Brian Robert Setzer is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He found widespread success in the early 1980s with the 1950s-style rockabilly group Stray Cats, and returned to the music scene in the early 1990s with his swing revival band, the Brian Setzer Orchestra. In 1987, he made a cameo appearance as Eddie Cochran in the film La Bamba.
Ray Edward Cochran, known professionally as Eddie Cochran, was an American rock and roll musician. His songs, such as "Twenty Flight Rock", "Summertime Blues", "C'mon Everybody" and "Somethin' Else", captured teenage frustration and desire in the mid-1950s and early 1960s. Cochran experimented with multitrack recording, distortion techniques, and overdubbing, even on his earliest singles. Cochran played the guitar, piano, bass, and drums. His image as a sharply dressed and attractive young man with a rebellious attitude epitomized the stance of the 1950s rocker, and in death, Cochran achieved iconic status.
Duane Eddy was an American rock and roll guitarist. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he had a string of hit records produced by Lee Hazlewood which were noted for their characteristically "twangy" guitar sound, including "Rebel-'Rouser", "Peter Gunn", and "Because They're Young". He had sold 12 million records by 1963. His guitar style influenced the Ventures, the Shadows, the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Steve Earle, and Marty Stuart.
The Reverend Horton Heat is the stage name of American musician James C. Heath as well as the name of his Dallas, Texas-based psychobilly trio. Heath is a singer, songwriter and guitarist. A Prick magazine reviewer called Heath the "godfather of modern rockabilly and psychobilly".
An archtop guitar is a hollow acoustic or semi-acoustic guitar with a full body and a distinctive arched top, whose sound is particularly popular with jazz, blues, and rockabilly players.
Gretsch is an American company that manufactures and markets musical instruments. The company was founded in 1883 in Brooklyn, New York by Friedrich Gretsch, a 27-year-old German immigrant, shortly after his arrival to the United States. Friedrich Gretsch manufactured banjos, tambourines, and drums until his death in 1895. In 1916, his son, Fred Gretsch Sr. moved operations to a larger facility where Gretsch went on to become a prominent manufacturer of American musical instruments. Through the years, Gretsch has manufactured a wide range of instruments, though they currently focus on electric and acoustic guitars and drums.
The Fender Eric Clapton Stratocaster is the signature model electric guitar of English guitarist Eric Clapton. It was the first signature model guitar released by Fender.
Reverend Musical Instruments, commonly known as Reverend Guitars, is an American manufacturer of electric guitars and basses. The company was established in 1997 in Detroit, Michigan by noted guitar and amplifier technician Joe Naylor, a graduate of the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery. Reverend guitars are known for their combination of unorthodox construction methods, retro design, playability and affordable price.
Joseph Raymond Butts was an American inventor and engineer best known for designing several devices that influenced the evolution of electrified music, in particular those used with the electric guitar. Most notably, Butts is the inventor of the EchoSonic, a guitar amplifier with a built-in tape echo, and the Filter'Tron, one of the first humbucker guitar pickups. He was active in other fields from studio equipment maintenance to sound engineering, and had intimate working relationships with people such as Sam Phillips at Sun Studios and Chet Atkins.
The Gretsch White Falcon is an electric hollow-body guitar introduced in 1954 by Gretsch.
The Gibson ES series of semi-acoustic guitars are manufactured by the Gibson Guitar Corporation.
The Gretsch 6128 is a chambered solid body electric guitar which has been manufactured by Gretsch since 1953.
Classical electric guitars, also known as nylon-string electric guitars, represent a unique fusion of traditional classical guitar design and modern electric guitar technology. These instruments combine the rich and warm tonal qualities of nylon-stringed classical guitars with the versatility and amplified sound capabilities of electric guitars. By integrating nylon strings with onboard electronics, pickups, and preamp systems, classical electric guitars offer musicians a wide range of sonic possibilities for various musical genres and performance settings.
TV Jones is an American guitar pickup manufacturer founded in 1993 by luthier Thomas V. Jones in Whittier, California. Now based in Poulsbo, Washington, the company is best known for creating vintage-style Filter'Tron pickups, using materials and a manufacturing process similar to what was used in the late 1950s and 1960s by Ray Butts and Gretsch.
The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the tele, is an electric guitar produced by Fender. Together with its sister model the Esquire, it was the world's first mass-produced, commercially successful solid-body electric guitar. Its simple yet effective design and revolutionary sound broke ground and set trends in electric guitar manufacturing and popular music. Many prominent rock musicians have been associated with the Telecaster for use in studio recording and live performances, most notably Bruce Springsteen, Prince, Luis Alberto Spinetta and Keith Richards.
Johan Frandsen, is the frontman guitarist, main songwriter and lead vocalist in the Swedish rock band, The Knockouts. His trademark guitar is a Gretsch White Falcon. Frandsen is an endorsed artist by Gretsch Guitars, TV Jones, Fender and Peerless.
The EchoSonic is a guitar amplifier made by Ray Butts. It was the first portable guitar amplifier with a built-in tape echo effect, and it allowed guitar players to use slapback echo, which dominated 1950s rock and roll guitar playing, on stage. He built the first one in 1953 and sold the second one to Chet Atkins in 1954. He built fewer than seventy of those amplifiers; one of them was bought by Sam Phillips and then used by Scotty Moore on every recording he made with Elvis Presley, from the 1955 hit song "Mystery Train" to the 1968 TV program Comeback Special. Deke Dickerson called the amplifier the Holy Grail of rockabilly music.
Paul Yandell was an American guitar player from Mayfield, Kentucky. Yandell played fingerstyle, a style he learned to play from his neighbors, influenced by Chet Atkins and Merle Travis. In 1955 he was hired by The Louvin Brothers and performed and recorded with them. From 1959 to 1961 he served in the US Army and on his return was a touring musician with Kitty Wells, Johnnie Wright, George Hamilton IV, and Jerry Reed.
The Filter'Tron is an early model of the humbucker guitar pickup invented by Ray Butts in the 1950s. Butts built the prototype Filter'Tron in 1954 for guitarist Chet Atkins and it was manufactured by Gretsch and installed in almost all of the brand's guitars beginning in 1957. Gretsch guitars and the "growl" and "twang" of their Filter'Trons played a major part in the rise of rock and roll, with adopters like Bo Diddley, Duane Eddy, George Harrison, and Neil Young. After a sharp decline in popularity in the 1970s and early 1980s, the Gretsch brand and Filter'Tron sound experienced a revival when Brian Setzer renewed public interest in the rockabilly genre. Gretsch guitars have since been embraced by new generations of guitarists, especially in rock music, and many manufacturers now offer Filter'Tron-style pickups.
