Having long teased a new signature guitar from Gretsch, The Cult guitarist Billy Duffy has share some more details of its design, saying that it is like a stripped-down version of his G7593T White Falcon.
Speaking to Guitar World in a broad ranging interview, Duffy was careful not to reveal too much, but in doing so he revealed more than he has been willing to share so far – such is the way of these signature models. As his Instagram posts have suggested, his forthcoming signature Gretsch will be based on the White Falcon, only smaller.
“My thing is it's a 'Falcon Junior',“ he explained. “It's stripped down, and basically based on all those simple one-pickup guitars that I loved as a kid. It was like, 'How can I take the essence of a Falcon and kind of shrink it down a bit but still keep the balls?' And that was to make a junior. So, what would that look like? What would it feel like? And I think we've cracked it.“
Duffy has used a variety of electric guitars over the years with both The Cult and his Coloursøund project with The Alarm's Mike Peters, but it is the White Falcon we first associate with him.
“I'm not really that much of a sentimental person, but in a house fire it would be the first non-living thing that I'd be going for,“ he said back in 2013, when Gretsch released a quite stunning Billy Duffy White Falcon resplendent in a 70s Baldwin-era aesthetic and finished in pure White gloss nitro.
This forthcoming White “Falcon Junior“ looks to have some of that vibe, but maybe with a little more of a punk vibe. The good news is, it appears to be coming soon.
“It's a thinner body, kind of a medium-sized body,“ continued Duffy. “The headstock's about a third smaller. I can't give away too many details, but we wanted to keep it separate from the big White Falcon. It could be a little more of an easy-to-use, grab-and-go instrument. And I've got to say, it's a lot of fun. We've pretty much signed off on it. And I'm hoping that we're going to get it out soon.”
