The Gretsch G6199 "Billy-Bo" Jupiter is a reproduction of a guitar designed by

Bo Diddley Ellas McDaniel (born Ellas Otha Bates; December 30, 1928 – June 2, 2008), known professionally as Bo Diddley, was an American guitarist who played a key role in the transition from the blues to rock and roll. He influenced many artists, incl ...

(1928–2008) in 1959 and produced by a former

Gretsch Gretsch is an American company that manufactures 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 Gretsc ...

employee. Diddley built his first guitar in 1945, it was

trapezoid A quadrilateral with at least one pair of parallel sides is called a trapezoid () in American and Canadian English. In British and other forms of English, it is called a trapezium (). A trapezoid is necessarily a Convex polygon, convex quadri ...

shaped since Diddley felt that the regular shaped

Gibson L5 The Gibson L-5 guitar was first produced in 1923 by the Gibson Guitar Corporation, then of Kalamazoo, Michigan, under the direction of acoustical engineer and designer Lloyd Loar, and has been in production ever since. It was considered the pr ...

he was playing were hindering his live performances. The smaller trapezoid and

rectangular In Euclidean geometry, Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a quadrilateral with four right angles. It can also be defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal (360°/4 = 90°); or a par ...

guitars allowed him to keep jumping around on stage while still playing his guitar. Diddley went on to play a number of rectangular guitars built by himself and others, which soon became one of his trademarks throughout his career. In 1959 Bo approached a former Gretsch employee known only as "Juliano" to build him some guitars from his own designs using Gretsch necks and hardware. The resulting three guitars (Jupiter Thunderbird, Cadillac and Cigar Box), two of which were named after popular automobiles became synonymous with Diddley and his '60s stage partner "The Duchess"

Norma-Jean Wofford Norma-Jean Wofford (c. 1942 – April 30, 2005)
- accessed February 2011 was an American

. The Jupiter was later donated as a gift to

ZZ Top ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. For 51 years, they comprised vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard and vocalist-bassist Dusty Hill, until Hill's death in 2021. ZZ Top developed a signature sound ...

frontman

Billy Gibbons William Frederick Gibbons (born December 16, 1949) is an American musician who is the guitarist and lead singer of the rock band ZZ Top. He began his career in the band the Moving Sidewalks, which recorded a full-length album entitled, ''Flas ...

who used it on some ZZ Top recordings. Since Gibbons did not want to risk subjecting the rare guitar to touring and live performances, Gibbons approached

with the idea of reproducing the Jupiter Thunderbird. The result was the G6199 "Billy-Bo" Jupiter Thunderbird which Gretsch launched in 2005.

"Some time ago, Bo gave me the guitar as a gift. It was during the recent ZZ Top recordings when the engineering crew and I snaked through the guitar vault searching for that 'certain-something' guitar and there it was! We didn't risk subjecting such a rare instrument to the rigors of the road so this new, reproduction model was recreated with some BFG Mojo thrown in for good measure. It's now the main stage guitar with a groove." -Billy F Gibbons

Later Gretsch also launched the G6199B "Billy-Bo" Jupiter Thunderbird Bass which is a four string bass identical to the guitar, the G5810 Bo Diddley inspired by Diddley's rectangular guitars and the G5850 Mini Diddley a miniature version of the rectangular guitar. Notable players include

Jack White John Anthony White (; born July 9, 1975), commonly known as Jack White, is an American musician, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the duo the White Stripes. White has enjoyed consistent critical and popular success and is widely c ...

who can be seen playing a customised Jupiter Thunderbird in the music video for the single "

Another Way to Die "Another Way to Die" is a song by American musicians Jack White and Alicia Keys. Written and produced by White as the theme song to the 2008 James Bond film ''Quantum of Solace'', it was released as a single in the United States on September 30, ...

", it is also his main guitar with

The Dead Weather The Dead Weather is an American rock supergroup, formed in Nashville, Tennessee in 2009. Composed of Alison Mosshart (of The Kills and Discount), Jack White (of The White Stripes and The Raconteurs), Dean Fertita (of Queens of the Stone Age) an ...

. Laur Joamets, former guitarist for

Sturgill Simpson John Sturgill Simpson (born June 8, 1978) is an American country music singer-songwriter and actor. As of February 2022, he has released seven albums as a solo artist. His first two albums, '' High Top Mountain'' and '' Metamodern Sounds in Cou ...

, can be seen playing a white Jupiter Thunderbird during Simpson's performances on ''

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'' is an American late-night news and liberal political satire talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015. Produced by Spartina Productions and CBS Studios, it is the second it ...

'' and ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...

''.

External links

Gretsch Billy-BoOfficial ZZ Top website
{{Gretsch Gretsch electric guitars Semi-acoustic guitars