Clearing up the Great Gretsch/Rockabilly Sham!

I've had a long-standing friendly argument with a couple of friends about guitars. This has gone on for 20+ years. We're all pickers, and we're all usually lumped under the rockabilly category too. They both love Gretsch guitars. I can take them or leave them. Rockabilly fans have asked me many times why I don't play a Gretsch, which is often associated with rockabilly music.

 

First, I point out that what I play ain't exactly rockabilly. Sure, there's a definite rockabilly influence...but there's also blues, jazz, surf, garage, punk, country, Tex-Mex, and even some Gypsy & African influences in my music. A Gretsch just ain't gonna cut it. Don't get me wrong, Gretsches have their place and their own, unique sound. But...for a picker who is coming from the afore-mentioned influences, a Gretsch just ain't gonna cut it.

 

The new Gretsches, mostly reissues, are well-made guitars. MUCH better made than the original ones, which tended to be very hit or miss. Back in the day, one could pick up a nice "vintage" Gretsch for a couple hundred dollars. We didn't call them "vintage" back then. We called them "used" or "second hand" or just "old". "Vintage" is a marketing term. It's used to sell old stuff at ridiculously high prices.

 

I've bought and sold a slew of Gretsches. I never came across one yet that I wanted to keep. I'd buy them cheap and turn around and sell them as high as I could. 25 years ago, that meant buying for $200-300 and selling for $1500 or so. (I really should've saved some of that money!)

 

I normally play a Telecaster. It can do anything! Whether I'm playing with my band, playing hired gun backing up someone else, or doing a recording session, my Teles get the job done like no other. To me, they're tools. It's been said that a Telecaster can sound like anything but nothing sounds like a Telecaster. Aside from them, I have a couple of oooold Gibson hollow bodies that I love. They, too, have an amazing array of sounds.

 

So then where did this "one must play a Gretsch to play rockabilly" myth come from? Most likely, it came from the popularity of Brian Setzer and The Stray Cats. Setzer will most likely tell you himself that he modeled his entire look off of Eddie Cochran (who happened to play a Gretsch). The Stray Cats helped bring about a rockabilly revival in the US for a brief time. Whenever a fad hits, corporations smell money.

 

By the late 80s, you'd start to see more well-known guitarists playing old Gretsches. I'll never deny that they do look cool. They're just limited (for what I do, anyway). Billy Zoom from the punk band X played a Gretsch. I remember seeing big hair metal guys play them. Hell, The Traveling Wilburys played them! But...that doesn't mean that they're the ultimate rockabilly tone machine.

 

In the early 90s, Jimmy Heath (aka The Reverend Horton Heat) came along, playing a Gretsch. Why? His main guitar, an old Gibson 175, could no longer taking the beating he was giving it night after night. Old Gretsches were still affordable (but not for long), so he got some of them. I played his guitar...and like most old Gretsches, I hated the neck. Nice sound...crappy feeling guitar though.

 

So what about the original 1950s rockabilly guitarists? What did THEY play? Well, you're in luck...because I'm about to tell ya!

 

Scotty Moore could probably be considered the daddio of rockabilly guitar. He was Elvis' guitar play and it's safe to say that this is in the neighborhood of rockabilly ground zero. What did he play? Big ol' Gibson hollowbodies. I've never seen him play a Gretsch. He pretty much epitomized rockabilly twang.

Carl Perkins embodied rockabilly. I've backed enough of the original guys and so many of them play

"Blue Suede Shoes" that if I never play it again, I'll be A-OK with it. What did he play? A Gretsch? Nope. Back in the 50s, he always played Gibsons. Later he would play Microfrets, Teles, Strats, Peavys, anything he could get an endorsement deal for. The guitar didn't matter. The picker did.

 

Cliff Gallup was the picker with Gene Vincent's Blue Caps. "Be Bop A Lula" and so many other great rockabilly songs all came out of Cliff and his...GRETSCH! Ha! I bet you thought that I was gonna tell ya  no one played one! I fooled you! Some guys did. Just not as many as you'd be led to believe.

