Peter Frampton and Steve Marriott played some rather humble sounding Gretsch guitars

[IMMUSICRULZ]

Steve Marriott poses with his 1960/1961 Gretsch G6121. It features thumbnail inlays and a horse shoe on the headstock. During his years with Small Faces, he would have it repainted many times except for the orange headstock. He also used it on some of the Thunderbox and other Humble Pie albums. It can be seen in white in many videos with the band. Not sure when that White Falcon was made, but it looks to be between 1955 and 1957. He also played a Gretsch Tennessean with fake f-holes in this video:

And of course, Frampton with his Gretsch Duo Jet, which had a Bigsby attached to it.

It is rumored that the Gretsch 6121 and White Falcon were one of a few (along with an ES 335 and a 62 reissue Strat) that were salvaged from the fire that tragically took Marriott in 1991, robbing us of one of the best British guitarists out there since George Harrison and Hank Marvin first laid down the British Invasion template. I believe that Steve Marriott used the Grestches and a Les Paul on much of his solo stuff in the seventies, as well as the 2 ill fated albums he did with the reformed Faces in the seventies. I believe his surviving relatives wound up selling his guitars in 2012 or 2013 at a store I can't remember the name of.

Marriott was an icon and a huge influence on guitarists like Lita Ford, Randy Rhoads and John Petrucci, whilst every teenage girl in America seemed to focus on how sexy Peter Frampton was. Frampton recorded one of the biggest selling live albums of the seventies, only to fade into obscurity with that corny Sgt Pepper film. He is still a very good guitarist, but for me, Steve Marriott will always be the best Faces member since Ron Wood and Rod Stewart after him. It was a sad day in guitar history when Steve Marriott died. Allegedly Steve was smoking a cigarette, and then fell asleep with the cigarette burning in his hand, thus causing the fire. Marriott had also been working with Slash and Motorhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister at the time of his death.


This history of Steve Marriott's Gretsch is as complete as possible, and hopefully somebody can gaze in wide wonder at those wonderful hollowbodies. Who knows where those Gretsches are now...