Randy Bachman (13 page)

GRETSCH GUITARS

The first Gretsch guitar I ever saw and heard played was by Lenny Breau, or Lone Pine Jr., as he was called by his dad in their band. He had a big orange Gretsch with a big black letter G burned into the body like a brand on a cow. It was called a Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins G brand model. When I talked to Lenny he told me who the guitar was named after: Mr. Chet Atkins. I saved money for years to buy one just like that. I babysat, mowed lawns, and delivered papers to save up $400, a lot of money in 1961, for an orange Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins like Lenny's. Neil Young and other guys did the same thing, saving to buy a Gretsch Chet Atkins. I bought mine from Eddie Laham at Winnipeg Piano Co. on Portage Avenue. I played that guitar on “Shakin' All Over” and on “Takin' Care of Business
.
” It had that depth in it and wasn't as shallow-sounding as a solid-body guitar. The Gretsch guitar has a beautiful mid-range twang that's different from Fenders or Gibsons.

Gretsch came out with a pickup that also cancelled out the hum from single-coil pickups. But since Gibson had already patented or trademarked the name humbucker or humbucking, Gretsch couldn't use it. So instead they named their humbucking
pickups “Filtertron” pickups. They did the same thing, filtered out the hum.

I had one of the only orange Gretsch 6120 models in Winnipeg. The other one was owned by Johnny Glowa, who used to be the lead guitar player in the Silvertones before me. He couldn't make the payments, though, so Neil Young's mom, Rassy, bought it for Neil in 1963. Neil still plays an orange 6120, but not that one, which he traded in for a Gibson twelve-string acoustic guitar in Toronto in 1965. He's regretted that ever since. But when the Buffalo Springfield was formed the next year, the first thing he bought was another orange Gretsch 6120 that he still plays today.

The sound of the Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young was the sound of Neil Young and Stephen Stills playing Gretsch 6120s or White Falcons, duelling back and forth. The White Falcon was the top-of-the-line Gretsch model introduced in the late 50s.

On the original Johnny Kidd recording of “Shakin' All Over” the guitar player used a cigarette lighter to get that wavering sound when the band stops just before the chorus. But I was able to use my Bigsby vibrato on my Gretsch 6120 to make the chord waver.

Chet Atkins learned to play guitar by ear, no formal lessons. When he started recording albums of guitar instrumentals featuring him on the cover playing a Gretsch guitar, it inspired so many young guitarists to buy a Gretsch. They were like the Cadillac of guitars, the high-end models, and were priced higher than Fenders or Gibsons. Chet Atkins did country picking on his Gretsch, but when you took that same guitar and put it in the hands of an early rock 'n' roller like Eddie Cochran, you got a whole different sound. Eddie's first guitar was a Gibson that had a P90 “dog's ear pickup” on it. These were bassier sounding pickups. But when he got his Gretsch, he liked the twangy sound but still wanted that bassy tone, too, because often guys didn't
have bass players and had to play the bass parts on guitar. So Eddie Cochran took a P90 pickup from a Gibson and put it on his orange Gretsch Chet Atkins 6120 as the forward pickup to get that bassy “Summertime Blues” and “Come On Everybody” sound. You can see it in early photos of him. That was his sound. He still had the twangy Gretsch pickup for lead, though.

Chet Atkins actually didn't like his 6120 guitar. It was made for him rather than designed by him, and he needed a wider neck for his finger-picking style. He was known in the music business as the Country Gentleman, so when he did design a guitar that fit all his needs, it was called the Country Gentleman. At first it was a single cutaway with the F holes filled in with plastic so that it wouldn't create feedback as hollow-body guitars tended to do. It also had a bigger body than the 6120, and was done in a beautiful dark mahogany finish. To get more clearance on it the later models had two cutaways, a double cutaway model. The double cutaway Gretsch Country Gentleman was introduced in the early 60s, but wasn't a big seller. Then the Beatles appeared on
The Ed Sullivan Show
in 1964 with George Harrison playing a double cutaway Country Gentleman. “All My Loving” has a Chet Atkins–style solo in it. All of a sudden Gretsch Country Gentleman sales went through the roof. Fred Gretsch owes a lot to George Harrison for popularizing his guitars.

