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NAMM 2010: Gretsch announces Eddie Cochran tribute guitar
Introducing the Custom Shop G6120EC
The MusicRadar Team, Wed 6 Jan 2010, 5:49 pm UTC
PRESS RELEASE: The Gretsch Custom Shop could not possibly be more proud to introduce a very special 50-instrument run of a meticulously crafted recreation of one of the most famous guitars in rock 'n' roll and rockabilly history - the modified Gretsch 6120 owned and played by Eddie Cochran. Early 2010 will see the long-awaited debut of the Gretsch Custom Shop G6120EC Eddie Cochran Tribute model.
During his all-too brief life and career, Eddie Cochran (1938-1960) only ever owned and played one main electric guitar, an orange Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins hollow-body he bought brand-new in 1955 at age 16 from the Bell Gardens Music Center in his hometown, Bell Gardens, CA.
The guitar bore the serial number 16942, and his parents helped him buy it. A sharp young guitarist who was particular about his sound and knowledgeable about guitar design and modification, Cochran hot-rodded his Gretsch with a warmer-sounding "dog ear" neck pickup.
It was this guitar that accompanied Cochran on his rise to stardom. It was this guitar that Cochran played on hits such as Summertime Blues, Twenty Flight Rock, C'mon Everybody, Somethin' Else, Nervous Breakdown and Sittin' in the Balcony, which influenced generation of guitarists - and guitar royalty - to come. And it was this guitar that was in the trunk of the car on the April 1960 night that Cochran met his tragic and untimely fate on a winding rural road in Chippenham, England.
It is this famous guitar that has now been so painstakingly recreated by Gretsch, with the blessing of the Cochran family and with the reverence and sense of history that absolutely must be accorded in instrument of such import.
The delicate job was entrusted to Gretsch Custom Shop master luthier Stephen Stern, an acclaimed craftsman who is well aware of Cochran's place in music history and the historical significance of his guitar. Stern, along with Cochran's nephew, Ed Julson, traveled to Cleveland in January 2009 to examine the famous guitar at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.
It should be noted here that the Cochran family has been extremely protective of Eddie Cochran's legacy and identity in general and his personal belongings in particular, not the least of which is his Gretsch guitar.
The story goes that the first policeman to arrive on the scene of accident that claimed Cochran's life on Easter Sunday 1960 found the guitar in the trunk of the car and removed it to his own home for several days so that it wouldn't be lost in the public melee surrounding the incident and the ensuing investigation.
The instrument was safely returned to the Cochran family home shortly thereafter, and there it stayed for many years. It became an instrument frozen in time: the strings were never even so much as loosened; the other contents of the case - guitar strap, polishing cloth, gig poster, etc., were left undisturbed. Eddie Cochran was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987; his family subsequently allowed the guitar to be displayed there, where it has remained ever since the museum opened in 1995.
