gretsch – Preservation Sound

Above: Tony Mottola with a Gibson ES -355 in 1966.

Misc Fender guitars circa 1966: a Coronado 2, an acoustic (perhaps a Villager?), a Jaguar, and the humble Musicmaster.

Above: the very rare Gretsch Fury Amp circa 1966. This is actually a fairly unique amplifier. There is one on eBay right now that’s about to sell and it has two output transformers: whether this is a 2-way system or perhaps an dry/effects split operation or panning tremolo I cannot tell. Can anyone provide a schematic for this unit? It does not seem to be currently available on the ‘net.

Above: The Harmony Silhouette guitar circa 1966. I passed on an unplayed, flawless example of this thing for $175 last year and wow do i regret it. While not a great instrument in most senses, in the right hands these Harmonys have a zing-y percussive tone that cannot be imitated. The instrument’s personality comes across even in the iphone-audience-recording that’s i’ve inserted below. Great Lennon-meets-Hendrix playing here. Also btw check out how Annie Clark (or her FOH guy,,,) flips on the vox ADT effect for the choruses. Great performance all around.

Gretsch Guitars 1978 Full-Line Catalog

Download the entire eight-page 1978 Gretsch Electric Guitars Catalog:

DOWNLOAD: GretschElectricGuitars1978Catalog

Models covered, in text and photo: include: Gretsch #7595, 7594, and 7593 White Falcon; #7680 and 7685 Super Axe and Atkins Axe; the usual #7690 super Chet, 7670 Country Gentleman, 7660 Nashville, and 7655 Tennessean; The Gretsch Committee #7628 and 7629 bass; Roc Jet #7611; Country Roc #7620; TK 300 #7625 and Bass #7627; Broadkaster #7609; and Country Club #7576.

The late 70’s were hardly the most lauded period in Gretsch history; were it not for the lingering (after-after-after) effects of ‘Beatlemania’ I doubt they would have even lasted this long. Interesting to see that they have kept most of the circa 1964 classics intact; but more interesting is the scattered approaches to innovation that they assumed with their newer models, like the Alembic-influenced Committee models seen above. BTW; an etymological question: when did the phrase ‘designed by committee’ become synonymous with ‘bad design’ rather than ‘this is a positive feature’?

Not really sure where they were going with the TK300 line… Punk/new wave maybe? Odd-shape-for-the-sake-of-odd-shape? Then figure in the oft-noted ‘Super Axe’ with its built-in phaser and compressor, already several years into production (feel like they beat Gibson to the party here… feel like the RD artists came later…).

Did anyone really think that phase-shift was such a fantastic effect that you would want it around for ever and ever and ever in your guitar? As much as I dislike 80’s guitar design, at least people had the good sense not to market high-end guitars in the 80’s with built in chorus and flange effects (prove me wrong here people…).