Mr. Twang himself, Duane Eddy, created his own unique sound to be different from everybody else. He had a Gretsch Chet Atkins guitar like many others in early rock. He didn't want any distortion in his sound. If you turn your guitar up full and turn your amplifier up as well, you get buzzy-sounding distortion. Nowadays guitar players want that sound, but back in the 50s they didn't. Duane Eddy had heard the clean sound of a Fender guitar and he wanted that, too. He also had an Echoplex to give his guitar an echo sound, and he restricted his playing to the
lower frets and a bassier sound using heavier strings. He worked with his producer, Lee Hazlewood, to refine this distinctive sound. They used a bass guitar amplifier with a giant fifteen-inch speaker so that when they turned it up it wouldn't distort. Smaller speakers tended to distort more easily. Then they took the back off the amplifier and filled in the cabinet with fibreglass so that the speaker wouldn't resonate. They also added a slight tremolo, which is where the sound appears to be going off and on quickly, as well as some reverb to give it depth. And from all that they got the sound of Duane Eddy and his twangy guitar. Listen to “Rebel Rouser” and you'll hear that very sound. It's as if he's playing in a cave a mile away. He used to say, “The twang's the thang!” Duane Eddy also did a lot to promote Gretsch guitars and had his own model named for him.

Gene Vincent's lead guitar player, Cliff Gallup, originally played a Gretsch guitar. But he didn't play a big hollow-body Chet Atkins model. Instead, he played what was a copy of a Gibson Les Paul solid-body guitar called a Duo Jet or Rock Jet. George Harrison played one in the very early Beatles, and he's pictured with one on the cover of his solo album
Cloud Nine
. Cliff Gallup played his Duo Jet on Gene Vincent's “Be-Bop-A-Lula
.
”

Bo Diddley played a Gretsch Rock Jet but, just to be different, he had Gretsch make him a rectangle-shaped model. It was a deep red, and with all the gear on it, it looked like a Christmas present. Bo Diddley would tune his guitar to an E chord so that all he had to do was bar it anywhere up the neck. That's how he got his sound. Gretsch has since reissued Bo Diddley's rectangle guitar.

RICKENBACKER GUITARS

Listen to the beginning of “A Hard Day's Night
.
” That's the chord that shook the world. Imagine playing one chord and everybody around the world instantly knowing what's coming after it
and knowing what song it is. It's the most amazing chord that George Harrison plays—a suspended chord on a twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar that has a lot more high strings on it. Most twelve-string guitars had the low string first in the double strings, but Rickenbackers reversed that. Having the high string first gave it a more jingle-jangly sound, which became a signature sound of the Rickenbacker twelve-string electric guitar.

When the Beatles were in New York to play
The Ed Sullivan Show
in February 1964 George Harrison was presented with a Rickenbacker 360 Deluxe. That was only the second one made, and that's the one he played on “A Hard Day's Night
.
” He also played it on “You Can't Do That,” which was filmed for the movie but didn't make the cut.

The sole identifiable sound of the Byrds was Jim (Roger) McGuinn's Rickenbacker 360 twelve-string guitar. He played it through a compressor and cranked up the treble. When you do that you get the sound of mid-60s folk rock, that jingle-jangle “Mr. Tambourine Man” folk rock sound. The Byrds invented the sound that everyone copied after that. McGuinn saw George Harrison playing a Rickenbacker twelve-string in the movie
A Hard Day's Night
and went out and got one when the Byrds were just starting out. He used finger picks because he'd been a folkie before the Byrds. They took a Bob Dylan song, “Mr. Tambourine Man
,
” and changed the world with it.

I had a Rickenbacker guitar, a 360 six-string model. It looked like McGuinn's, only it had six strings and was black. Chad Allan played the little John Lennon Rickenbacker model, a three-quarter-size guitar. Rickenbackers had so much clarity. The pickups were originally designed for lap steel guitars, for Hawaiian music, so they had a very clear, clean, high trebly sound. Listen to Creedence Clearwater Revival and John Fogerty playing one of those smaller John Lennon Rickenbackers; he gets a very clear
trebly sound. That became his signature sound and style. You can really hear that sound on Creedence's “Up Around the Bend” or “Fortunate Son
.
” Not as twangy and sharp as a Fender Telecaster, but very clear and clean. That's the sound of swamp rock.

