#Gretsch white falcon frusciante tv

Gretsch had already been on the go for decades by this point, beginning as they did back in 1883. We are jumping into the driver’s seat of the DeLorean and typing 1954 into the mad-looking dashboard, to travel back in time and arrive at the birth of the Falcon. This is very much the case with guitars: the fifties gave us the best Fenderdesigns, the best Gibsondesigns and the best Gretsch Guitar designs. fountains.things from back then carry a huge amount of talismanic appeal. To someone who was never anywhere near that rose-tinted decade, it seems as though every cultural thing from the fifties – music, cars, clothes, houses, movies – was ineffably cool in a way that no things are these days. The Gretsch Falcon, as we’ll be calling it for the remainder of this blog, begins its story, as all truly great guitars do, in the mists of the romantic 1950s. There’s nothing we can do about these people, so let us quickly forget about them and move on to inspect the hows and whys of Gretsch’s finest! But then, there are some people out there who don’t like Golden Retrievers, too. There are actually some people out there who don’t think that the White Falcon is one of the most amazing guitars ever. Instead, oh dear Whitest of Falcons, we will humbly talk about why you are so incredible. The White Falcon: we want to write sophisticated poetry in its honour, but alas we lack the ability to appropriately capture its magnificence in rhyme and metre. Omnipotent.ĭear White Falcon, how majestic you are. Perched, as it is, atop the great mountain of guitar magnificence. The greatness of the White Falcon is obvious for all to see. Note that this is not the cheaper ‘Players Edition’ model, or the GTR version, but the full-on, no-expense-spared, 59 ‘Vintage Select’ White Falcon, complete with deluxe hardshell case and paperwork, and bonus tooled leather Gretsch strap.The Greatness of the Gretsch White Falcon This is truly a guitar designed from the ground up, to do it all!

On the tech side, as well as regular 3-way switching and tone/volume controls, the Falcon’s additional 3-way Master Tone Switch tosses high frequency roll-off and pickups “wide open” into the mix. Other outstanding White Falcon features included the famous ‘Space Control’ bridge, the genuine Bigsby B6, a bone nut, Ebony board, (with a near flat, 12” radius), medium-jumbo frets… oh, and nitro lacquer finish and all gold-plated hardware. The combination of the arched, laminated Maple body and interior trestle braces, cloned straight off the legendary 1959 model, gives the guitar an acoustic spring, that nothing else can match! With the unbelievably dynamic sounding FilterTrons fed through Gretsch’s own specially developed ‘Squeezebox’ paper-in-oil capacitors, for the most astonishing, velvety smooth highs, it’s no surprise whatsoever that the big names all come calling.

#Gretsch white falcon frusciante tv

One of the sexiest, most luxurious guitars in the entire guitar universe! This is the no-expense-spared '59 Vintage Select’ model - with Bigsby and TV Jones FilterTrons. Over the years some great names have been associated with the White Falcon: in the fifties, jazz guitarist Mary Osborne in the sixties, Roy Orbison Steve Marriott of the Small Faces then myriad big names from the seventies onwards, including Stephen Stills and Neil Young, Jack White, John Frusciante, Malcolm Young, Brian Setzer, Don Felder of the Eagles, James Hetfield, Joe Strummer, Martin Gore of Depeche Mode, Marco Pirroni, (Bow Wow Wow / Adam & The Ants), and Chris Cheney of the Living End.

With its big 17” Maple body – arched front and back – fully bound in gold sparkle, (originally courtesy of the company’s drumkit production line), the White Falcon stood out from just about everything else on the market. The Gretsch 59 ‘Vintage Select’ incarnation of the famous White Falcon is one of those guitars.įirst shown off at the NAMM industry trade show of July, 1954, purely as an example of what the company’s acclaimed luthiers were capable of, Gretsch called it The Guitar Of The Future! The White Falcon was so well received at the NAMM show that Gretsch had no choice but to put it into production, with the first instruments arriving in stores the following year – as the most expensive model in the entire Gretsch catalogue.

It is a thing of rare glory when one of the big guitar names reissues one of their famous models – and does it so incredibly well that players and reviewers alike line up to get their hands on one.