G6128T-CLFG Cliff Gallup Signature Duo Jet™
Gretsch couldn’t be more delighted to honor original-era master Cliff Gallup, whose tastefully fleet-fingered work hot-rodded dozens of classics by Gene Vincent and his Blue Caps in the latter half of the 1950s. Soft-spoken in manner, Gallup was anything but with a Duo Jet™ in his hands, turning in solos and backing tracks of startling proficiency and truly raising the bar (and the roof) for rockabilly and early rock ‘n’ roll guitarists.
With Gretsch’s G6128T-CLFG Cliff Gallup Signature Duo Jet™, any race with the devil is one you’re sure to win. A finely crafted celebration of Gallup’s 1954 model, it rocks all the essential ingredients of his time-honored signature sound, including dual DynaSonic™ pickups, rosewood fingerboard with “big block” pearloid inlays, compensated aluminum bridge with aluminum base, Bigsby® B3 vibrato tailpiece with black painted trough and fixed arm, classic “arrow” control knobs, flat-wound strings, and a dark-stained headstock bearing Gallup’s signature on the truss rod cover.
Guitar DetailsGene Vincent & the Blue Caps
The Four C's
Newly Found, Never Released Live Recordings
Cliff Gallup’s daughter Bonnie allowed Gretsch to sift through her father’s archives that had been in storage for over 50 years, leading to an important discovery.
Among his possessions was a 7” reel of magnetic tape captured by Gallup on his mono reel-to-reel tape recorder, featuring live performances by his band the Four C’s. At the time of these recordings (in the early ‘60s) at a nightclub in Norfolk, Virginia, the Four C’s consisted of Gallup (lead guitar), Charlie Wiggs (vocals & rhythm guitar), Felton Clark (bass) and Eddy Jones (drums).
Enjoy these raw and unique recordings…
The Four C's studio album, Straight Down the Middle, was released in the mid-1960s on the Pussy Cat label. For this album, Gallup exclusively played a Gretsch G6122 Chet Atkins Country Gentleman guitar, which now resides at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.
Cliff Gallery
The Cliff Gallup Story
On May 4, 1956, at Bradley Film & Recording Studio on south 16th St. in Nashville, record producer Ken Nelson had prepared for that day’s work by having several session veterans on hand to back up a little-known singer from Norfolk, Va., who was coming in to cut a few songs.
Nelson knew his way around a studio and had serious industry muscle—he’d helmed A&R for the country and western division at Capitol Records since 1951, was a peer of Chet Atkins over at RCA Victor and Don Law at Columbia, and was already steering Capitol artists such as Hank Thompson, Jean Shepherd, Ferlin Husky and others through hit-filled careers, as he later would for Sonny James, Buck Owens and Roy Clark. Capitol was eager to find an act to rival RCA Victor’s new sensation, Elvis Presley, and Nelson was on the lookout.
The singer from Virginia showed up all right; the only problem was that he arrived with his own four-piece backup band. That was Ken Nelson’s introduction to Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps, and he had no way of knowing if they could cut it, so to speak, when the red light blinked on. Something of a showdown promptly ensued—Nelson had his own reliable musicians ready to go, whereas the wiry Vincent adamantly insisted on using his own band.
A bargain was quickly struck in which Nelson agreed to listen to Vincent and his boys perform one song. The band set up and tore through a swinging little Vincent-penned number called “Race With the Devil,” during which Nelson heard 26-year-old lead guitarist Cliff Gallup reel off not one but two unbelievable solos. And that was that.
Ken Nelson sent his session guys home.
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