RANDY'S GUITAR COLLECTION

When my Gretsch 6120 was stolen from my car while I was in Toronto mixing BTO's last album,
Freeways,
I offered a reward for it but never found it. What resulted instead was that I started collecting Gretsch guitars. It became a routine for me in every city or town I was in on the road to scour the pawnshops and vintage guitar collectors in search of my Gretsch. In doing this I started buying different Gretsch models. What began as a search for my lost guitar became a hobby to pass the time on the road. That then turned into an obsession. I wanted to own as many Gretsch guitars as possible. It was my midlife-crisis diversion, collecting guitars. And I approached it with a fixation. It became the thrill of the hunt for me and gave me a great deal of pleasure.

Wherever I went I checked out guitars. I had contacts notifying me if a particular Gretsch model came across their counter or if they heard about someone with a rare model. At first I asked to be notified only if they found my original orange Gretsch, but they started calling if any Gretsch came their way. My curiosity would be piqued, I'd go see what they had, and more often than not I'd buy it. I became known as “the Gretsch Guy” or “Gretsch Guru”—collectors and dealers would call me whenever they found one. I wasn't a “Gretsch-aholic” with a family waiting for me to come home with money for food and instead I'd spent it on a guitar. I just spent extra money I had. My wife, Denise, got into it as well. She'd be in San Francisco visiting family and would make a detour to a second-hand guitar shop. She'd call me if they had any interesting Gretsch model.

I still have players or dealers show up backstage at my gigs with rare guitars for me. I don't just buy Gretsches; I collect Gibsons
and Fenders, too. On the Van Halen tour, Eddie and I would be playfully fighting over these guitars that dealers brought in.

When I lived in White Rock, B.C., I had my entire Gretsch collection on the walls of my big basement room, and it was stunning to walk into that room. I remember taking Fred Gretsch there just to see the look on his face. It was unbelievable. I had a white wall of all white Gretsch Penguins and Falcons, an orange wall of Duane Eddy 6120s, a coloured wall of Sparkle Jet models, a blond wall. It was insanely over the top, but I loved it.

When I moved, I didn't want just any moving guys to pack them up. I rented a truck and I hired my son Brigham and my nephew Paxton, my brother Timmy's son, to pack each guitar individually in its case. We had hundreds of cases spread out on the driveway and the boys matched guitar to case. They'd look at a closed case and say “What's in that one?” and open it to find some exotic, one-of-a-kind guitar, a Black Falcon or a Penguin. My collection was recently sold to the Gretsch company for exhibit purposes. I never did find my lost 6120, though. Soon you'll be able to see the “Bachman Gretsch Collection” at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

BURNS GUITARS

Although not necessarily a staple guitar like a Stratocaster or a Gretsch, Burns guitars have a special history. The Shadows had the perfect blend of lead and rhythm guitars, bass and drums. A few years after the Shadows were going strong they made a deal with Burns guitars in the U.K. to play their guitars. Burns designed a special Hank Marvin model with big horns on it, a vibrato arm, and a kind of scrolled headstock. On the headstock it was inscribed with Hank Marvin's name. I'm lucky enough to have a white 1964 Burns Hank Marvin guitar. Right after that Burns went out of business. So they only made a few of those. Jim Burns passed away and the company went bankrupt. They closed the warehouse and the company sat in litigation for some forty
years. But when Jim Burns's son came of age, he untangled the legal mess and was able to get the Burns Guitars trademark back. He resurrected the factory and started making guitars under the Burns name again.

I had a friend in the U.K. named Trevor Wilkinson who was a Shadows fan and also a good friend of the Burns family. Trevor took me to the old Burns warehouse that had been padlocked for decades and opened it up, and there were four guitars on the bench. “Do you want one?” he asked me. “Absolutely!” They weren't finished yet, so he asked me what colour I wanted. I told him I wanted a white one just like Hank's. Trevor got a red one and I got a white one. I took the pick guard from that Burns guitar with me when I went to see the Shadows and got Hank and Bruce Welch to sign it.

My Picks

“ALL MY LOVING” by the Beatles

“ALL RIGHT NOW” by Free

“AMERICAN WOMAN” by the Guess Who

“BE-BOP-A-LULA” by Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps

“BELIEVE ME” by the Guess Who

“CARAVAN” by Les Paul and Mary Ford

“CAUSE WE'VE ENDED AS LOVERS” by Jeff Beck

“CLOCK ON THE WALL” by the Guess Who

“DON'T MAKE MY BABY BLUE” by the Shadows