Gretsch Nick 13 Signature Concert
Product information "Gretsch Nick 13 Signature Concert"
The new Nick 13 Outlaw Heart acoustic from Gretsch offers the perfect blend of vintage style and modern playability. It is modelled on an old Gretsch from Nick’s collection but updated with his own flair. It captures his eclectic influences from mid-century roots music to punk – all the territories he traverses both as frontman of Tiger Army and in his Americana solo work.
This guitar features a solid spruce Top, a high-gloss mahogany body, a mahogany neck and a rosewood fretboard. The Grand Concert body provides a balanced and comfortable playing experience. The 25.25" scale length ensures good playability and intonation. The fretboard is adorned with an elegant spade inlay, while the headstock carries Nick’s characteristic spade logo "n13" (associated with his solo work). The hand-selected colour scheme in black and oxblood with cream-coloured notes recalls his earlier electric Gretsch models.
The materials and specifications make this guitar an incredibly versatile instrument – the chosen woods produce a warm, round tone suitable for a variety of musical styles. The bone nut and compensated bridge ensure precise intonation across the entire fretboard; the open-gear tuners keep it in tune even during dynamic performances. Last but not least, it is equipped with a Fishman PRESYS VT pickup system, enabling you to plug into an amp without compromising the guitar’s natural acoustic voice. All of this adds up to a guitar that sounds as good as it looks!
- Back / Sides: Mahogany
- Body Shape: Size O/OOO/OOO
- Body Shape: Grand Concert
- Body finish: Gloss Polyurethane
- Bridge: Rosewood
- Color/ Finish: Black
- Colour: Black
- Construction / Acoustic: Solid (Top)
- Controls: Volume- and Tone-Control;
- Country of Origin: Indonesia
- Cutaway: no
- Finish: High Gloss
- Fretboard: Rosewood
- Neck: Mahogany
- Neck finish: High Gloss
- Nut Width: 43,0 mm
- Pickup Details: Fishman Presys
- Pre-amp system: Fishman Presys
- Saddle/Cross piece inlay: Bone
- Scale Length: 25,25" (642 mm)
- Signature Model: yes
- Strings: 6 string
- Strings thickness ex factory: .012 - .053
- Top: Spruce
Since its founding in 1883 in Brooklyn, New York, Gretsch has delivered musical instruments of the highest quality with masterful craftsmanship — instruments that have been both influential to and cherished by some of the music industry’s most respected artists, including Chet Atkins, Eddie Cochran, Billy Duffy, Bono, Duane Eddy, George Harrison, Brian Setzer, Stephen Stills and Malcolm Young.
Twenty-seven-year-old Friedrich Gretsch, a German immigrant, began the company’s career by making banjos, drums and tambourines. Only 12 years later Friedrich passed away and left the young business to his then 15‑year‑old son Fred. Far from a typical teenager, he built the company into one of America’s leading importers and manufacturers of musical instruments. Knowing that the key to growth was listening to the public — and the public wanted guitars — Gretsch began producing the sought‑after six‑string instruments.
Initially, from 1926, these took the form of acoustic archtops for the rapidly growing popularity of jazz and a handful of flattops for the ever‑popular country and western sounds in the USA. In 1935 Gretsch launched the legendary Broadkaster drum series, which remained successful into the 1950s. Gretsch’s contribution to the rise of electric amplification came in 1939 with the first Electromatic®, a hollow‑body design that, in contemporary form, remains in the range to this day.
In 1942 Fred Gretsch Senior, after 50 years of successful business, handed the company to his son Fred Gretsch Junior. Because production was interrupted during the turmoil of the Second World War, Junior left the business to his brother Bill and joined the Navy. Tragically Bill died in 1948, like his grandfather at a young age, so the now‑inactive naval officer Fred resumed the helm of the family firm.
Since 1953 the company has also cultivated its expertise in solid‑body guitars, which met the ever‑louder concerts with greatly reduced susceptibility to feedback. The semi‑acoustic line has since been expanded to include guitars with centre‑block construction, combining the tonal character of a hollow‑body guitar with the practical aspects of a solid‑body.
After George Harrison’s appearance with the Beatles and his Country Gentleman on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, Gretsch became firmly established among the iconic guitar makers — a status reflected in 1965 by the highest production volume in the company’s history.
In 1967, at the peak of its success, Fred Gretsch Jr. decided to retire and sold the company to the Baldwin Piano Company, which took over operations — unfortunately with only moderate success. Fortunately Dinah Gretsch joined the company in 1979 and helped prepare the path for a repurchase that her husband Fred W. Gretsch, the great‑grandson of the founder, completed 17 years after the sale. Together the couple restored the company to its former glory, where it seems to remain today.
