-
Some famous musicians behind their Rickenbacker and Gretsch guitars
-
[postquote quote=87494][/postquote]
P-90 dogears are the standard single coil pickup on all Gibson 330s and Epiphone Casinos and have been since since Gibson introduced the ES-330 in 1959, and Epiphone brought out the Casino in 1961. I have two Casino;’s (a 2005 Standard and a 2010 Elitist) and both have dogears. Paul’s Casino (which he still uses occasionally) would be more rare since it’s a 1962 model, John and George’s are both 1965 models. -
I didn’t know that Jim. Thanks for the info! I always thought about trying to get a Casino… but financially it was never possible for me (struggling musician and all, LOL). I think I’d actually prefer a ES 335 though – red, like Blackmore played up to around 1970.
-
Jim, would love to have a Casino(s) like yours, setup the way the Beatles had them, if only I played guitar. Looks like a lot of the famous artists like John Lennon, George Harrison, and David Gilmour could go and buy any guitar they wanted, but they stayed loyal to their guitars customizing and working on them, and in the case of David Gilmour treasuring that one unique Duo Jet for decades for that special sound, goes to show these guitars are certainly unique pieces, each with it’s own character that can’t just be replaced. Thanks Paul and Jim for the info about the Beatles Casinos!
-
[postquote quote=87248][/postquote]
Paul, I just learned that when they had a look at George Harrison’s original Gretsch Duo Jet, it apparently has a black painted back, but production models came with a mahogany back. It turns out when they compared George’s Gretsch Duo Jet to John’s black Rickenbacker 325, it had the exact same black paint job. Theory has it, George used the same can of black spray paint on his Gretsch that John used on his Rickenbacker 325! Funny eh! Looks like both John Lennon and George Harrison liked their guitars black.Here is a very interesting video about George Harrison’s Gretsch Duo Jet. Some interesting insight and back story is provided about this famous guitar by Gretsch Guitar’s George Carducci who actually interviewed Ivan Hayward, the original owner of George Harrison’s Gretsch Duo Jet guitar.
-
WOW Jung… great info! Thanks for sharing that!
Speaking of stripping guitars, that 6131 Jet Firebird that Malcolm Young played was originally his older brother George’s guitar. George added a Gibson PAF between the two Filtertron pickups. Eventually, Malcolm removed all but the bridge Filtertron and stripped the red finish, leaving the guitar bare wood. He also at one point stuffed a sock in the empty pickup holes and covered them over with a piece of plastic, thinking it would help the tone. He eventually removed the cover and sock and left the holes open. The picture you shared is an early one, before he stripped it and removed the extra pickups. Malcolm was the real brains and songwriting talent behind AC/DC. Angus is great… but Malcolm WAS the band!
-
Hi Paul. Loved those AC/DC melodic guitar riffs! Use to listen to them for hours, “Long Way to the Top…”, “Jailbreak”, I had most of their albums on cassette. Still love hearing them! Great knowing all those incredible melodic guitar sounds were coming from another Grestch, a Jet Firebird! Sounds as awesome as Lisa’s on the Duo Jet! It’s interesting to see the customization Malcolm did on his guitar, sanding it down to bare wood. Read Angus Young used one Gibson SG all his career, and he ended up painting it black too! Looks like a lot of great guitarists really tinker with their pride and joy guitars to get that perfect sound they are looking for and style too.
-
In this official video of Jailbreak, they really show off Malcolm’s red Gretsch Jet Firebird. Oh those AC/DC cannons make your ears ring at their concerts!
-
Ok… That got me to wondering about Canadian musicians/bands and what guitars they use…?! I like the guitars that my buddy Al Connelly of Glass Tiger uses, I also liked what Jeff Healey used….??
-
Randy Bachman – Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins
Canada’s own Randy Bachman of The Guess Who and BTO is a huge Gretsch guitar fan.
“I had hundreds of them—every Gretsch you could imagine,” Bachman says. “I even had prototypes that Gretsch didn’t know existed. I had the only White Falcon bass, ever.A late 50’s orange Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins was his prized guitar among many other Gretsch guitars in his collection. In 1976 his treasured 6120 was stolen from a Toronto hotel.
Of that treasured orange Gretsch 6120, Randy Bachman said:“I got that guitar as a teenager,” he says. “To get the $400 for it, I babysat, I had a paper route, I mowed lawns, I washed cars. I played it on my first hit record, ‘Shakin’ All Over,’ with the Guess Who, in 1965, and on ‘Takin’ Care of Business,’ almost a decade later, with Bachman-Turner Overdrive.”
One night after a BTO performance in his native Canada, a roadie left the guitar outside of Bachman’s hotel room while he went to pay the tab. When he came back, the Gretsch was gone.
“I threw up. I couldn’t sleep,” Bachman says. “It was like your dog being run over, or a losing-your-girlfriend kind of thing. Incredible.”
