Duesenberg Falken:Bold Design, More Ways to Play

The Duesenberg Falken is a solid-body electric guitar with an alder body, a set maple neck and an Indian rosewood fingerboard. Its defining electrical feature is a pair of Split/King pickups, each switchable between single-coil and humbucker operation. A three-way selector chooses the neck pickup, bridge pickup or both.

This feature centers on the Falken configured with the short Radiator Tremola. The official specification also lists a Wrapper tailpiece option, so the vibrato is a configuration choice. Keeping that distinction clear gives the instrument a precise identity throughout the story.

The appeal is a combination of range and immediacy. Pickup selection, pickup mode, volume, tone and vibrato all have physical controls. The musician can shape the response while remaining with the same instrument. Each control has an understandable assignment in the signal or in the mechanics of the strings.

The model remains in Duesenberg’s current solid-body catalog. Its official page documents Black and Silver finishes as well as a Matte Black edition with gold hardware added in 2024. That later finish is part of the model’s evolution; the core story here is the Falken’s distinctive construction and component system.

The electric guitar emerged from a practical musical ambition: make the instrument’s contribution available through amplification. The Smithsonian Lemelson Center’s account places early electrification in the 1930s and the development of Spanish-style solid-body instruments in the 1940s and 1950s. The change opened possibilities for new shapes and sounds.

An acoustic guitar uses its vibrating structure to move air. An electric guitar with magnetic pickups also creates an electrical signal from string motion, allowing an amplifier and loudspeaker to take part in the result. That expands the design problem. The instrument can be shaped around how it is held, how its hardware works and how the strings are sensed.

The pickup becomes a particularly important invention within that story. It sits near the string and turns a mechanical event into an electrical one. Once the signal exists, amplification and tone-shaping can give the player another set of expressive tools. The guitar is now part of a larger musical system.

A solid-body design gives the neck, bridge, pickups and controls a common physical platform. Its outline can be visually adventurous while the strings still follow a precise path between their supporting points. That combination explains why the category can contain so much personality without losing the basic logic of the instrument.

The Falken belongs to this continuing development. Its innovation is concentrated in components and their coordination: multiple pickup modes, a deliberately adjustable interface and a refined mechanical way to move pitch. It extends an established instrument through details that change what a musician can do with it.

I find that kind of evolution compelling because it remains connected to playing. The engineering gives a phrase another possible color, a sustained chord another movement or a familiar gesture a more considered control. The history is still happening at the musician’s hands.

A magnetic guitar pickup brings a magnetic field, a ferromagnetic string and a coil into a working relationship. As the string vibrates, it changes the magnetic conditions linked to the coil. An electrical signal appears that follows aspects of that motion. The string’s movement has become something an amplifier can receive.

The underlying principle is electromagnetic induction. OpenStax’s treatment of Faraday’s law relates induced voltage to the rate of change of magnetic flux through a circuit. The pickup applies that broader principle within a small assembly positioned beneath the strings.

The rate of change matters. The system responds to an evolving physical event, which is why attack, vibration and decay belong to the electrical story. A plucked note has a beginning and a changing motion afterward. The pickup translates that continuing motion into a signal for the rest of the equipment.

A humbucker coordinates two coils so that interference picked up in common can be reduced while the desired string signal is retained. The relationship involves both electrical connection and magnetic polarity. The design problem is to arrange those relationships deliberately, which is why the coils are more than two visually similar objects under a cover.

Split/King gives that two-coil concept a particular architecture. Its independently useful single coil has one assignment, and the combined mode has another. The maker’s documented arrangement gives substance to the change available at the switch.

That makes this a satisfying subject for science and technology. The physics is doing something expressive. A musician moves a string, an electromagnetic system responds, and the resulting sound becomes part of a song. The equations have managed to get a gig.

The Falken’s control layout separates two questions: which pickup is active, and how each pickup operates. The three-way selector answers the first. The two Split/King mode switches answer the second. Master volume and tone then shape the selected signal.

This organization is useful because the controls correspond to understandable choices. Neck and bridge are physical locations. Single-coil and humbucker are operating modes. The musician can learn those decisions separately, then combine them while playing.

With either pickup selected alone, its two modes provide two basic settings. With both pickups selected, their independent modes provide four combinations. That produces eight basic pickup configurations by simple enumeration of the documented controls. It is a count of settings, rather than a claim that every setting has a universally distinct perceived sound.

The mixed settings are especially interesting to me. One pickup can use its single-coil mode while the other uses its humbucker mode. The instrument gives the player a way to explore those relationships without making the control panel difficult to understand.

The adjustable switch height is another very specific improvement. Duesenberg describes a small elevator mechanism that raises or lowers the mode switches within the lower pickguard. A player’s picking movement occupies real space above the body, so the position of those controls is part of the interface.

That detail makes me smile because it acknowledges the hand as it actually moves. The designer has provided a way to decide how prominently a switch sits in that space. It is a modest mechanism with a clear purpose, and exactly the sort of feature that makes a closer look worthwhile.

The Falken has a listed scale length of 648 millimeters, or 25.5 inches. Scale length describes the nominal vibrating length of an open string between its supporting endpoints. The actual saddle positions include compensation for the individual strings.

For an ideal stretched string, the fundamental frequency can be written as f = (1 / 2L) × √(T / μ). L is vibrating length, T is tension and μ is mass per unit length. OpenStax’s string-wave explanation supplies the relationship between tension, linear density and wave speed; the standing-wave condition connects it to pitch.

