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.

All about body electric guitars including Ibanez and Gretsch at: gretch.

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Joell Ortiz Mixtapes - The Early Years

Getting started in the hip hop industry is difficult on its own, and many artists need to deal with personal issues on top of it all. While he was recording and releasing the first Joell Ortiz mixtapes, the artist had quite a lot to deal with both in and out of the studio. Although the early years were not easy, they gave him material for excellent hip hop songs that would take him far into his career.

Joell Ortiz was born in 1980 in Brooklyn, New York, where he competed in a number of rap battles throughout the years. While competing, he met a number of artists who would influence his sound and eventually put the experiences into the first Joell Ortiz mixtapes. While working on new mixtapes, he also put his energy into locking down a record deal.

In 2004, Joell Ortiz started getting the attention he deserved when he appeared on The Source Magazine's Unsigned Hype list. He was also on the Chairman's List for XXL Magazine, but his big break came when he won the EA Sports Battle that year. As the winner of the battle, he was given the opportunity to record a song for release on the NBA Live Soundtrack.

After appearing on the NBA Live Soundtrack, Joell Ortiz finally got the break for which he had been looking. Hip hop legend Jermaine Dupri signed Ortiz to his label, So So Def Records. Unfortunately, the deal did not pan out and Ortiz began collaborating with artists like KRS-One and Kool G. Rap to release new Joell Ortiz mixtapes.

Finally, after shopping around for a new deal, Ortiz signed to Dr. Dre's label, Aftermath Records. Although he was signed to Aftermath, Dre let him take an opportunity to record an album with Koch Records entitled The Brick: Bodega Chronicles. It seemed as if things were finally going his way, but many personal issues distracted the rapper from pursuing his success. He has been compared to Big Pun many times now, a comparison that he takes very seriously.

Joell Ortiz mixtapes provided a great venue for the rapper to stay connected to the industry when his record deal fell apart. Unfortunately, he had personal issues to deal with in addition to his professional issues and his career took a rocky turn for quite awhile. However, with some perseverance and patience, Joell Ortiz would eventually get back on track and realize his dream of making it in the rap industry.

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Jim Jones Mixtapes - The Early Years

Even when their rap mixtapes are a success, many artists need to work long and hard before they are successful in the commercial markets. Jim Jones mixtapes are a perfect example of an artist who had to wait quite awhile before finally becoming successful in the mainstream. The early years were difficult but Jim Jones eventually became one of the biggest stars in the hip hop industry.

Jim Jones was born Joseph Guillermo Jones II in 1976. He was born in the Tremont section of The Bronx but was raised in Harlem. While growing up, he attended Catholic school but would often cut classes to hang out at the local train station. The experiences he had around the train station influenced him greatly and appeared in later mixtapes.

After releasing a few mixtapes, he released his first major album, On My Way To Church, in 2004. Two singles were released off of the album, entitled "Certified Gangsters" and "Crunk Muzik." Unfortunately for Jones, they only reached numbers eighty and eighty-four respectively on the hip hop music charts. He returned to the studio and started working on songs that would get better radio play and make him a household name. When he first came out with Cam'ron, no one had any idea who he was, besides Cam'ron's homie.

In 2005, Jim Jones released his sophomore album, Harlem: Diary Of A Summer. Although the album reached number five on the Billboard charts, Jim Jones was once again disappointed with the performance of the singles on the radio. "Baby Girl" made it to number fifty-eight on the charts, while "What You Been Drankin' On" did not get any higher than number one hundred and six.

Not to be deterred by the disappointing reaction to his hip hop songs, he released another album in 2006 called Hustler's P.O.M.E., which stood for Product Of My Environment. The lead single was called "We Fly High" and featured rap superstar Lil Wayne. His perseverance paid off and Jim Jones saw his new record become certified gold.

Jim Jones mixtapes were just one stop on the long road to success for the rapper. He released two albums that had disappointing sales and even more disappointing radio play before finally putting out the album which put him on the map. His willingness to stick it out through the hard times helped launch him into stardom, but there was much more in the future for this rap artist.

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