Gretsch Guitars - Their Early History

White Falcon. Chet Atkins Hollow Body 6120. These are two of the most famous electric guitars made by the celebrated Gretsch Guitar Company, founded in 1883. There have been many new reissues and similar models. Any Gretsch, though, is marked by a tendency to feedback and have baffling controls. These guitars have been described as coolly beautiful, stylishly glamorous, and tonally weird.

Founder Friedrich Gretsch started crafting drums, banjos, and tambourines. He died at the young age of 39, and his widow Rosa determined that their 15-year-old son should quit school at Wright's Business College for immediate exposure to the real world. Teenager Fred Gretsch directed his youthful enthusiasm into growing the Fred Gretsch Manufacturing Company, which would become the maker of its storied instruments.

This early growth took place in a large ten-story building at 60 Broadway in Brooklyn, alongside the path to the Willamsburg Bridge crossing the East River. Back in the 1910s, the most popular stringed instrument was not the guitar but the banjo. The guitar began to eclipse the banjo in the early 1920s and early 1930s because it was more versatile and appealing. Gretsch started to use its own name as a brand for its guitars in 1933, a line of archtop acoustics. These guitars, including the Gretsch American Orchestra Series and Broadkaster model, were not particularly unique. When the Synchromatic line replaced them in 1939, however, the pros began to take Gretsch guitars seriously. These instruments were larger, louder, and had cat's eye or triangular soundholes.

In 1940, Dick Sanford and Clarke Van Ness wrote a song called, "When I Play on my Gretsch Guitar", performed by singing cowboy Red River Dave. The lyrics went, "When the shadows grow/And the lights are low/Then I play on my Gretsch guitar/As I touch the strings/Like a voice it sings/It's the voice of my love afar".

A key addition to the guitar team was "Duke" Kramer. The company had a meeting in New York in 1946 to decide whether they wanted to pursue a jobber-distributor type operation, or whether to go for the big time and sell its products under the Gretsch logo. It was a crucial turning point. They went for their own brand reputation. On drums and guitars, Gretsch stopped selling to catalog houses and those who were only into low-price merchandise.

Fred Gretsch, Jr. wrote in the brochure Your Gretsch Guitar Guide, "A Gretsch guitar truly glorifies the talents of the artist who commands it". Hyperbole aside, this brochure heralded the new emphasis on guitars for pros. Gretsch issued a three-year guarantee for all of its guitars, covering any defects caused by faulty parts or workmanship. The market leader in electric guitars back then was Gibson. Gretsch entered the competition with its Electromatic II and Electro II cutaway body in 1951.

The early history of this guitar brand would not be complete without Jimmie Webster. A piano player and tuner, he became Gretsch's main ideas generator, combining his talents as a musician, inventor, salesperson, and global ambassador for Gretsch. He introduced the "Touch System". If you remember the "tapping" technique that Eddie Van Halen and others made famous in the 1980s, then you get a picture of Webster's way of producing chordal rhythms. His left hand would make a rapid hamming-on motion, and he would play the melody at the same time, using a pick by tapping the strings against the upper fingerboard with his right-hand fist. He would add a baseline with his thumb. This was like patting your head and rubbing your stomach simultaneously. One Gretsch guitar sounded like two.

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The Legendary Gretsch Guitar Legacy

What do "Snowbird", "I Wanna Be Your Man", and "Stray Cat Strut" have in common? They're all songs that have been performed using legendary Gretsch guitars. In a sense, Gretsch is to guitars as Stradivarius is to violins. Established in 1883 by Friedrich Gretsch, a German immigrant to America, the company became known in its early days for fine quality acoustic archtops. Friedrich passed away only 12 years after founding the company, which was taken over by his sons Fred and Bill.

Gretsch's fortunes took off when their instruments were endorsed by Chet Atkins, who became the artist most associated with Gretsch guitars in the 1950s. Atkins became known as the "Country Gentleman", a title used for the 17" signature model of Gretsch guitar launched in 1957. The Chet Atkins models were distinguished by their state-of-the-art technology and bright orange finish, at odds with the traditional naturalistic look that had prevailed in country music's ethos. The electric guitar was a key catalyst for the changes that the music was undergoing, broadening its range. With Gretsch guitars, Atkins pioneered what was to become known as the "Nashville Sound". He displayed an intense passion for the guitar as an instrument as well as a technological device. Atkins' distinctive finger-style approach and unusual demands fueled his interest in the sonoric qualities of the electric guitar.

With the advent of the Atkins series, Gretsch guitars began to play a large part in the development of rock n' roll. George Harrison and John Lennon gave the company its second big boost, destroying the monopoly that rival companies Gibson and Fender held. Gretsch guitars had weekly television exposure when the company supplied the guitars and drums for the Monkees beginning in the mid-1960s. The Monkees' fan base of teenage girls was not the prime demographic of the ideal Gretsch customer, however.

In 1967 the Gretsch Company was sold to Baldwin, and its fortunes ebbed. Customers said that quality slipped as production moved from Brooklyn to Arkansas. Fred Gretsch never found an adequate replacement, and after he died in 1979, Chet Atkins withdrew his endorsement. Eventually, in 1989, another Fred Gretsch, nephew of Fred Jr., and his wife bought the company back from Baldwin. George Harrison suggested a Traveling Wilburys model, which, while not like the great Gretsch classics, signaled that the company was back. In the 1980s, rockabilly revival or "hyperbilly" player Brian Setzer reignited interest in Gretsch guitars with his band the Stray Cats. The revival of Gretsch models continued with musicians spanning the range of rock to "country-fed punk" to heavy metal.

In late 2002, Gretsch and Fender reached an agreement giving Fender most control over marketing, production and distribution of guitars. With an array of models based on vintage designs being introduced, the "Gretsch sound" has continued to evolve-no two Gretsch guitars sound like. Raw, grainy, and gritty, the Gretsch guitar has retained the idiosyncratic charm of past and present.

More on Gretsch and Ibanez instruments at: http://www.body-electric.com/ -- Body Electric.

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