I find it hard to see the difference between Rockabilly and traditional Rock & Roll. 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.
Yet for Rockabilly, which to my ears sounds similar to traditional Rock & Roll, a Gretsch guitar is favoured. Is there a musical/sound reason for this preference or is it just another reason to buy another guitar?
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Setzer got it from Cochran who played a Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins Western model.
In the 50's there was much more plurality of guitar model.
Carl Perkins used Gibson.
Buddy Holly a Strat.
Scotty Moore played Gibson and Fender Telecaster.
Bill Hailey played a Gibson Super 400.
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The Telecaster is a country guitar-Status Quo, Stranglers...
Stratocaster is a surf guitar...Hendrix
Les Paul's and Jazzmasters were designed for jazz.
I remember not see a LP on top of the pops for years, along comes Slash.
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I don't think it's anything to do with sound and is more just tradition. IMO I think a Gibson can be dialled in to twang, a Gretsch to be warm and midrangey, at least as close as it would need to be.
I think the Gretsch cosmetics always look a bit more influenced by '50s cars (although it might be that for all my lifetime - and I'm old - I've associated Gretsch guitars with '50s cars). The hot rod 50's car thing seems central to the Rockabilly genre (although you could probably say that about traditional rock-n-roll).
Another thing might be the high percentage of Gretsch guitars that have a Bigsby as stock? The whole wiggle/shimmer thing seems very popular with the be-quiffed ones.
That's why Billy Duffy of the Cult picked a Falcon as well- big guitar, plenty of bling, makes a big statement and gets you noticed.
Sounds great in his hands as well.
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It's a great guitar & I've been really impressed by how versatile it is- it even sounds good unplugged, so I don't use my acoustic as often.
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.
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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.