175 year anniversary

You have to figure that any guitar made to celebrate a 125th anniversary is going to be special. The only question is, how special?

After all, Gretsch has carved out quite a name for itself over the last dozen decades. In the early days of rock ‘n’ roll, Gretsch guitars started a few revolutions of their own. There’s a lot of history in that name, and sometimes it pops up in places you might not expect to find it (e.g., Ron Asheton of the Stooges played them, as did Malcom Young, who played a ’59 White Falcon on AC/DC’s “Back in Black” tour).
Does the 125-year milestone signal the start of a new revolution? The company could have gone back to the drawing board to produce a really novel instrument, something to show just how much further they might go. Instead they seem to have had in mind a celebration of the landmark guitars that made Gretsch a name to conjure within the 50s and 60s, the kind of guitar that got them where they are now. And a celebration it is. The “Double Annie,” as it is called, immediately evokes the days when guitars like this were synonymous with that new-fangled rock ‘n’ roll sound.

Our review model turned quite a few heads around the Premier Guitar offices. The upscale styling of this guitar is downright gorgeous; it is undeniably a special Gretsch with a classic feel. With a big, beautiful hollowbody design, the Double Annie has a gloss finish, Jaguar Tan top and a gold metallic back and sides. It has a “neo-classic” ebony fingerboard, FilterTron-style TV Jones PowerTron pickups and a Bigsby vibrato tailpiece. It is a legacy guitar that loudly proclaims its vintage pedigree. Even the appointments are a throwback to the golden age, like the rosewood pinned Adjustomatic bridge, the knurled straplocking knobs, and the peghead plate that marks the passage of 125 years.