This morning, Gretsch announced the new G6120DE Duane Eddy Signature Hollow Body guitar model with an awesome animated video of the original-era hit maker and true rock ‘n’ roll innovator.
The instrument is a single-cutaway beauty with classic styling and full, resonant sound that combines features based directly on his original 1957 G6120 model with modern Gretsch features that all together pay fitting tribute to the undisputed King of Twang.
Eddy is still going strong in 2011, and he will be forever revered as an original guitar hero who put a deep and resounding twang into rock ‘n’ roll. On a string of late 1950s and early ’60s instrumental hits, he used dramatic single-note melodies on the lower strings of his guitar, pronounced tremolo and vibrato, and liberal doses of echo to produce a signature sound that evoked souped-up cars on Saturday night one minute and the wide-open vistas of the Wild West the next. With unmistakably distinctive hits including “Rebel Rouser,” “Forty Miles of Bad Road,” “Cannonball,” “The Lonely One,” “Shazam” and “Some Kinda Earthquake,” he became the most successful instrumentalist in rock history, charting 15 top 40 singles from 1958 through 1963 and selling more than 100 million records worldwide.
The G6120DE’s bound single-cutaway hollow body has three-ply maple back, sides and arched top, with trestle bracing and bound oversized f holes. The three-piece bound maple neck has a brass nut, lacquer finish and slim profile based on Eddy’s original 1957 G6120, and is topped with a bound headstock. Other features include a 12”-radius rosewood fingerboard with 22 medium frets and hump-block pearloid inlays; dual DynaSonic™ single-coil pickups with three-position switching; gold plexi pickguard bearing Gretsch logo and Eddy’s signature; modern Tru-Arc™ bridge and Bigsby® B6CBDE vibrato tailpiece with Duane Eddy-style “DE” handle and extra-long string-retainer pins; gold G-arrow control knobs and gold-plated, chrome and polished aluminum hardware; gold-plated Grover® V98G Sta-Tite™ tuners; Dunlop Straplok® system; Desert Sunrise lacquer finish; and deluxe hard shell case.
The pure sound of Duane Eddy is the pure sound of a great Gretsch guitar, and the G6120DE resonates with his amazing sound and his amazing rock ‘n’ roll legacy as a true “Rebel Rouser” of an instrument.
Click here to watch the video!