Bachman campaigned hard to recover the guitar, hitting pawnshops in Toronto and Ontario. Eventually, he went through the phone book and contacted every pawnshop in the U.S. in search of the guitar. He never got it back. But he did pick up more than a few nice instruments as his search progressed and pawnshop owners got to know him.
“They’d call me and say, ‘We didn’t find your orange Gretsch, but we did get another weird white one that you could have for $200,’” Bachman notes. “So I’d buy a guitar, buy a guitar, buy a guitar. Suddenly, I had six on the wall, and I had the bug.”
“This is one of the only Gretsches that Fred Gretsch didn’t get when he bought my collection,” Bachman says. “Chet Atkins had read in Rolling Stone magazine about my 6120 being stolen and decided to call me. The first two times he called, I was out in the backyard, building a tree house for my kids. My daughter came out and said what sounded like, ‘Chad is on the phone and wants to talk to you,’ I thought she was talking about Chad Allen from the Guess Who and told her to say I’d call back. The third time the phone rang, she came back and said, ‘He really, really, really wants to talk to you. He’s calling from Tennessee and he’s got a weird accent.’ So I went to the phone, and he said, ‘Howdy, this is Chet.’ I could barely speak, because this was my idol. He asked me, ‘Did you ever get back the 6120?’ I said, ‘No, I’m never gonna get it back.’ And he said, ‘Okay, what’s your address?’ Four days later, this Super Axe shows up. The string tree was a mod that Chet did himself, because the strings kept popping out of the nut.”
Wow, what a story of a superstar and his prized guitar 6120 that later led to him being gifted a Gretsch “Super Axe” by legendary Chet Atkins himself!
-
-
Canada’s own Randy Bachman of The Guess Who and BTO is a huge Gretsch guitar fan. -Great suggestion Jacki!
“I had hundreds of them—every Gretsch you could imagine,” Bachman says. “I even had prototypes that Gretsch didn’t know existed. I had the only White Falcon bass, ever.A late 50’s orange Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins was his prized guitar among many other Gretsch guitars in his collection. In 1976 his treasured 6120 was stolen from a Toronto hotel.
Of that treasured orange Gretsch 6120, Randy Bachman said:“I got that guitar as a teenager,” he says. “To get the $400 for it, I babysat, I had a paper route, I mowed lawns, I washed cars. I played it on my first hit record, ‘Shakin’ All Over,’ with the Guess Who, in 1965, and on ‘Takin’ Care of Business,’ almost a decade later, with Bachman-Turner Overdrive.”
One night after a BTO performance in his native Canada, a roadie left the guitar outside of Bachman’s hotel room while he went to pay the tab. When he came back, the Gretsch was gone.
“I threw up. I couldn’t sleep,” Bachman says. “It was like your dog being run over, or a losing-your-girlfriend kind of thing. Incredible.”
Bachman campaigned hard to recover the guitar, hitting pawnshops in Toronto and Ontario. Eventually, he went through the phone book and contacted every pawnshop in the U.S. in search of the guitar. He never got it back. But he did pick up more than a few nice instruments as his search progressed and pawnshop owners got to know him.
“They’d call me and say, ‘We didn’t find your orange Gretsch, but we did get another weird white one that you could have for $200,’” Bachman notes. “So I’d buy a guitar, buy a guitar, buy a guitar. Suddenly, I had six on the wall, and I had the bug.”
“This is one of the only Gretsches that Fred Gretsch didn’t get when he bought my collection,” Bachman says. “Chet Atkins had read in Rolling Stone magazine about my 6120 being stolen and decided to call me. The first two times he called, I was out in the backyard, building a tree house for my kids. My daughter came out and said what sounded like, ‘Chad is on the phone and wants to talk to you,’ I thought she was talking about Chad Allen from the Guess Who and told her to say I’d call back. The third time the phone rang, she came back and said, ‘He really, really, really wants to talk to you. He’s calling from Tennessee and he’s got a weird accent.’ So I went to the phone, and he said, ‘Howdy, this is Chet.’ I could barely speak, because this was my idol. He asked me, ‘Did you ever get back the 6120?’ I said, ‘No, I’m never gonna get it back.’ And he said, ‘Okay, what’s your address?’ Four days later, this Super Axe shows up. The string tree was a mod that Chet did himself, because the strings kept popping out of the nut.”
Wow, what a story of a superstar and his prized guitar 6120 that later led to him being gifted a Gretsch “Super Axe” by legendary Chet Atkins himself!
-
This is what your place could look like if you have 500 guitars! You end up with $200,000 guitars just lying around on the floor…
-
Ah… Jung…. You’ve managed to get hold of a Canadian essence to this thread, Crazy ol Randy B…. Lol… Good story that was?
-
Great stuff Jung!!! Always loved Randy Bachman, both with the Guess Who and BTO. I’ve played alot of his stuff on bands over the years too!
-
My older brother AL was the musician of the family and had a rock band in high school. When the parents were out his band would flock to the house to practice. The RCMP came over a few times to tell them to turn it down. BTO Taking Care of Business was their favorite song to practice, so that song has a special effect on me whenever I hear it.
Log in to reply.
