- Features
- Guitarist
“With a commitment to serving musicians, music lovers, artists, and fans. That’s the Gretsch religion”: Fred W. Gretsch tells the remarkable inside story of the family behind one of electric guitar’s oldest names
This year marks the 140th Anniversary of Gretsch. Fred W Gretsch started out in the business as the jazz years of the 1950s erupted into rock ’n’ roll uproar in the ’60s.
Much later, he guided the company back to prosperity as an electric guitar producer after the difficult Baldwin-owned years. Who better, then, to tell the inside story of how the company revolutionized guitar?
Women were the making of Gretsch
“The contribution of women to the business is seldom mentioned, but incredibly integral. My mother was a cheerleader for the business from 1942 to ’64 and, certainly, one of the reasons that I was in the business.
“My grandmother Charlotte, if we go back to 1904, married into the Gretsch family. She passed away in 1928. Next week it’s the 95th anniversary of her passing – unbelievable. In any case, she was engaged with the business for 24 years and she had three sons who were future leaders in the business.
The contribution of women to the business is seldom mentioned, but incredibly integral
“Without my mother’s encouragement and if she hadn’t kept the family in New York when dad died in ’48 – she was from Missouri – I wouldn’t have had a chance to visit the factory at 60 Broadway with my grandfather, as a young lad, and first experience Gretsch instrument production there.
“As I said, dad died in ’48 and his older brother, Fred Jr – who was my mentor in the business and encouraged me to work – took the bus from Forest Hills in Queens down Metropolitan Avenue, to the factory there, in Brooklyn.
Duane Eddy, Dinah Gretsch, and Fred Gretsch (Image credit: R. Diamond / Getty Images)Gretsch was a lifelong calling
“A quick family sketch on the men: obviously the founder… his story is out there. I didn’t know him, of course, since he died in 1895. But his eldest son, my grandfather, I did know – and he first took me to the business in 1950. He was 36 years old when they completed that [Gretsch] building at 60 Broadway.
Grandpa engaged in the business from 1895 to 1952, an incredible 57 year
“Of course, we built all the Gretsch instruments there from 1916 to 1969, when Baldwin moved the business to Arkansas. In any case,