Vintage Guitar Magazine : Eddie Cochran's Gretsch G6120

[ZackyDog]

Greetings.



The article:

Eddie Cochran’s Gretsch 6120 | Vintage Guitar® magazine

One night in the late 1950s, Eddie Cochran set the world alight onstage in the City of

www.vintageguitar.com

 

[thunder58]

Nice article . I remember watching this a few years back

 

[loudnlousy]

Interesting read. Thank you for sharing, Zacky.

 

[Pemberton]

That pose is the epitome of cool!

 

[Emergence]

Thanks for the history. I was never into rockabilly when I was young but I’ve come to appreciate it. It’s funny how the twang associated with country and Telecasters grew out of rockabilly artists playing hollow body Gretsch guitars.

 

[Synchro]

Thanks for the history. I was never into rockabilly when I was young but I’ve come to appreciate it. It’s funny how the twang associated with country and Telecasters grew out of rockabilly artists playing hollow body Gretsch guitars.

The Telecaster sound and the Gretsch sound seem to overlap. Many of the Gretschies on the forum seem to have at least one Tele, and I have three of them. Conversely, my Country Gentleman can sound amazingly close to a Tele with single coils, which is quite surprising for a 17“ archtop.

I remember reading that Cochran installed the P-90 in the neck to accommodate a warmer sound for ballads. i played an EC Signature model some years ago, and it was exceptionally versatile. I could get a Jazz sound worthy of an ES-175, on the neck pickup, brightness worthy of a Telecaster (or even a Jaguar) on the bridge pickup, and both pickups together almost sounded like two guitars playing in very tight unison.

 

[aloner]

Not about the guitar per say, but a story i love from Gretsch player Richard Hawley who is a huge Eddie Cochran fan, was working with the legendary Scott Walker on a Pulp album, Scott was a child star in the 50s for a little while in the US before doing the whole Walker Brothers/solo career - they were at a record store together, and Hawley was looking at an Eddie Cochran disc, Scott came over and said "shake my hand" - Hawley wondered why but did it and Walker said - "I shook Eddie Cochran's hand and now he's shaking your hand through me"

 

[rocker]

Nice article . I remember watching this a few years back

The other guy in the video looks like James Intveld.

 

[The Mosh]

The other guy in the video looks like James Intveld.

That is James, A great singer player in his own right, His Brother Rick Inveltd was with Ricky Nelson when his plane went down in 1985 De Kalb texas. very sad and baffling ending.

 

[twangmanster]

Is this in the current issue?

 

[rocker]

It's from february 2017.

 

[Flyfysh46]

1993 My 6120-60.

 

[afire]

Sorry for the pedantry, but Eddie played a PX6120, not a G6120.

 

[Synchro]

Sorry for the pedantry, but Eddie played a PX6120, not a G6120.

What‘s the difference.

 

[afire]

What‘s the difference.

Gretsch has used a G prefix for model numbers only since its resurrection in 1989. Before that, the prefix was PX. I have never been able to figure out what the PX stands for, but Eddie's '55 6120 would have been a PX6120. Here's a closeup of the entry in the 1955 catalog:

 

[Synchro]

Gretsch has used a G prefix for model numbers only since its resurrection in 1989. Before that, the prefix was PX. I have never been able to figure out what the PX stands for, but Eddie's '55 6120 would have been a PX6120. Here's a closeup of the entry in the 1955 catalog:

I think that the PX designation meant that you had to buy them on a military base.

 

[6187LX]

"PX" was Gretsch's designation for electric guitars. Acoustic guitars got an "X" but there were at least two electric exceptions to that rule. An X6199 is a vintage Convertible model; a G6199 is a modern Billy-Bo. Nothin' pedantic about that.

 

[afire]

But that doesn’t explain what the “PX” means. Purely extralectical? Peaceful extremists? Pixies? Peas Exist? Paul Xavier? Objective truth exists. It simply needs to be found.

 

[Synchro]

But that doesn’t explain what the “PX” means. Purely extralectical? Peaceful extremists? Pixies? Peas Exist? Paul Xavier? Objective truth exists. It simply needs to be found.

I heard from a guy, that knew a guy, whose uncle bought a Labrador pup from a guy, that found a piece of paper that said that Gretsch intended to do a test market of these to the PX on military bases, and they were originally all supposed to be painted in Olive Drab. Now, you can't refute evidence like that.

On the other hand, it could be peaceful extremists.

 

[afire]

Now, you can't refute evidence like that.

I can’t. All comers are serious contenders as far as I’m concerned. If you can tie a “P” to an “X”, then you’re in the running.