FEATURE > BILLY DUFFY
more approachable—Johnny
Thunders, Angus Young. I really
identified with that sort of thing.
Tell us about your original
Gretsch G7593.
Well, it’s a mid-’70s White
Falcon. I ordered it in 1982
in England—I had to go and
score it from a guitar shop on
Denmark Street in London. In
those days, you’d put down the
deposit, and then they’d go and
find it. Then it was weeks of
“Where’s my White Falcon?”
“It’s coming, it’s coming!”
Now, I already had a double-
cutaway Gretsch, a stereo
model, also from the ’70s.
It had the same neck, same
[Bigsby] whammy bar setup,
the square inlays on the neck—
and I like those all right—but
the body isn’t very thick. Those
guitars are more like a [Gibson]
335. So I really still wanted a
single-cutaway, which were hard
to find in England. Basically,
the one that became my trade-
mark guitar is actually my sec-
ond White Falcon. I just liked
the single-cutaway better—it
was fatter.
My understanding at
that time was that all the
single-cutaway Falcons were
custom-ordered, and it was
the double-cutaway that was
the production model. Now,
because you had to order them,
they were all slightly different.
Mine has a sort of patch on the
back to protect the guitar from
your belt buckle—from your
country pants [laughs]. But
the other one from the same
era doesn’t. Anyway, Gretsch
is now doing a Billy Duffy
Signature Model based on my
single-cutaway ’70s Falcon, and
we’re going to be fine-tuning
it. The Japanese guys who do
the forensic work have X-rayed
it, weighed it, and measured it.
Sure enough, it’s a bit different
from the ones they make now,
which are what I use live. The
92 PREMIER GUITAR JUNE 2012
Wearing his go-to White
Falcon and a platinum-blonde pomp, a circa-’ 85
Duffy conjures sweet,
’80s-correct flange tone
for this classic from Love.
You Tube search term: The
Cult Rain live The Ritz,
New York 1985 Love tour
construction and feel is slightly
different, but the new ones are
still great. Actually, the pickups
are even better now, because
the [new] G6136TLTV that I
use has TV Jones Classic pickups. My original pickups from
the ’70s were just rotten—the
output was really pitiful. The
difference in output between
those and my Les Pauls was
just chronic. That’s why I
talked to Seymour Duncan
and said, “I need a pickup for
this Gretsch that’s got some
balls and punch, but still keeps
that Gretsch-y chime—that
cathedral-like sound.” Seymour
said, “I’ll get right on it,” and
his pickups are what’s in that
[original] guitar to this day.
I also have another ’70s
Gretsch that I bought as a
backup. It’s sometimes referred
to as the “Black Falcon,” but
it’s actually a Gretsch Country
Club that I sprayed black. It
didn’t have the whammy bar,
but it was very similar to the
White Falcon, and I needed
a backup guitar for the road.
Unfortunately, it was a natural
wood finish—a maple-y-lookin’
Outfitted with more hair,
more gain, and fewer
effects, Duffy straps on a
Les Paul Custom to crank
out a blistering version of
“Love Removal Machine”
in a 1987 appearance on
Britain’s legendary The
Old Grey Whistle Test.
Killer solo on this one.
You Tube search term:
The Cult – Love Removal
Machine – British TV
thing. I thought, “Well, that’s
not really very cool.” So I
sprayed it up. But it’s never
been on any records—it looks
a lot better than it plays! These
days, both of those guitars
have been retired; they only do
celebrity appearances. After all
these years, I must say, I felt
a little weird lending out the
White Falcon so Fender could
do the forensics!
Do you still stuff them with
foam to avoid feeding back at
high stage volumes?
Sure. We use all kinds of stuff—
foam, T-shirts, whatever’s at hand.
There’s a balance, because you
don’t want to kill the resonance of
the guitar that makes it so unique
to begin with, but yeah, when
you’re playing that loud, you’ve
got to control it a bit.
Despite all this talk about drones
and wahs and guitars, when all is
said and done, you’re obviously
the Cult’s riff engineer—it seems
everything is built around your
riffs and figures.
Yeah, that’s sort of my func-
tion. It couldn’t be simpler:
In this spirited 2012
SXSW performance of
one of the Cult’s big-
gest hits, Duffy rocks his
wah just fine in front of
his Matchless/Roland/
Marshall amp wall.
You Tube search term:
The Cult – “Fire Woman”
(SXSW 2012 – March 17)
I just record them onto my
iPhone using a simple stereo
recording app—although I
used to use a Sony professional
recorder. When we were touring a lot, I’d bring the band
into rehearsal or soundcheck
and the four of us would work
on the stuff together. But
these days, generally me and
Ian get together in his home
studio and we go through my
riffs. And I mean, forensically
go through the riffs—
nothing gets overlooked. We make
copious lists.
I’m a firm believer that
the riffs you have very little
attachment to at first may be
the best ones, ultimately, and
the ones you think are your
best may not be the easiest
to sing over. It’s all too easy
to make your riffs too complicated, so the singer doesn’t
have room to spread out. Yes,
some of that creative juxtaposition can be what makes a band
great. If it was all the way I
heard it or all the way Ian
heard it, it wouldn’t be a Cult
record. You certainly need that
creative jousting.
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