Joe Basso here with Music Radar I'm here with another Joe, Joe Carducci.
>>Hey man, it'll be easy to remember Joe! >>There you go. So we're going to look at some of the new Gretsch
guitars >>Absolutely
>>And guys had a had an anniversary >>130 years, a young German immigrant in 1883
from Monheim, Germany, started this company in Brooklyn, New York. And the original Gretsch
building that was built in the early 1900's, still stands today, it's condominiums and it's
still known as the Gretsch building, the Gretsch logo is still proudly displayed at the top
of this 10 storey building in Brooklyn, 60 Broadway is the address, certainly you could
programme your GPS to go find it the next time you're in Brooklyn. But we're celebrating
130 years which there is not too many companies that can make that claim.
>>And you have a guitar for that >>Absolutely, one of the instruments that
we're introducing here is a 130th anniversay model guitar, Gretsch is famous for offering
their anniversary models, as because they've been around for so long. So this is the custom
shop model made in Corona, California by a master builder and Stephen Stern and his crew.
Our anniversary models are 2 tone guitars,where as the top of the body is one colour and the
back and the sides is a secondary colour, so the anniversary from the custom shop is
a metallic gold top with the black back and sides. It's got a silver sparkle binding around
it and from our pro-series from the Gretsch factory in Nagoya, Japan, we have these 2
models that are sitting below it, which are anniversary models but in a junior size, which
means a 14 inch bout and it's the reverse from the custom shop, where as the top is black and
the back and sides is gold. Very very cool, it's cool stock filtertron pickups, I'm sorry these
are TV Jones pickups with a pin to adjust a matter brdige and Bigsby tail piece, way
way cool. >>And a lot of guitar players that play Gretsch's
for many years but one of the guitar players who's most notable with Gretsch is Billy Duffy
>>Absolutely yeah, we just this year, we introduced the new Billy Duffy model, so Gretsch guitars
historically, I mean Gretsch was right there at the beginning of rock and roll, so not only
do we include models for such noteriety people as Eddie Cochran and of course can't deny
Duane Eddy, the tone, I mean that guy was all about tone, his guitar was his voice. So to
that spirit you know, we just don't, we rely on the folks from years ago, Billy Duffy from
the Cult, and if you're a big Cult fan, I admit it, and to be able to get a Cult requesting
to see if we'd be interested in doing something with Billy Duff, it's like are you kidding
me. So here you go, this is the new Billy Duffy model, his No1 white falcon that he
purchased as a young man in England, he still owns that guitar, they gave us access to the
instrument. Again we called our buddy that's the doctor at the medical clinic to do a catscan
on the guitar so that in the spirit, so that to get the DNA from it, so that we didn't
have to saw his guitar in half. I don't think Billy would have liked that.
>>Now did he have any new tweaks though that he wanted? >>Yeah, absolutley, yeah. I'll use Billy's
paraphrase; the new model is a newer, younger, more bionic than his actually, his original guitar, so
the things that he liked about it, we kept, things that he said, oh you know, I only wish,
if, we said we can do that. So the new model of course comes with a pin bridge, the pickups
that are included with the guitar we reverse engineered those pickups because they were
custom made for him from an individual. And it's kind of a funny thing that it's a hollow
body electric guitar with the sound post, but you know the guy should know, those guys that
are into the Cult, Billy, the Cult is a real loud, high gain, rock and roll band. So what Billy
admits, he goes, I used to put hotel towels inside, stuff them inside the body, to dampen the
guitar. So, with that, with the Billy Duffy guitar you get a towel, that has a signature
on it, it's embroidered with a Cult logo on it.
>>From a particular hotel? >>No partcular hotel but the Gretsch logo
that you can either stuff it inside the guitar or you can wash your dishes if you want. But
anyway we're really proud to include Billy Duffy and in fact a couple of nights ago
the Gretsch family presented Billy, which we have on display here, with a proclamation
for his contribution to the legacy of Gretsch guitars.
>>William Billy Duffy >>William Billy Duffy, that's right. Wonderful
person, awesome guitar player, great song writer and we're so proud to bring him into
the Gretsch family. >>And a good hair cut too!
>>Cool hair cut. >>So last but not least, we're going to look
at the Center Block Series. >>Yeah, come on, watch this way.
>>Ok, so we're here at the Doctors office. So Doctor what are we looking at here?
>>What we're looking at here is, at this NAMM show we're introducing something brand new,
which is our new Centerblock Series of Pro Series guitars. And what it is, is that
we're problem solving for those guys that are afraid of the taboo of a performance of
hollow body electric guitars. If you're into high gain, you have a pre-amp that over
drives the front end, you're in the fuzz tones. The Centerblock physics with an electric guitar,
helps dampen that, so it really makes them high gain friendly. So for those guitar players
that are jazz fusion guys or rock and roll guys that like to play through banks of amplifiers
or at extreme volumes, problem solved. We've included with now on these models a spruce centerblock
and we visited our doctor friend, who is a guitar player and you know doctors do nothing for free.
All he asked was for us to spend a little bit of time with the guitars, so we bring them in after hours,
in fact what you're seeing in this catscan film here is actually this guitar just to it's
right, which is the new centerblock falcon guitar. And it has a spruce centerblock, just
as it shows in the film, it's chambered in this area, it was important to me to make
the guitar as light as possible to make it comfortable to play over hours you know in
a bandstand. It's got all the silver sparkle bling that the Falcon guitars are famous for
and a winged verticle logo. The grover imperial steristep tuners, it's got a pin bridge so it
doesn't move on you, really really beautiful guitar we also, it also comes in a double
cut away version, with a bigsby and you know I meet those guys when I'm out travelling
that say, you know gosh those falcon guitars are way way cool but you know I play in a
blues band and you know it's a little too liberace for me to you know, for my, for
my taste. So what we did, is we are offering a guitar here, comes in also black or white.
It's a new panther model, it's a brand new model that's part of this new centerblock
series and as you can see it's got the simple multi-ply white binding on it so it's a straight
ahead rock and roll guitar, believe me if you strap this thing down right about here and
turn your amp on about 9, this thing sings like you would not believe. Anyway, that's
what's new for Gretsch. >>Those are very classy looking guitars, really
cool. >>Thank you. You know I've always said Gretsch
is like an animal with its own stripes. We're not copying anybody, we have our own designs,
it's like an old italian spaghetti recipe, that you know other people may try to, you
know, try to capture our vibe but this is an original, one of a kind, brand.
>>Joe Carducci with Gretsch, thank you very much
>>Thank you my friend, Joe, good luck to you, thank you for being here.