintage pickups. Duo Jets were more extensively chambered, again in accordance
with vintage practice, and the trestle bracing of the 1959-1961 era was
re-introduced on the Setzer line and other selected models.
In January 2007, upon an agreement with the Atkins family, Gretsch announced the return of Chet Atkins as an endorser. The Country Classic models became Country Gentlemen once again, the name "Chet Atkins Hollowbody" returned to the 6120 Nashvilles, and the Tennessee Rose became the Chet Atkins Tennessee Rose. In July 2008, a limited run of Chet Atkins 6120 Stereo guitars was introduced, based on a famous prototype from 1956 which featured in several landmark Atkins recordings, but was never produced in series.
