American firm of instrument makers, importers and distributors. In 1883 Friedrich Gretsch, a German emigrant, established the Fred Gretsch Manufacturing Company in Brooklyn, New York. When Friedrich died in 1895 his son Fred(erick) Gretsch sr took over the firm. At first the company’s own products bore the Rex and 20th Century brands, but from the 1920s the Gretsch brand name was used for drums and, from the 1930s, guitars. Fred sr’s son Fred Gretsch jr (d 1980) became president in 1948. Many jazz and popular music drummers favoured Gretsch’s small-scale drum kits which pioneered the use of staggered-ply shells and die-cast rims; the company’s ‘round-badge’ drums are still sought after for their fine sound. The musician Jimmie Webster developed a luxurious electric guitar, the White Falcon (1955), and persuaded the renowned country player Chet Atkins to endorse several electric models, including the 6120 Hollow Body (1955) and the Country Gentleman (1957; see illustration). When the latter was played by George Harrison in the 1960s Gretsch achieved a new level of sales success. The firm was bought by the musical instrument manufacturer D.H. Baldwin of Ohio in 1967; in 1970 production was moved to Booneville, Arkansas. Guitar production ceased in 1980 and Gretsch was sold to Charles Roy of Nashville, Tennessee two years later. In January 1985 Gretsch returned to family ownership when another Fred Gretsch, the nephew of Fred Gretsch jr, took over the firm. The company was renamed Fred Gretsch Enterprises and at the end of the 20th century was located in Savannah, Georgia, manufacturing Gretsch drums and guitars in the USA and Japan.
J. Scott: The Guitars of the Fred Gretsch Company (Fullerton, CA, 1992)
T. Bacon and P. Day: The Gretsch Book: a Complete History of Gretsch Electric Guitars (London, 1996)
G. Nicholls: The Drum Book: a History of the Rock Drum Kit (London, 1997)
TONY BACON