[bobhoward]

Originally Posted by ampe

i'm sorry to dissapoint
but that's technicly not a gretsch

Who technocly cares? Whatever DeArmond type guitar that lead guitar player is playing sounds fantastic.

[paspallum]

Glad you guys are digging the thread still

Keep posting
I can't believe what I started here .... ansd it surprises me every time I check it out
someone has always found a new pic of a new Gretsch player!

Yeah!

Paspallum

[digdown2001]

Thanks to this thread, I found out Pete Townshend used a '57 6120 to record Won't get Fooled Again. I'll never smirk during CSI Miami again (shouldn't be hard, I haven't seen an episode yet).

[hardmodskin]

What the??? I'm surprised too...never thought Townshend ever used a Gretsch, and I'm a major Who fanatic!! This thread rocks.

[digdown2001]

Yep, recorded on a '57 6120, late '50's Fender Bandmaster amp and an Edwards steel volume pedal, all given to him by Joe Walsh, a lot of "Who's Next" was recorded with that setup, and not the SG Townshend was quoted as saying "whenever I hook those three things up, it's a sound from heaven"....great trivia...

Steve

[j.s.c]

Originally Posted by digdown2001

Yep, recorded on a '57 6120, late '50's Fender Bandmaster amp and an Edwards steel volume pedal, all given to him by Joe Walsh, a lot of "Who's Next" was recorded with that setup, and not the SG Townshend was quoted as saying "whenever I hook those three things up, it's a sound from heaven"....great trivia...

Steve

Wow, Was it a 57 model with dyna pickups ? I thought it was a 1959 or 60 model...with filtertrons.

[j.s.c]

from : www.thewho.net

PT: I never really got into old guitars until Joe Walsh (James Gang) rang me up one night and said, “I’ve got something for you,” because we buy one another presents. He buys me old concert amps and I buy him synthesizers and we have become very good friends. Anyway, he said, “I’ve got something for you,” and I said “What?” and he said, “A 1957 Gretsch.”

GP: Chet Atkins type?

PT: Right, with real f-holes. I said, “Great, cheers, man,” and it turned out to be a real knockout. I was being polite. I opened the case and it was bright orange and I thought, “Ugh! It’s horrible, I hate it.” I went home and went into my studio and plugged it in and it totally wrecked me out, it’s the best guitar I’ve got now. It’s the Chet Atkins model, with double pickups, f-holes and single cut-away.

GP: Doesn’t it have a mellow sound, though; it doesn’t “chunck”, does it?

PT: Oh, I used that guitar on every track on Who’s Next, it’s the best guitar I’ve ever had. It won’t stay in tune on stage but if it did, I would use it. It’s the finest guitar I’ve ever owned, it’s the loudest guitar I’ve ever owned. It is so loud, man, it whips any pickup that I’ve ever come across. It’s maybe six or seven times louder than anything I’ve come across. If I plugged it in my amp tonight, normally I’d be working on volume 6 or 7, but I would work this guitar on 1.

------

I don't believe it was a dyna equipped without Trestle Bracing. It would be too noisy and too prompt to feedback...

There is also a note :
Pete often is quoted as identifying this guitar as a 1957 Chet Atkins model or a Country Gentleman model. However, all photographic evidence of Pete’s studio use of a Gretsch hollowbody indicate this is a 1959 Chet Atkins Hollow Body model, as indicated by the Filter’Tron pickups, dual top-bout switches, V-shaped nickel-plated Bigsby and zero fret, all features introduced in the 1958 or 1959 Chet Atkins models.

It is also possible this guitar is a 1960 model based on the ‘V’-shaped Bigsby B-6 tailpiece. Although the ‘V’-shaped Bigsby B-6 tailpiece was widely adopted in 1960, sources such as the Vintage Guitar Info pages, indicate that it had begun to be introduced in 1959. Of note, 1960 models have a 16″ x 2.5″ body, whereas 1959 models have a 16″ x 2.75″ body.

[David Gurr]

Alex Trimble from Two Door Cinema Club

[JC higgy]

They're from just down the road from me!

[digdown2001]

Originally Posted by j.s.c

Wow, Was it a 57 model with dyna pickups ? I thought it was a 1959 or 60 model...with filtertrons.

j.s.c. you answered that one very well, there seems to be some contention about the year, either way, ('57, as Pete states, or '59), it looks like it may have been modified (in which case I'd tend to think Pete is right and it's a '57)...but, who knows?? (sorry for the bad pun)... either way, it's obvious he fell in love with it. I do know Joe Walsh's inspiration for giving it to him was based on his (JW) Neil Young fetish... image below:

[digdown2001]

Uh oh........ it did get repaired!!

[digdown2001]

Now I'm confused, in '58 Gretsch used pre- Patent Applied For F'trons, and the neoclassic thumb inlays were introduced, but in this '73 image (see below), I don't see any thumb inlays. Did they make a 6120 in '59 or after without the thumbprint inlays? I know in images in the late '70's and '80's, he uses a 6120 with the inlays, so he clearly had either two different guitars, or had the old one repaired with a new neck.........still baffling to me...hang on....I think I do see the neoclassic inlays!! And a zero fret (which was introduced in '59)..OK, I agree, probably a '59

Steve

[hoodoovoodoo9]

The Sadies, ripping'n'picking geetar players


Mike Ness, of Social D and solo career


This one says it all... in fact, that Falcon ended up landing in England and helping to start out the Sex Pistols.


Sorry if these are repeats, but this here's an awfully long thread, and i dig it!!

[JC higgy]

Here's that Shakira pic i mentioned earlier,it doesn't look like her though!

[bobkat]

How bout dis here feller? He was on Leno last night, wearing the strap I made him!

[bobkat]

Uhhhh, in case you didn't know, that is our own Halwestin, better known as Darrel Higham!!

[paspallum]

Well - Love those Pete Townshend pics
Love the guy... his music... his taste in guitars..... His playing...

but he should be doing hard time for all the guitars he's destroyed - his Karma would have been better if he'd GIVEN them away to unknown guitar lovers (via this forum?)

here's another rare pic

Chet... late 70's? Early 80's?
can anyome date it?

[ReverberatingDream]

Kenichi Asai and his Tennessean:


Yeah. I only show up to plug Blankey Jet City...

I love all these pics! This forum has the best of everything, my goodness.

[araT]

Great to see this thread making a revival

[DimeStoreRiot]

Forgive me if this one has been posted already, but what about Lowman Pauling from the Five Royales? I was checking them out lately after hearing the tribute album Steve Cropper did (with Steve Winwood, Bettye Lavette, and some others), and really got into Pauling's guitar work - some pretty progressive leads, and a pretty greasy distorted tone(!), for the early 1950s.

Anyway, I wanted to see a picture of him, and when I pulled it up I was stoked to see what kind of guitar he plays!