February 28, 2010
Billy-Bo Jupiter Thunderbird - A Stunner form Gretsch Guitars
Brooklyn was where it all began when a young Immigrant from Germany arrived to make his fortune. One hundred years of Gretsch guitars followed and the "grets Gretsch Sound" became legendary.
The first products offered by the 27 year old Gretsch were surprisingly tambourines, drums and banjos. Sadly he passed away only 13 years later and the young Fred junior was given control of the company.
But teenage Fred wasn't your usual teenager and was not about to see his father's legacy fade away. The company was built into one of the largest in the USA and in 1916 they had to move to a giant new building in Brooklyn.
But it wasn't banjos and tambourines that people wanted. It was guitars. So that's exactly what the young Fred started making.
The product was not the guitars themselves but the strongly individualistic sound they created. It was a recognizable and distinct sound becoming well known to both professional and keen enthusiastic guitatists alike.
Since then the Fred Gretsch Company has produced hundreds of different models from jazz archtops to strangely shaped square guitars, designed by prominent artists of the day.
One of those great musicians was the legendary Bo Diidley who designed a square guitar, built and produced by the Gretsch company. It was not like anything ever seen before. But that was back in the 50s and since then Gretsch have reissued several of these older models with new technology built in.
Another less well known guitar designed by Bo Diddley was the Gretsch G6199. A bit of a skewed rectangular shape, the guitar was again red with black sides and back and packed a mean, heavy Gretsch sound. They became very rare.
But recently the Gretsch G6199 has been reissued by the company and is bolder and better than ever.
The new design has been added to by the legendary ZZ Top guitarist Billy F Gibbons and bears 2 TV Jones pickups and 5 knobs.
Also known as a Jupiter Thunderbird, Bo Diddley and Billy Gibbons have together produced a cracking design in the Gretsch G6199.
It's like a Frankenstein experiment gone wrong and this quirky guitar is sure to be popular with the stylish and suave Gretsch fans around the world.
It's doubtful that the young German immigrant Fred would have imagined such a creation when he first opened his shop in Brooklyn and no doubt he'd be surprised that the copmany was still creating such beautiful products over 100 years later.
The Gretsch 6199 is a great addition to the Gretsch stable of artist signature guitars. Who knows what they'll come up with next! But it's bound to be eye and ear catching all in one.
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