In 1958, Gretsch backed off a bit on the White Falcon’s ornamentation but maintained it’s place at the top of the hollowbody electric line by offering it with stereo electronics. The split-coil pickup, with apparent missing polepieces, was the telltale sign of stereo capability on the first stereo Falcons.

Despite the more complicated choices offered by stereo, the controls were initially no more eleborate than on the non-stereo version. Instead of three knobs and two switches, the first stereo Falcon had two knobs and three switches. In ornamentation, a straight-across peghead logo replaced the Falcon’s original vertical logo with gold wings, and engraved “humptop block” fingerboard inlays gave way to the “neo classic” (as Gretsch called them) or “thumbprint” (as everybody else called them) markers.

It could be argued that the smaller inlays were more tasteful and that they allowed the ebony fingerboard to elegantly contrast with the white and gold, but the Falcon had always been about opulence, not elegance. The 1958 Falcon was still an eye-catcher, but it was a step down from the original.