Johnny Marr’s 1977 Gretsch Atkins Super Axe

Johnny acquired his Gretsch guitar around 1981 in exchange for his old Gibson Les Paul. This guitar has remained with him ever since and played a crucial role in the early sound of The Smiths, most notably being used to record “Hand in Glove” from their debut album. He also used the guitar on the first show he ever played with The Smiths, on October 4th, 1982 at The Ritz in Manchester, England

When he got the guitar, Johnny had just moved out and was living with his college friend Ollie May. In his autobiography, Johnny describes this period as highly inspiring, spending countless hours in his room honing his craft. He would practice relentlessly and experiment by layering guitar tracks on a Teac recording machine.

I’d recently traded my Les Paul for a red Gretsch Super Axe and a Teac cassette machine that had an overdub facility. I’d work on a chord sequence until I was happy with it and then record a second guitar part on top. I would then bounce the two tracks together and experiment with putting more guitars on. I could build up the tracks by bouncing and overdubbing and create my own wall of sound.

Johnny Marr – Set the Boy Free: The Autobiography

In a 2023 interview for his book “Marr’s Guitar”, Johnny said that he, at that time, couldn’t afford one of the big Gretsches, so he opted for this guitar instead.

The Super Axe model was built between 1977 and 1980 in collaboration with Chet Atkins. It was marketed as the “ultimate guitar” and it had built-in Phaser and Compressor effects. It’s unknown whether Johnny himself ever actually used those effects.