#GRETSCH WHITE FALCON MALCOLM HOW TO#
#GRETSCH WHITE FALCON MALCOLM MODS#

Gretsch currently produces two Malcolm Young signature Jet reissues, in both single and double FilterTron pickup configurations. Other than that, give Malcolm heavy strings (.012-.056) and plug him into Marshall amps (Super Leads and Super Basses) and away he goes. His first, a ‘59, was sold on after he claimed that it had ‘lost its sound’ following a repair.

#GRETSCH WHITE FALCON MALCOLM MODS#

Malcolm's mods included stripping the red paint, removing the neck and middle pickups and stuffing socks in the cavities to reduce feedback.īack In Black (the Brian Johnson era) saw Malcolm add White Falcons to the mix. No matter: his immediately recognisable, hooky, three-chord style provides AC/DC with their power and has led millions down the Highway To Hell.ĭuring the Bon Scott-era, Malcolm played and customised a 1963 Gretsch Jet Firebird guitar handed down to him by elder brother George Young, who was in The Australian band The Easybeats. It’s hard to compete with a younger brother who prances around in a schoolboy’s uniform and plays all the leads, so Malcolm Young doesn’t even try.

#GRETSCH WHITE FALCON MALCOLM HOW TO#

Want to know how to play like him? Who better than the man himself to talk you through rockabilly picking using barre chords, using a Bigsby vibrato, rockabilly picking using open chords and how to change between picking and fingerstyle. Gretsch has issued numerous Brian Setzer models over the years.There was even a limited-edition Brian Setzer Tribute guitar - appropriately, only 59 were made. (And forget that three-position ’mud switch’ - don’t need it.) Whether it’s with The Stray Cats (who broke up in 1984 but have reunited several times), on side projects like Robert Plant’s The Honeydrippers or with his current big band, The Brian Setzer Orchestra, you won’t find him playing anything other than Gretsch. Key to Setzer’s sound - an exuberant blend of boogie-woogie and blues with an almost jazz sensibility - is a 1959 Gretsch 6120 that the Eddie Cochran-obsessed guitarist bought from the classifieds for the way-beyond-retro price of $100. Two years later, aided by MTV, they brought their success back to the States, and with stripped-down, no-keyboards-allowed hits like Rock This Town, Runaway Boys and Stray Cat Strut, they became stars. Setzer and his other two Stray Cats (bassist Lee Rocker and drummer Slim Jim Phantom) went down a smash in the UK, riding a rockabilly revival that soon became a revolution. What to do? Move to jolly ol’ England, of course! You’re a rockabilly-crazed trio from Long Island in the late ’70s.

(Image credit: Steve Jennings/CORBIS) Brian Setzer well, frankly, there isn't.Īt NAMM 2010, Gretsch announced a rather special Eddie Cochran tribute guitar. And if there's a better distillation of the spirit of rock 'n' roll than the car and girl-fixated Somethin' Else. Widely credited as the first guitarist to use an unwound third string for easier bends, artists as diverse as The Who, Hendrix, Bolan, The Sex Pistols, Brian Setzer and Rory Gallagher counted Cochran as a key influence. Paul McCartney passed the most important audition of all time when John Lennon - then of The Quarrymen - heard him play Cochran's Twenty Flight Rock. Killed in a car crash at just 21 years of age, Cochran's career was cut tragically short, but his influence cannot be overstated and still resonates at the pounding heart of rock 'n' roll.

There are Gretsch players, and there are Gretsch players. And who better to kick off the list than a genuine trailblazer. Now, it's time to look at some of the guitarists - both contemporary and from decades past - who have made the Gretsch sound their own. So far we've loved Les Paul legends, stroked the egos of Strat stars, run riot on Rickenbacker pickers and many more.

Here at MusicRadar, we love celebrating those perfect combinations of artist and instrument that burn brightest in the history of popular music. (Image credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Corbis) Eddie Cochran

Gretsch white falcon malcolm