One Hundred Years of Gretsch Guitars
It all started when a young German arrived on the boat and embarked in Brooklyn, USA. A century of Gretsch guitars came next and the legend of the “Great Gretsch Sound” was born.
The first products offered by the 27 year old Gretsch were surprisingly tambourines, drums and banjos. Unfortunately he died just 12 years later and his son Fred junior inherited the business.
But the teenage Fred wasn’t about to let his father’s legacy just die away. The company was built into one of the largest in the USA and in 1916 they had to move to a giant new building in Brooklyn.
But it wasn’t banjos and tambourines that people wanted. It was guitars. So that’s exactly what the young Fred started making.
The unique sound and tone of the guitars was the product rather than the guitars themselves. It was a recognizable and distinct sound becoming well known to both professional and keen enthusiastic guitatists alike.
Since then the Fred Gretsch Company has produced hundreds of different models from jazz archtops to strangely shaped square guitars, designed by prominent artists of the day.
Indeed one of those stars was the great Bo Diddley who designed a red rectangular guitar and Gretsch happily mannufactured it. It was not like anything ever seen before. But that was back in the 50s and since then Gretsch have reissued several of these older models with new technology built in.
The Gretsch G6199 is a little known companion to Bo Diddley’s original design. A bit of a skewed rectangular shape, the guitar was again red with black sides and back and packed a mean, heavy Gretsch sound. They became very rare.
But recently the Gretsch G6199 has been reissued by the company and is bolder and better than ever.
The new design has been added to by the legendary ZZ Top guitarist Billy F Gibbons and bears 2 TV Jones pickups and 5 knobs.
Also known as a Jupiter Thunderbird, Bo Diddley and Billy Gibbons have together produced a cracking design in the G6199.
It’s like a Frankenstein experiment gone wrong and this quirky guitar is sure to be popular with the stylish and suave Gretsch fans around the world.
It’s doubtful that the young German immigrant Fred would have imagined such a creation when he first opened his shop in Brooklyn and no doubt he’d be surprised that the copmany was still creating such beautiful products over 100 years later.
The Gretsch 6199 is a great addition to the Gretsch stable of artist signature guitars. Who knows what they’ll come up with next! But it’s bound to be eye and ear catching all in one.
Tags: gretsch 6199, gretsch g6199
