Why are Gretsch guitars so associated with Rockabilly?

Sassafras

They've got a sharp attack and less sustain which seems more appropriate for rockabilly.

Caffeine_Vampire

Basher said:

Offset said:

slacker said:

I remember not see a LP on top of the pops for years, along comes Slash. 

Off the top of my head... Paul Kossoff?  Jan Akkerman?  Mick Ronson?!  And all the decades in between...

To be fair, I think it did go a bit quiet on the LP front during the 80s.

Caffeine_Vampire said:

The straight rock 'n' rollers will play all the usual Fender/Gibson suspects but if you try to play anything other than a Gretsch in a Psychobilly band then you're asking for trouble. 

That's this poor fucker's goose cooked then...



Although, to be fair (again), some Guild/DeArmond models seem to split the difference between Gretsch and Gibson.

Yep, Guild/DeArmond gets you a ticket in.

Rocker

ICBM said:

Rocker said:

By traditional Rock & Roll, I mean the style of playing of Chuck Berry and George Thorogood.  Essentially based on the blues chord pattern with a shuffle beat.  The type of guitar they use is a Gibson 335.

downbytheriver said:

Actually George Thorogood usually used a thinline ES-125 and Chuck Berry used all kinds of guitars before apparently settling on a 355.

Because the 335 family did not exist before 1958, by which time rock 'n' roll was almost over, at least in its original form.

Most of the early rock 'n' rollers actually used fully hollow Gibsons or other similar guitars, with a few using Fenders. Chuck Berry mainly used an ES-350 before the 335-types.

Very interesting and something I did not know. I always assumed that Chuck Berry played a 335. I am not up to speed on the various Gibson semi and hollow guitar models. 

hollywoodrox

Caffeine_Vampire said:

The straight rock 'n' rollers will play all the usual Fender/Gibson suspects but if you try to play anything other than a Gretsch in a Psychobilly band then you're asking for trouble. 

Who put grandma under the stairs ,oh no it wasn’t me 

hollywoodrox

 I so wanna be Fortus as much as I wanna be Slash , must keep practicing 

imalrightjack

hollywoodrox said:

 I so wanna be Fortus as much as I wanna be Slash , must keep practicing 

AKA Shizzy. Shit Izzy*

* - kidding but Izzy is one of the most under-rated guitarist ever. 

hollywoodrox

Izzy is great , good singer and writer too , he’s not really into the big guns n roses circus any more unfortunately .  I like Gilby too , he writes some great songs 

https://youtu.be/hjBxxuYzdxM

Caffeine_Vampire

hollywoodrox said:

Caffeine_Vampire said:

The straight rock 'n' rollers will play all the usual Fender/Gibson suspects but if you try to play anything other than a Gretsch in a Psychobilly band then you're asking for trouble. 

Who put grandma under the stairs ,oh no it wasn’t me 

You're demented

DrumBob

The whole retro rockabilly thing is very much governed by fashion, style and conformity, it seems. Years ago, I interviewed the guitarist from the band Hot Rod Lincoln, retro rockabillys from Los Angeles. The guitarist went on and on about the sh** they had to endure in the beginning, because they didn't conform to the style of clothing and so forth that the rockabilly Nazis expected. Setzer really started that scene going and he's pretty much responsible for the way it is today. The Stray Cats were hugely influential, particularly in Europe. Rockabilly had a fling here for a while, but its popularity has largely died out. 

Gretsch guitars have been pigeon-holed as rockabilly instruments, and they shouldn't be, but again, it's all down to style and fashion. 

NelsonP

Caffeine_Vampire said:

The straight rock 'n' rollers will play all the usual Fender/Gibson suspects but if you try to play anything other than a Gretsch in a Psychobilly band then you're asking for trouble. 

How about this guy?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_Meteors_live_in_Pordenone,_Italy,_2006.jpg

ICBM

I’d guess the ‘real’ bands can get away with a lot more than the second- and third-tier bands playing small gigs.

