![]() ![]() The puzzle was forming, and boy, was it special! Picking up vibes as he looked around, he began piecing together his ‘Dream Guitar’: sparkly binding from the plastic used by the Gretsch drum department, engraved inlays from the banjo production line, and so on. To get some creative juices flowing, Jimmy took a stroll through the Gretsch factory, where the guys were busy building the brand's wide range of instruments. Gretsch wanted to grab that market, and set out to make an instrument that could out-perform and out-bling Gibson's best. The plan was to out-do Gibson’s enormous Super 400 hollow body jazzer, which at that point was not only one of the world’s most massive production guitars, but a massive hit too. The Falcon was dreamed up by Jimmie Webster, a luthier and sales rep for Gretsch. 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. Not even Chet to the best of my knowledge.( I know know.The Greatness of the Gretsch White Falcon Ironically,you never/seldom see a Nashville Cat playing one. They do sound great in their given genre. Not the kind of guitar you would bend strings on or hope for a sustain ( other than feedback ) All midrange to the point that they naturally sound compressed. You can pick it out of a lineup every time. Gretsch has the most unique sound of any guitar. How it has always remained Gretsch,s top of the line,Ill never know.įor all intense and purposes,you can get exactly the same tone from a 6120. ( I dont know what the bodies were made of ? ) It could have been the worst grain cheap wood imaginable. You had no idea what the wood was like under the white finish. Ironically the 57 I bought in 1978 and paid $500. One a double cutaway circa 1966 and the other a 57 single cutaway. With it,s huge body and looking like a drum set with all the glitter. Totally unplayable on stage due to feedback, but the most incredible ringing sweet sustain in the studio with that otherwise, worthless floating sound gizmo.Īrguably the ugliest guitar ever made. The magic guitar is my hot rodded 1956 Nashville/Chet Atkins, with custom wiring and the gawdawful Floating sound tuning fork I pirated from one of my old 1968 Falcons to install in the Nashville before having Greatsch refinish it. But basically, for live use, the sound is plain, and Falcons really feed back bad. I can though, get the direct-inject-into-the-console sound with Falcons that Neil gets with his lead stuff on his first solo album. I've now had 5 Falcons over the past 30 years and I look at them more than play them. The out of phase switches I addes sounded sort of cool sometimes. Probably best no one picked it up to play it in the movie. īoy, did I destroy that one with all the extra wiring and nic nacs I added. That's one of my Falcons !! hahahahahahahah. Doesn't have anything to do with anything, but if you're ever watching the first 15 minutes or so of the old Ferris Buehler's Day Off movie, take a look at the White Falcon sitting behind Ferris as he yaps to the camera. ![]()
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