NAMM 2017: Gretsch salutes Malcolm Young with Custom Shop signature Jet

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AC/DC's engine house gets a high-end signature

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Gretsch Custom Shop Malcolm Young Salute Jet

NAMM 2017: The man many regard as rock's finest rhythm guitarist, AC/DC's Malcolm Young, has been honoured with a limited edition Gretsch Custom Shop signature model, dubbed the Salute Jet.

The ultra-swanky new signature guitar is based on Young's '63 Jet Firebird - known as 'The Beast' - and is limited to 40 pieces worldwide. In development since 2008, the Gretsch Custom Shop team have painstakingly recreated all the details of his battle-scarred axe, including the stripped paint job, missing pickups and damage. Other specs include a TV Jones TV Classic bridge pickup, Space Control bridge and Neo-Classic thumbnail inlays.

Early pictures lead us to believe that the Custom Shop has done a stunning job on the model, which is just as well as the current MSRP is $10,000. Authenticity doesn't come cheap, apparently!

Browse the gallery above to view more images and read the full press release below.

Gretsch Custom Shop Malcolm Young "Salute" Jet press release

Malcolm Young, we salute you. At long last, Gretsch honors the guitarist whose rock-solid rhythm guitar swagger and songwriting provided the unshakeable foundation for Australia's most beloved musical export, AC/DC, for more than 40 years.

The G6131MY-CS Custom Shop Malcolm Young "Salute" Jet™ pays faithful homage to Young's famously battle-hardened instrument, which began life in 1963 as a red Gretsch Jet Firebird handed down to him by Harry Vanda and elder brother George Young (of Easybeats fame) and nicknamed "The Beast."

Malcolm certainly made the instrument his own, not least by removing two of the three pickups, stripping away the finish, and pounding out some of the hardest rocking rhythm guitar ever heard in either hemisphere.

The G6131MY-CS Custom Shop Malcolm Young "Salute" Jet is a meticulously crafted Gretsch Custom Shop recreation accurate down to every last nick, scratch and dent acquired over Young's long and raucously illustrious career.

  • Double-cutaway chambered mahogany body with a stripped, maple top with "thin-skin" lacquer finish
  • Detailed heavy Relic aging
  • Mahogany set neck with "U" profile and 12"-radius ebony fingerboard with bone nut
  • 23 medium jumbo frets (including zero fret) and pearloid Neo-Classic™ "thumbnail" inlays
  • A single TV Jones® TV Classic bridge pickup
  • Space Control™ bridge with ebony base
  • '60s-style Jet tailpiece
  • Worn nickel/gold hardware
  • Schaller® tuners
  • Vintage-style hardshell case
Matt Parker
Matt Parker

Matt is a freelance journalist who has spent the last decade interviewing musicians for the likes of Total Guitar, Guitarist, Guitar World, MusicRadar, NME.com, DJ Mag and Electronic Sound. In 2020, he launched CreativeMoney.co.uk, which aims to share the ideas that make creative lifestyles more sustainable. He plays guitar, but should not be allowed near your delay pedals.