I was briefly in a 50s-style rock ‘n’ roll band and played a club in Leicester which had a big rockabilly scene - I was using a gold-refinished ‘65 Fender Musicmaster and a Mesa DC-5… on the ‘pushed clean’ setting the Mesa sounded pretty much the same as everyone else’s amps which were all tweeds of various kinds, but I got a bit of gentle stick for it from one of the other guitarists. The guitar was deemed acceptable though .

artiebear

I’m not sure why they are the rockabilly go to, apart from a certain aesthetic, but being late to Gretsch  ( a 6120 ) and having opportunity to buy tons of them, mostly 50’s /60’s models, the first thing that hit me upon getting to know my 6120 was how many of those tones are part of the DNA of classic recordings throughout the history of pop / rock music. Set up the P/U’s right and it will do anything without losing it’s character. Great guitars.. ( they do look cool, but need a certain swagger to pull off the whole image package ).

26.2

The correct answers are Eddie Cochran, Cliff Gallup and Chet Atkins. The rest follows….

Snap

Any guitar will do anything really. I remember when I bought a tele in 1989 and the chap was telling me how it couldn't do high gain stuff. I didn't get this at all.  I had a Boss Heavy Metal pedal. 

Anacharsis

I love Gretsch guitars for a range of sounds and kinds of music - especially the Jet and the little-loved three pickup first version of the 5622T. They've got a great, clear sound, and you can mod them with a range of pickups.

breakstuff

Caffeine_Vampire said:

The straight rock 'n' rollers will play all the usual Fender/Gibson suspects but if you try to play anything other than a Gretsch in a Psychobilly band then you're asking for trouble. 

 P Paul Fenech of The Meteors played a Gibson Flying V in the early days, and you can't really get much more Psychobilly than them. Mostly plays a Strat nowadays. Seen other Psycho bands using Telecasters back in the day too. A lot of the modern Psycho bands do mostly play Gretsch though, from what I've seen. 

Reverend

Rocker said:

Back in the 1970s, Gretsch guitars were rated similar to Ibanez.  And that was not good.  It seems that both brands have upped their game considerably since those days.

70s ibanez are the holy grail of heavy rock/metal guotar tones.

Tannin

As I recall, "rockabilly" was a meaningless term dreamed up by tour managers in the conservative American Midwest for bands playing much the same sort of music as Elvis. Many venues wouldn't book bands playing that immoral new lock-up-your-daughters rock and roll type of music, and many radio station banned it. Like many others, Buddy Holly and the Crickets got into tour venues and played on radio stations because their management assured the booking agents "Oh no, not at all.  Nothing like Elvis. None of that bad stuff. My boys play good, clean rockabilly. And the kids love them!"

The kids, of course, knew exactly what they were hearing. You could have called it "rock and roll" or "rockabilly: or "chicken soup" and Buddy Holly would still have packed the venues out. 

Rocker

Reverend said:

Rocker said:

Back in the 1970s, Gretsch guitars were rated similar to Ibanez.  And that was not good.  It seems that both brands have upped their game considerably since those days.

70s ibanez are the holy grail of heavy rock/metal guotar tones.

Now Ibanez are, as you say, the holy grail of rock/metal guitar tone.  In the 1970s, any Ibanez guitars I ever saw were poor quality copies of the usual American suspects.  Slightly better than most of the mail order rubbish guitars that were available back then.  Nowhere near the quality of the lower end Squier guitars of today.

Philly_Q

Rocker said:

Reverend said:

Rocker said:

Back in the 1970s, Gretsch guitars were rated similar to Ibanez.  And that was not good.  It seems that both brands have upped their game considerably since those days.

70s ibanez are the holy grail of heavy rock/metal guotar tones.

Now Ibanez are, as you say, the holy grail of rock/metal guitar tone.  In the 1970s, any Ibanez guitars I ever saw were poor quality copies of the usual American suspects.  Slightly better than most of the mail order rubbish guitars that were available back then.  Nowhere near the quality of the lower end Squier guitars of today.

I suspect @Reverend is thinking of a particular Ibanez Rocket Roll (Flying V) owned by Mr Bruce Franklin of Trouble...