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ABOVE This three-pickup Blue Gretsch’s new-for-1953 ‘solid’ guitar was with the Chet Atkins Solid Body and red-finish Jet
Penguin was built for Rival technically semi-solid. As a result, it was relatively Fire Bird coming in ’55, all with the same general
Sons star Scott Holiday by light, which to an extent helped give the guitar its construction style and base feature sets. Now there
the Gretsch Custom Shop
sound. But its look, its catalogue description and its was a further model in the works: the White Penguin.
intended place in the market meant that the Duo Jet
was in effect Gretsch’s first solidbody electric guitar. SHAKE A TAIL FEATHER
Duke Kramer told me that “people called it a semi- The Penguin’s partner, the lavish White Falcon,
solid, because we routed out a lot of space in the had already set a high benchmark for Gretsch’s
wood for the electronics but, basically, we hollowbody electrics. The Falcon was a stunner,
considered it a solidbody guitar”. and the Gretsch 6134 White Penguin, launched
The sparkle-finish Silver Jet and the country- in 1956, followed virtually all the contemporary
flavoured Round Up both followed in 1954, Falcon’s flamboyant trappings.
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