Gretsch® G6136T White Falcon®
- Sold
The Gretsch White Falcon is a visually distinctive guitar commercially introduced in 1955 by Gretsch. While it has seen vast and substantial changes to its body shape and features through the years, and is currently offered in several styles, the White Falcon has always maintained a striking and unmistakable presence and has become a highly recognized piece of Rock history.
The White Falcon is best known for its large 17-inch size and distinctive appearance, with gleaming white paint, copious gold trim, and a falcon in mid-flight engraved on the gold pickguard.
In early 1954, Gretsch marketing strategist Jimmie Webster sought to design a guitar to improve upon the top-of-the-heap Gibson Super 400. He wanted a "Dream Guitar", and gained his inspiration by walking through the immense Gretsch factory and watching the construction of the staggering diversity of musical instruments the company produced. From the banjo production line, Webster recalled the engraved pearl inlays that adorned the fretboard and headstock. Many of Gretsch's drums were covered with thick sparkly gold plastic that could also be used as binding on guitars. The combination of these eye-catching features with an immense 17" wide by 2-3/4" deep white body and highest quality gold-plated hardware rendered "the Cadillac of guitars," the White Falcon.
The White Falcon was unveiled at the NAMM show in July 1954. It was displayed as "the guitar of the future," but Gretsch initially had no plans to actually manufacture the model. It was supposed to be a showpiece, much like GM's Motorama "Dream Cars" of the day.
The sheer volume of questions sales reps received about the eye-catching instrument led to a reevaluation of this position, and the White Falcon hit stores in 1955. As the company's new high-end guitar, Gretsch marketed it as "the finest guitar we know how to make – and what a beauty!" The White Falcon originally cost $600 at that time (well over $4,000 adjusted for inflation); this price tag was second only to the $690 asking price of Gibson's Super 400CESN.
So popular was the White Falcon (and other Gretsch models of the time) that this era in Gretsch guitar history is frequently referred to as "The Golden Years" or "The Great Years". Through the '60s, Webster continually "improved" the Falcon with more features, including a Stereo version. By the late '60s, the Falcon was covered with controls and knobs. It has also switched to a twin-cutaway body beginning in 1962.
This 2006 model G6136T features '59 styling, High Sensitive Filter'Tron™ pickups, trestle bracing, Neo-Classic™ thumbnail inlays, Space Control™ bridge, sleek Gretsch horizontal headstock logo and a Bigsby B6GB vibrato tailpiece.
List Price: $4 425.00
Sale Price: $3 100.00
Freight cost (contiguous USA): $35.00
Reference #: 2381
Out of stock.
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