Gretsch Artist Guitars - The Billy-Bo Jupiter Thunderbird

Brooklyn was where it all began when a young Immigrant from Germany arrived to make his fortune. A century of Gretsch guitars came next and the legend of the "Great Gretsch Sound" was born.

It was the end of the nineteenth century and the young Fred Gretsch started selling tambourines, drums and banjos in his tiny shop. Unfortunately he died just 12 years later and his son Fred junior inherited the business.

But the teenage Fred wasn't about to let his father's legacy just die away. The company was built into one of the largest in the USA and in 1916 they had to move to a giant new building in Brooklyn.

But it wasn't banjos and tambourines that people wanted. It was guitars. So that's exactly what the young Fred started making.

And the distinctive sound of the guitars was the product. It was a unique, immediately recognizable sound an became legendary in the world of guitarists.

Since then the Fred Gretsch Company has produced hundreds of different models from jazz archtops to strangely shaped square guitars, designed by prominent artists of the day.

Indeed one of those stars was the great Bo Diddley who designed a red rectangular guitar and Gretsch happily mannufactured it. It was not like anything ever seen before. But that was back in the 50s and since then Gretsch have reissued several of these older models with new technology built in.

Another less well known guitar designed by Bo Diddley was the Gretsch G6199. A bit of a skewed rectangular shape, the guitar was again red with black sides and back and packed a mean, heavy Gretsch sound. They became very rare.

But recently the Gretsch G6199 has been reissued by the company and is bolder and better than ever.

The new design has been added to by the legendary ZZ Top guitarist Billy F Gibbons and bears 2 TV Jones pickups and 5 knobs.

Also known as the "Billy-Bo" Jupiter Thunderbird, the Gretsch G6199 highlights Bo Diddley's original futuristic design with Gibbons' added ingredients for a roasting hot portion of dirty rotten Rock 'N' Roll. 

It's like a Frankenstein experiment gone wrong and this quirky guitar is sure to be popular with the stylish and suave Gretsch fans around the world.

It's doubtful that the young German immigrant Fred would have imagined such a creation when he first opened his shop in Brooklyn and no doubt he'd be surprised that the copmany was still creating such beautiful products over 100 years later.

The Gretsch 6199 is a fantastic new member of the Gretsch artist signature guitar stable. Who knows what they'll come up with next! But it's bound to be eye and ear catching all in one.

Tags: gretsch 6199, gretsch g6199