Gretsch's Big-Boys
17" & 18" Archtops
The modern archtop guitar that we know today has its roots in the Gibson L-5. The first L-5s were 16" archtops without cutaways and were not all that well decorated. In 1934, ten years into the L-5's existence, the instrument became a 17" archtop and that size has been the standard for archtops ever since.
Because of the L-5's undeniable success all of the guitar manufacturers had to meet it head on. Gretsch hit hard with their art-deco Synchromatic line and at one point there were Synchromatics available from 17" - 18" and all of them were nicely styled and appointed. The Synchromatic 100 was the stripped down 17" version while the Synchromatic 200 added more features and looked more like its larger, fancier brothers, the Synchromatic 300 and the Synchromatic 400. The Synchro 400 was an 18" full-on luxury axe designed to make even Gibson's Super 400 look a bit spare.
The War Years and Beyond
WW II had a serious effect on the guitar business just as it had on so many other businesses. While they were able to continue making guitars the choices were limited and some materials were not available. Like so many other businesses, Gretsch had to play catch-up after the war in order to make changes to their product line. In this era many products of all sorts were redesigned with visual changes that would separate the new products from the war era products.
The postwar Gretsch catalog had few changes until the early '50s when the distinctive Synchromatic line was redesigned with conventional "F" holes. By the middle of the decade the 18" archtop was known as the Eldorado and the 17" archtop had completed its metamorphosis into the Country Club.
In the same time frame Gretsch had discovered color as well. As a potential competitor to the Gibson L-5 the Country Club had been sold with the traditional sunburst and natural finishes but it also came in Cadillac green, a medium-to-deep green color that indeed closely matches a Cadillac paint option of the era. Amazingly, the Cadillac green Country Club was a success. The rich green finish looks quite rich with all of the gold hardware and the overall effect is quite pleasing even with the conservative tastes of most archtop buyers.
Perhaps the most advanced Gretsch guitar of this era was the 6199 Convertible, a true acoustic archtop with a floating pickup arrangement. Such an arrangement was common on acoustic guitars which had been converted to electric-guitar status with a DeArmond floating pickup but in 1955 Gretsch and Guild were the only manufacturers producing such an instrument. The Guild model was nearly stillborn after Johnny Smith withdrew his support but the Gretsch model was somewhat more successful.
And now, what you've all been waiting for . . .
Certainly the most famous 17" Gretsch has to be the White Falcon. This guitar was conceived as a one-off for the 1954 NAMM show but the level of interest in it made it a good candidate for a production model.
In many ways, the White Falcon is a very ornate version of the Country Club. The basic specifications are quite similar but the visual impact could not be more different. The white Falcon is white and has gold sparkle binding. The headstock is larger than average and the shape is unusual as well.
To be honest, I thought that they were a bit over the top until I saw one under stage lighting in a small club. Suddenly, it all made sense to me. Under multi-colored stage lights that huge white top takes on a warm appearance and reflects back a bit of the colors it is exposed to. The binding took on a deep luster too and looked almost burgundy red from the perspective of the audience. Instead of fading away visually on stage this guitar looked just right. I now think of it as a Jazz guitar in stage makeup.
Chet's New Axe
The Chet Atkins 6120 was not Chet's idea of the perfect guitar. In the late '50s he collaborated in the design of the first Country Gentleman, a thin-bodied, single cutaway archtop built to resist feedback. His 1959 Country Gentleman was his main guitar for many, many years and his recordings of the '60s and '70s attest to the sound of this design.
By 1962 the Country Gent had morphed somewhat into a double cutaway guitar with mechanical mutes. While these guitars graced many of Chet's album covers there is plenty of reason to believe that he preferred the more straightforward design of the original single cutaway Gents. The mutes, back-pads and other accoutrements of the newer Gents were not of his doing.
The '60s and '70s
The decade of the '60s were not the best of years for the archtop guitar. A lot of changes were going on in music and a 3-4 inch deep archtop seemed as out of date as a Model A Ford parked next to a new Corvette. Many Gretsch archtops were produced with thinner bodies during that era and the White Falcon became a double cutaway thin-body, basically a take off on the Country Gentleman of that era.
The Gretsch line got a terrific boost when George Harrison played a Country Gentleman on the Ed Sullivan show and Gretsch experienced success like they had never known before. For the most part their 17" archtop line changed little from that point on. The Country Club regained its depth and the White Falcon came back towards the end of the Baldwin years but by then Gretsch was simply too far gone to save.
The '90s and Beyond
When Fred Gretsch III brought the Gretsch line back from the dead large archtops were not forgotten. One of the earliest Gretsch models to return was the G 400 Synchromatic, a 17" version of the original. The visual effect of this big, beautiful archtop with cat's eye sound-holes is impressive. It's like a time machine back to the '30s.
The Country Gentleman name had followed Chet to Gibson so Gretsch had to rename these guitars as Country Classics. White Falcons and Country Clubs were also to appear in the renewed Gretsch lineup. Buy the '90s the archtop was enjoying a renaissance and these models were well received.
Even the 18" Eldorado was brought back into the line for a time with bodies produced by Heritage Guitars of Kalamazoo Michigan, literally in the old Gibson factory. The irony of this development could not be improved upon in any work of fiction.
At this point in time large Gretsch archtops are alive and well. Country Clubs, G 400s and Falcons are readily available and there is even a new player, the Brian Setzer Black Phoenix, a trestle-braced Falcon body with TV Jones Pickups and the stripped down Setzer Hot Rod controls. Having played one of these I can attest that it is a versatile and worthy instrument. One well deserving of bringing the Gretsch sound to yet another generation of guitarists.