The equation explains several familiar guitar actions. Fretting reduces the vibrating length and raises the pitch. A bend increases tension and raises pitch. A vibrato mechanism changes the string system’s tension to move pitch while the note continues sounding. Different controls reach into the same physical relationship.

It also explains why string choice belongs to setup. A different linear density requires a different tension to reach the same pitch at the same scale. Wound strings have their own construction, so gauge is a practical label within a more detailed physical system.

The Falken’s published factory set runs from .010 to .050 inch. That gives a concrete starting specification for the instrument as documented. A player’s later string choice and tuning become part of the complete setup, alongside action, relief and intonation.

I appreciate having the numbers because they make the design discussable. Scale length is a dimension. String gauge identifies an intended starting set. The vibrato provides a means of changing tension during performance. Put together, they describe a working instrument with understandable relationships rather than a collection of adjectives.

Duesenberg lists a one-piece maple set neck, a Medium D profile and a 12-inch-radius Indian rosewood fingerboard. The nut width is 42.5 millimeters. The neck thickness is listed as 21 millimeters at the first fret and 24 millimeters at the twelfth. Those measurements give the shape a useful reference.

Width describes one part of the hand’s working space. Thickness and the profile’s shoulders describe another. A profile name helps identify the general form, while the dimensions make that description more concrete. The actual experience comes from how the player’s hand meets the complete shape.

Fingerboard radius refers to the curve across the board, as though that surface were part of a much larger circle. A 12-inch radius describes that crosswise curvature. It is separate from neck relief, which concerns the slight lengthwise curve involved in setup.

That distinction is useful because the strings interact with both directions. Fretting takes place along the neck; bending can move a string across it. Fret shape, action and the fingerboard geometry all contribute to the space available for the vibrating string.

The Falken’s 22 jumbo frets provide the actual contact points that define fretted notes. Duesenberg lists their dimensions as 2.8 by 1.0 millimeters. The fret crowns, their level and their finish are therefore functional surfaces, encountered repeatedly by both the string and the player.

This is where an instrument’s specification becomes tactile. A player may describe a neck as familiar or comfortable, but the maker has to create that possibility through geometry and finishing. I find the connection between a measured surface and a musical gesture worth understanding in detail.

The Falken specification includes Duesenberg Z-Tuners and a steel-saddle bridge. Those components provide adjustment and support at different parts of the string path. The tuner establishes tension; the saddle gives the string a defined bridge endpoint and participates in intonation setup.

Duesenberg’s description of its Z-Tuners explains a useful detail: the cut string end can tuck inside the tuner shaft. That gives restringing a cleaner physical result, with the trimmed end contained in the mechanism. The idea is easy to appreciate if a string end has ever introduced itself to your fingertip.

The saddle’s position matters because fretting changes more than the nominal vibrating length. Pressing a string down also changes its geometry and tension. Compensation at the bridge helps the instrument’s fretted notes align with the intended tuning across the fingerboard.

The dual-action truss rod listed for the Falken provides a way to adjust neck relief in either direction. Relief, saddle height and nut geometry work together in the setup. Each adjustment concerns a particular relationship rather than a general promise of playability.

A vibrato-equipped guitar brings those parts into repeated cooperation. The moving system changes tension, then the instrument returns toward its resting condition. The supporting hardware, string installation and setup all participate in that behavior. This is the general mechanical context for appreciating the Radiator’s design.

For ownership information, Duesenberg’s support page provides the maker’s starting point for questions and guides. I like seeing support connected to an instrument with distinctive components. The details that make a guitar interesting should also have a clear route to being understood over its working life.

The most interesting use case is a musical part that changes character. A player can begin with one pickup in single-coil mode, select another combination for a fuller section and use the vibrato to add movement to a held chord. The instrument provides those changes through controls already under the hands.

For recording, that creates a useful way to explore a part before deciding what belongs in the arrangement. A repeated phrase can be tried with different pickup configurations while the fretting pattern and physical instrument remain familiar. The listener can focus on what the part contributes to the track.

The independent modes also offer possibilities when both pickups are active. A mixed configuration gives the player another place to listen, with the neck and bridge assemblies operating differently. The table of settings becomes meaningful when a musician discovers which combination supports a particular passage.

The Radiator adds a different dimension because it changes a note through time. Pickup selection establishes a response; vibrato can shape how the phrase moves after the attack. That distinction makes the hardware musically complementary. One decision concerns the voice, another concerns the gesture.

What I find exciting is the combination of choices with continuity. The player stays with the same neck and body while exploring different electrical and mechanical expressions. The guitar offers variety within a familiar physical relationship.

That is a concrete improvement worth writing about. A versatile instrument can support the development of an idea while the idea is still forming. Sometimes the useful result is a sound the player had already imagined. Sometimes a setting suggests a phrase that had not occurred to them yet.

The Falken earns its place here through the way its details add up. Split/King provides two intended pickup modes through a specific coil architecture. Independent switching makes those modes accessible. The switch elevator and adjustable vibrato arm acknowledge the space around the hand. Plek processing brings measurement to the fretwork.

That is substantial innovation inside a familiar category. The instrument improves the player’s available choices while giving the controls and contact surfaces careful attention. Its visual character is supported by mechanisms, electronics and preparation that have clear musical assignments.

The story also has depth beyond the current model. Duesenberg’s design history shows sustained attention to distinctive components. Pickup development supplies a documented path into the Falken’s electronics. The broader history of amplification explains why this combination of wood, metal and electricity became possible in the first place.

What makes it cool to me is that all of this expertise is ultimately available to a person trying to make a few notes mean something. The instrument carries a lot of thinking, then lets the player do the talking. That is an excellent reason to keep a place for it in a time capsule of things worth wanting.