Billy Duffy

"January 2013 was very special to me as it saw the launch of my first ever signature guitar. The release of the Gretsch Billy Duffy Falcon (link) was something I could have only dreamed of as a young lad in London in 1981 when I bought my first White Falcon. Over the many years starting with Theatre of Hate and then more importantly with The Cult I suppose I made this ‘big white beast’ my own to the point where the guys at Gretsch asked to create my signature version.

Back in 1984 and just starting out as a musician I was unable to afford a second Falcon so I picked up a Gretsch Country Club with a similar feel. I didn’t like it’s natural wood finish as it looked like a piece of Danish furniture (really!) plus there was a lot of them kicking around in the ’70s and ’80s. So, I decided to create an ‘evil twin’ for my White guitar by getting it painted black!

At the time Gretsch didn’t have a Black Falcon available so I felt like I’d created a brand new model! You can read the full story of this guitar on my Gear pages here…

Gretsch Country Club

Ironically Gretsch did finally launch a Black Falcon in 1992 and I remember seeing pictures of one of my all time guitar heroes, Sylvain Sylvain (of the New York Dolls), playing one. Whilst it is a great looking guitar I didn’t feel the gold finish was me so never picked one up.

Fast forward to earlier this year, and following the success of my signature Falcon, I started talking to Gretcsh about the possibility of creating my Black Falcon vision as a Limited Edition model. They loved the idea so here it is…

Billy Duffy G7593T Black Falcon

As you can see it’s the same spec as my Signature White Falcon with all the same hardware but with a beautiful black gloss finish. Like my White one it plays like a dream ‘straight out the box’ and I’ve been using it extensively during the recent run of shows with The Cult.

Expect to see plenty more of this black beauty when we take our new album ‘Hidden City’ out on the road worldwide in 2016. And if you want to grab one of these for yourself you’d better hook up with your local Gretsch Dealer quick as they’re likely to sell out fast."

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gettyimages.com%2Fphotos%2Fbilly-duffy&psig=AOvVaw0TB8K-Zrh4-goQTbrO5nck&ust=1593010977696000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCPjM08WbmOoCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAD

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&url=https%3A%2F%2Ffineartamerica.com%2Ffeatured%2F5-the-cult-billy-duffy-concert-photos.html&psig=AOvVaw0TB8K-Zrh4-goQTbrO5nck&ust=1593010977696000&source=images&cd=vfe&ved=0CAIQjRxqFwoTCPjM08WbmOoCFQAAAAAdAAAAABAK

Also shown on The Cult - Fire Woman Music video at 2:34

Very unique and hard to find guitar.

Epiphone released a newer version of the guitar and dubbed it as the Les Paul Custom Blackback. Ive seen it called both the Gibson Les Paul Custom Blackback and the Gibson Les Paul Custom Tuxedo.

“Going out on tour I needed a back up to my trusty ‘Sanctuary’ White Falcon and a very good friend of mine ‘Fat Rick’ Zsigmond of New Kings Road Vintage Guitar Emporium had one in his shop. As they don’t show up very often we did a deal on it and I used it extensively until I picked up the new touring ones in the 2000s. This guitar came very much like the ‘Sanctuary’ one as it’s from a very similar era so it had all the same stuff. I just changed the pick up to a more modern ‘TV Jones’ one because those pickups from the seventies were just horrible. I’m pleased to say Gretsch sorted that problem out and the ones on the White Falcons now are much better.” Billy Duffy, via his website

On the Gear page of Billy Duffy's website, he says, "This one goes back to an offshoot of the Camp Freddy band and we played a party at on a stage in the parking lot of the Gibson Guitar Custom Shop in Nashville, Tennessee. Gibson flew us out there and we played a bunch of cover songs and we each got to pick a guitar that Gibson would make for us in the Custom Shop. I chose the TV Yellow Les Paul Junior and the guy who actually made it handed it to me and I played it in the gig there and then. It’s a very Plain Jane simple guitar designed in the fifties... Apart from them putting my name on the headstock, the only thing I had them customize was that I had them make it with the slimmer neck which is to my particular taste."

“This was made for me by the Gibson Guitar Custom shop in 2000 although nobody can find any record of them doing so, but they did make it for me to my specification ie the kind of neck I like and it never had a scratch plate. Unusually the wood on the front of this guitar actually matches as it’s only in two pieces. On a regular black Les Paul there’s three pieces of wood glued together to make the front in strips, one holds the pick-ups, one at the top and one at the bottom. I think because it’s going to be painted it’s just cheaper for them. This guitar is actually technically better than the other two wood tops and this is one that I prefer to use live now.” Billy Duffy – January 2013

On the Gear page of Billy Duffy's website, he says, "This is my favourite recording Les Paul. I occasionally take it on the road but mostly it’s for recording. I generally play songs from ‘Sonic Temple’ on the Les Paul Custom and songs from ‘Electric’ on the Les Paul Gold Tops. They just feel better for those particular types of songs."

