Heir to a Music Dynasty
With a Name Comes Responsibility
Family owned companies usually end up being sold along with the rights to use the name. Fred Gretsch the III wanted not only to regain the rights to that name but also to bring the family business back into operation.
This is no small feat. Manufacturing is costly and there wasn't an unused Gretsch factory just waiting to be put into operation. The first of the new generation of Gretsches were the Traveling Wilbury models of the late '80s, a very inexpensive guitar with no resemblance to any past Gretsch model. It was, however, a start.
It became obvious that the best way to bring Gretsch guitars back into production would be to have them built overseas. There were also some guitars built in the U.S. such as the Eldorado model which was built in part by the Heritage company which operated out of the old Gibson factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Some of the first Gretsches of this new era were not perfect replicas of original Gretsch guitars but they were fairly close and of good quality. The Professional Series guitars were built in Japan while a number of less expensive models were built in Korea. After an absence that spanned nearly all of the '80s Gretsch was back in business.
