How the right people and the right company came together at the right time to create a legendary line of electric guitars By Fred W. Gretsch In summer 1954, my uncle, Fred Gretsch Jr., and a rising Nashville session and recording guitar star named Chet Atkins put their signatures on a simple two-page contract. Neither
Brian Westfall of the Chicago Music Exchange recently put a Gretsch G6119-1962HT Chet Atkins Tennessee Rose through the paces in a pretty sweet demo. In the clip below, the classic guitar gets a workout with riffs from Johnny Rivers ("Secret Agent Man"), the Turtles ("So Happy Together") and, of course, the Beatles ("It Won't Be Long").
The Killers touring guitarist Ted Sablay sat down with Gretsch to discuss how he got into playing guitar and what led him to Gretsch.
The staff at Chicago Music Exchange recently got their hands on a 1963 Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120 and posted a video that got up close and personal to the classic guitar. "We were lucky enough to purchase this from a pro player who owned, played and loved (ie. took meticulous care of) this guitar for
By this time of year, we’ve all been inundated with holiday music for weeks. The standards are inescapable, as it seems that every radio station is blaring some version of “Silent Night” or “Santa Claus is Coming to Town.” We tend to look in different places for our Christmas tunes. Sure, there might be a time and a place for some Manheim Steamroller, but there are so many more gems out there that can serve as a much-needed changeup. So as we get ready to unwrap presents and sip on some nutmeg-infused eggnog, here are five great Gretsch holiday tunes that should be on your playlist right now:
How does the switching work on Gretsch guitars? Of the approximately 100 Gretsch electric guitar and bass guitar models available today, about half of them have a single switch on the upper bout. The other half have two switches on the upper bout. A dozen or so models even have a switch on the lower
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s special exhibition Chet Atkins: Certified Guitar Player, which was originally scheduled to close on June 11, has been extended through July 15. The exhibit is being held over in part to accommodate members of the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society, who will visit Nashville in July. The extension also
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum will present two special programs next month in support of the exhibition Chet Atkins: Certified Guitar Player. On March 3, The Life and Times of Chet Atkins by Dr. Richard Hood will be presented in the museum’s Ford Theater. Hood, an Atkins scholar and finger-style guitarist himself,
This Sunday at 2 p.m., the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville will screen a legendary concert film featuring Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed from 1992. Taped at the Bottom Line, the duo scheduled the show after putting out a Grammy Award-winning album titled Sneakin' Around. The two finger-style guitar giants banter on stage
As 2011 wound down, Rolling Stone compiled a list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time, and George Harrison stands at No. 11 among the prolific list of virtuoso musicians. In the early-December issue of the magazine, Tom Petty offered Harrison high praise. Wrote Petty: "George Harrison and I were once in a car and