On the [http://www.billyduffy.com/gear/gibson-les-paul-1960-reissue-gold-top/) of Billy Duffy's website, he says, "This one is just a regular production 1960 re-issue Gold Top that Gibson made in 2000. It was quite inexpensive but it just sounded really good. I did all the usual changes though: changed the pick-up and tuning pegs, took the scratch plate and pick-up cover off. I use this one all the time live. It’s a good, honest guitar. Nothing fancy or special but it really feels good and plays great.”

On the Gear page of Billy Duffy's website, he says, "This guitar of mine comes originally from an event in April 2007 at the Empire State building in New York for Mike Peters’ Cancer Charity ‘Love, Hope & Strength’. Mike, Dave Wakling (The Beat), Slim Jim Phantom (The Stray Cats) and I did a hike up the 1,600 steps to the top of the Empire State Building and then played a little gig there. Gibson sponsored the event and let us keep the guitars we’d played on the roof which in my case was a fabulous Gibson J-200."

Billy uses a 2010 Nash '63 Relic Esquire, according to this Guitar Geek rig diagram.

"The ‘Evil Twin’ to Billy’s Gretsch Signature White Falcon this colourway was launched as a limited edition model in December 2015. The spec is identical to it’s twin which in turn was based on his 1970’s ‘Sanctuary’ White Falcon with the only difference being this model has a luxurious black gloss lacquer finish instead of a white one."

“Around 1984 I decided that I wanted to get another single cutaway White Falcon like the ‘Sanctuary one as I loved the way it felt. Unfortunately at that time I couldn’t find one let alone afford one and I came across a Country Club that had the same feel. So, I traded the Double Cutaway Stereo Falcon for it. Originally it was a natural wood finish so I got it painted in London by a guy called Roger Giffin who was a guitar customizer under Kew Bridge. Instead of white I decided to get it painted black because I wanted to create my own ‘Black Falcon’ as I just thought it would look cool. The black guitar, white guitar ‘flim flam’ in the ‘Love Removal Machine’ video were the ‘Sanctuary’ Falcon and this Country Club. I don’t think I ever played live with it with the wood front though. I think I invented the Black Falcon before Gretsch did! When I got it painted by Roger Giffin, the paint that he used was supposed to be black but sometimes if you paint a guitar and there’s too much moisture in the air ‘clouding’ can happen. The finish got a bit cloudy like a milky black, almost with a green tinge to it. But in fact that’s what happens to some vintage black guitars anyway so more out of luck that good planning the Country Club became a black guitar with a vintage finish. Something else that happened was that in December 1989 we were on tour in Canada and it was extremely cold. This guitar was in a truck with the ‘Sanctuary’ Falcon and the paint lacquer finish on both of them cracked. But, it was in a very attractive 1950s way, which made both the guitars look kind of sexy and more vintage than they really are. It was a fortunate accident! So combining the clouding paint effect and the cracked lacquer I ended up with a guitar that almost looked like it had been antiqued.

Later on, as I usually do, I changed out the pick ups at the bridge as for a hotter one which was a TV Jones. In the 1990s or 2000s I swapped out the tremolo arm for a White Falcon one that Fat Rick from New Kings Road Vintage Guitar Emporium found for me. For a long time it became my backup live guitar to the ‘Sanctuary’ Falcon but was never my primary guitar. I just had it there in case I broke a string on the regular Falcon but I never did as the ‘Sanctuary’ one was so reliable that I never needed my spare. One final piece of trivia on this guitar is that in the 1980s Roddy Frame of Aztec Camera rented it to use in a video. He saw it in when I was having some work done on it and he asked to use it so I let him as I thought he was a nice guy and cool. It still is a very pretty looking guitar and one of my favorites.”

Duffy acquired his Les Paul Junior after being inspired by New York Dolls' frontman, Johnny Thunders, according to a November 2022 article about Thunders, published in Guitar World.

Johnny’s weapon of choice, the Les Paul Junior in TV yellow, was the perfect axe — minimal, direct and cutthrough with the essence of rock ’n’ roll — basically the blueprint for Thunders’ own ethos. That guitar became an object of desire for the Cult’s Billy Duffy: “I lusted after his TV yellow Les Paul Junior. [Laughs] I finally picked up my own Les Paul Junior in 1979, though it was a wine red one. I couldn’t find a yellow one in England at that time!”