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Recent Articles: • Rock, Rock, ROCKABILLY BOOGIE! • The year-end review: • Blackie Goes To Hollywood Rock, Rock, ROCKABILLY BOOGIE! - 01/09/2010 A recent out-of-body musical experience has left me positively WOOZY with Gretsch fever. If you've never fronted a hot rhythm section with a Bigsby-equipped White Falcon strapped over your shoulder, you ain't livin' right, Cat. The great Brian Setzer is the metaphorical hood ornament on the runaway Packard that IS the current Rockabilly craze. Sure, your pack of Chesterfields rolled up in the sleeve of your T-shirt has been replaced by a box of Nicorette, and you may drive a Prius instead of a Studebaker, but this is still America, and you can still grow your sideburns, roll up your Levis, and Rock with Gene and Eddie. WHAT YOU WILL NEED: A TWANGY GUITAR The ne-plu-ultra is an orange (Technically, "Desert Red") Gretsch 6120 with FilterTron humbucking pickups. I don't own any oilwells, so I'm thinking double cutaway c.'63 for around four grand. About half that much do-re-mi will put a single-pickup "Single Anniversary" in your garage. Can't beat that with a stick, Podnuh. Teles are approved (Just ask James Burton), extry credit if you get a factory "F" Bigsby. ...and don't forget Gibson. L5 and ES-295 p90 hollows were good enough for Scotty Moore on Heartbreak Hotel, so they're good enough for you, HotShot. And ES175,225,330,335s don't stink, either. And the Chicago conglomerate that cranked out Kays and Harmonys are an all-American source of chrome tailfinned goodness. A REVERB TANK Really, it's all about the Fenders. Blondes, Browns, and Blacks are all-tube, triple-knob tone monsters hovering at a grand-ish. A TUBE AMP THAT SMELLS LIKE AN OLD SHEEPDOG. That's a whole 'nother topic. I just wish I'd a had YouTube in 1974. It was hell learning Rockabilly licks by watching "The Girl Can't Help it" on afternoon TV. Sherman Allen |