Rock on! Gretsch announces Eddie Cochran Signature Hollowbody
(Dave Molter | Posted 2011-08-13)
During his all-too brief life and career, Eddie Cochran (1938-1960) only ever played the Gretsch Chet Atkins hollow-body he bought brand-new in 1955 at age 16 from the Bell Gardens Music Center in his hometown, Bell Gardens, Calif. It was this guitar that Cochran played on hits such as “Summertime Blues,” “Twenty Flight Rock,” “C’mon Everybody,” “Somethin’ Else,” “Nervous Breakdown” and “Sittin’ in the Balcony,” which influenced generations of guitarists. Indeed, John Lennon invited Paul McCartney to play with the Quarrymen because Paul could play "Twenty Flight Rock," and George Harrison used Gretsch guitars almost exclusively on the early Beatles LPs.
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i was Eddie's Chet Atkins guitar that was in the trunk of the car on the April 1960 night that Cochran met his tragic and untimely fate on a winding rural road in Chippenham, England.
Now Gretsch honors the legacy of Eddie Cochran with the G6120 Eddie Cochran Signature Hollow Body guitar model. The instrument is a single-cutaway beauty with western motif and full, resonant sound that combines features based directly on Cochran’s main guitar, the orange Gretsch 6120 Chet Atkins hollow body guitar. This signature model comes hot on the heels of the acclaimed, limited edition G6129EC Eddie Cochran Tribute Custom Shop guitar.
The G6120’s elegant single-cutaway hollow body has an arched, three-ply maple back and sides with parallel bracing and double-bound f holes. The two-piece maple neck has black and white single-ply binding and a polished brass nut. Other features include a 9.5”-radius rosewood fingerboard with 22 standard frets and western-themed pearloid inlays (cacti, steer horns and fences); DynaSonic™ single-coil bridge pickup and Lindy Fralin “Dog Ear” single-coil neck pickup with three-position switching; opaque plexi pickguard bearing Gretsch logo; aluminum bridge with rosewood base, Bigsby® B6GBVF vibrato tailpiece; gold G-arrow control knobs and gold-plated, chrome and aluminum hardware; gold-plated Grover® V98G Sta-Tite™ tuners; elegant “Western Maple Stain” finish; and deluxe hard shell case.
The G6120 Eddie Cochran Signature Hollow Body guitar is available through authorized Gretsch dealers for a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $3,625. For more information, visit www.gretschguitars.com
