GRETSCH GUITARS - THE ARTFUL ICON
By Billy Murphy - From Vintage Guitar Magazine
But isn't this the very art and status
of Gretsch; giving so many artists a
voice? Not simply a twangy voice, or a
sustaining voice or a diving Bigsby "is it
out of tune or is it in tune ?" voice, but a
voice for their words, tones, emotions,
passion and image. Even God loves a
Strat, but could Eddie Cochran have
been the Eddie Cochran without a 6120?
If there ever was an illustration to the
adage, "The whole equals more than the
sum of its parts," it 's a Gretsch guitar.
With every blistering Setzer run, you not
only hear Brian 's talent, discipline and
love, you also feel his guitar -its history
and its journey; its womanly curves
that Setzer none-too-coincidently hugs
as his own.
But how did Gretsch get where it is on
this evolutionary six-string food chain?
In those beginning days, there were no
marketing plans.There was no focus
group research. Yet for some reason
the Gretsch guitar,in its form
and design, has become an icon.
Who do we thank? Who do we
even congratulate? Was it even
a conscious result of the guitar - maker? Gretsch guitars reached
their prominence in a time when
the cart came before the horse,
when guitars were made for
the average man to play his
average tune. Not like to-
day, when guitars seem
designed and built for
that imaginary star
who might someday
be playing it.
To understand the revered artistic and iconic
status of the Gretsch guitar, one has to first appreciate the
past. Gretsch has something few guitar
companies can emulate. Gretsch has
history. The ideal of "Respect your elders," has become a lost art in American
culture, yet this is one of the very reasons
so many artists, players and fans love
Gretsch so much. Even with the models
made in the 21st century, lovers of the
guitar can see and feel the age of the
company's 123-year heritage. Gretsch
has lived in three centuries and its age
wears well.
The first truly iconic, artful Gretsch
guitars showed up the same year Rhett
told Scarlett, "Frankly, my darling, I
don't give a damn." In 1939, Dorothy was
skipping off to the Emerald City when
Gretsch guitars appeared with all sorts
of visual (and technical) peculiarities.
They had the catseye teardrop
sound holes that would later
plaster MTV 30 times a day in
George Michael's biggest hit,
"Faith." They had the staggered art-deco "chromatic"
tailpiece and bridge that
suspiciously echoed the shape
of that tower in Oz. Gretsch Synchromatic guitars were true pieces
of art. Maybe the radical design
came from the genius of Jimmy
Webster,who had just
started with the company. Maybe it came
from Gretsch's being
bored with following
Gibson's form-and-function approach.
You couldn't imitate
a better guitar, but Fred
Gretsch,Sr. was tired of
living in the shadows.
Fred,Sr. was truly the
first, and maybe the best,
inventor of Gretsch progress. Early in the century, he worked to
make Gretsch American drums a true
master work of design and innovation.
With his ant-like colony of personnel,
he developed the first warp-free drum
hoop and virtually invented the throw-
off snare. Later, he made Gretsch the
first mass producer of drums to listen
to Louie Bellson's crazy idea of the
double-bass set up (Alex Van Halen
says "Thank you."). The two worked
together to break free of traditional
guitar construction and sculpt Gretsch's
first gallery-worthy guitars.
But it wouldn't be just the shape or
the gadgetry of Gretsch guitars that
brought them to the throne of veneration. Gretsch might just have been the
first guitar maker to inject the six-string
with something cal led "vibe." What made Myrna Loy stand out among
all actresses? She wasn't prettier
or more glamorous. She just
projected that extra vibe, that
undeterminable undeniable. So
it was, too,with the 1957 Chevy
and the 1964 1/2 Mustang. Jayne
Mansfield had the prettier face and
the tighter body, but Marilyn had the
vibe. Gretsch does too.
Transcending time, space and
even music's worst enemy,
faddishness, Gretsch has
never been out of sync. A
Gretsch guitar is equally
as beautiful in Duane
Eddy's 1950s rebel rousing or Bo Diddley's
'60s rhythm as it is in
the ugliness of '70s glam
rock or '80s new wave .
When Soundgarden forged
grunge into the pop music
of t he '90s, Chris Cornell
slammed it every step of
the way with a plethora of reissue
Sparkle Jets. They were gold and pearl
and silver. They were ugly, dirty and
beautiful all at the same time. Neil
Young is infamous for stirring the
masses with his Bigsby-harnessed Les
Paul, but when he straps on his big
switch-and-knob-laden White Falcon,
the audience melts.
Download the complete story: 
Reprint courtesy of Vintage Guitar Magazine.
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