Eddie Cochran. "Summertime Blues", "C'mon Everybody", etc...all played on his Gretsch...but...he

modified his with a big ol' Gibson P90 pickup in the neck position. Rumours have it that the original pickup quit working (shoddy workmanship? LOL) and he couldn't get a replacement. Personally, I find that hard to believe. Eddie was a star. If he really wanted one, he could've got one. No, I think he added the P90 because it sounded better.

 

A young man named James Burton caught lots of ears with his amazing playing. He played with Dale Hawkins and was hand-picked to play with young Ricky Nelson. His instrument of choice? A Gretsch? Nope. Another Telecaster player! (the best pickers always opt for a Tele! lol) He's still playing them today!

Paul Burlison was technically the guitarist for the Rock & Roll Trio, but in the studio, chances are it

was session king Grady Martin who actually played most of the licks. The Trio's discography is the essential must-know song list for rockabilly bands. But what guitars did these cats play? Paul Burlison was always a Tele player. Martin favored (rare as hen's teeth) Bigsby guitars. I've seen pictures of him with a Les Paul too...but as you can see by this photo, it's a Bigsby.

 

 

Roland Janes was kinda the go-to session guitarist at Sun Records for the rockabilly cats. He played/recorded with the likes of Billy Lee Riley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Hayden Thompson, and Lord know how many others. As this photo from the "Little Green Men" session shows, he played a Strat, not a Gretsch.

How about the twangmaster himself, Duane Eddy? He's been seen playing many Gretsches...mostly

his namesake model. But...his original twang (the REAL twang) came from a Guild. Not a Gretsch.

 

Link Wray...the God of all things loud & distorted...was not a Gretsch player. Supros, Danelectros, Gibsons, yes. Gretsches, no. Even in his later years, he never played a Gretsch. The last guitar I saw him play was a Squire Stratocaster.

Lastly, Buddy Holly. We can debate another time whether or not he was truly "rockabilly"...but his

songs are popular among the rockabilly crowd. Did he play a Gretsch? Nope. Fender Stratocaster.

 

 

 

Don't be fooled by urban myths propagated by the corporate world trying to sell you a $2000 guitar. If you want to play rockabilly, pretty much any old 2 pickup guitar and a tube amp will give you the sound. Here's a few tips I've picked up from the original cats:

Use both pickups. If you have dedicated volume/tone knobs for each pickup, you can dial in your twang that way. You don't need an expensive echoplex. A used $50 delay pedal will work just fine to get your slapback. NOTE: The original guys had that in the studio. The only ones to have it LIVE in the 50s were Perkins, Moore, Roy Orbison & Elvis (although he had no need for it). They got it from custom built amps...made by Ray Butts. Scotty Moore still has his. Graceland probably has Elvis'. Perkins sold his years ago to a collector. Lord only knows what happened to Orbison's.

 

Rockabilly guitar is usually best played with a light touch. If you want to be truly authentic, go for a wound G string. Bashing doesn't really work well with rockabilly guitar licks. Unless you're Link Wray.

 

As for the vast myriad of lesser-unknown 50s rockabilly pickers...chances are they were playing cheap guitars. Kays, Harmonies, Stellas. Maybe the ones who'd been playing semi-professionally had Teles, Les Pauls or Strats. Gretsches were more popular with some of the country guys but by no means all. Lots of the country guys played Mosrites. Joe Maphis & Larry Collins come to mind.

 

I hope this clears up some of the sham that rockabilly revisionists have tried to convince the world of. Rockabilly was never super popular until The Stray Cats. Main reason being...it wasn't called rockabilly. Sam Phillips, the man who pretty much started it all, hated the word. He'd tell ya, "It's just rock and rollllllll maaannnn!" And he was right. And I'm pretty sure Sam never played a Gretsch either.