Gretsch unveils elegantly appointed Michael Guy Chislett Signature Falcon
Fully hollow model offers TV Jones pickups, Bigsby vibrato and Vintage White finish with gold hardware
Gretsch previewed its luxurious Michael Guy Chislett Signature Falcon electric guitar last summer, and now that model – the fully-hollow G6136T-MGC Michael Guy Chislett Signature Falcon with Bigsby – has been officially unveiled.
The new collaboration with the Australian musician, who is a founding member of Hillsong United and has also played with Butch Walker, The Academy Is..., Pete Yorn, Pistol Youth and Good Charlotte, boasts a solid Sitka spruce top with bound F-holes, vintage 1959-style trestle bracing and laminated maple back and sides.
There’s also a semi-gloss U-shape maple neck and 12”-radius ebony fingerboard with pearloid Big Block inlays and 22 medium jumbo frets.
Pickups, meanwhile, are a pair of TV Jones TV Classics, controlled via a three-way toggle switch, individual pickup volume knobs, and master tone and master volume with treble bleed circuit featuring “Squeezebox” paper-in-oil capacitors.
Other features include a Bigsby B6GP vibrato tailpiece with pinned ebony base, bone nut and Grover Imperial locking tuners.
Said Chislettt, “I reached out to the guys because I felt like there wasn’t a White Falcon that resembled the one I played. To have them offer to make me a new one was pretty exciting in itself. I grew up idolizing Brian Setzer – I even have a tattoo – and guys like George Harrison. I never would have even dreamed of having a signature model; it is pretty crazy to me still, and I am just incredibly honored.”
Added Gretsch VP Jason Barnes, “Michael was looking for a big, vibrant sound that would give him that famous Gretsch clean while also giving him the ability to drive his tone pretty hard without a lot of feedback. With our 1959 trestle bracing and spruce top combination, you get a full and harmonically rich tone that stays very defined and articulate no matter what level of gain you use."
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The G6136T-MGC Michael Guy Chislett Signature Falcon with Bigsby is finished in Vintage White gloss lacquer with gold sparkle binding, gold pickguard and gold hardware, and is offered for $3,799.
For more information, head to Gretsch Guitars.
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Rich is the co-author of the best-selling Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored History of the '80s Hard Rock Explosion. He is also a recording and performing musician, and a former editor of Guitar World magazine and executive editor of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He has authored several additional books, among them Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, the companion to the documentary of the same name.
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