Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

Not the best quality interview but some nice info on his gear:

https://reverb.com/news/reverb-intervie ... uck-of-rem

Thanks, Werner. I only wish the interviewer would have asked him more questions about his gear on the early records. Still a fascinating read!

It makes me wonder how they did this interview... it sounds rather more like a quick 5 min bar chat

Great interview!!

Very cool; thanks for sharing, electrofaro.

I could read or listen to Peter talk shop for hours on end.

One article, my two fave guitarist ever mentioned...Peter and Johnny, and it took a lot to replace Ace and Mick Ronson as my two faves.

Good interview, too short, I'd ask different questions, we all would...love P. Buck, but don't like mandolins, G-Dead or cussing, at all.

...wisdom

Folkie wrote:Thanks, Werner. I only wish the interviewer would have asked him more questions about his gear on the early records. Still a fascinating read!

I'm a couple years late in reading this interview -- thanks to Werner for posting it here, and to David for linking it from his page! I found a minor revelation in this little bit:

Peter Buck wrote:Yeah. I was playing a Telecaster in 1980; it got stolen out of my house. And there was a little music store in town called Chick Piano; they had a blond Rickenbacker 360 with flat-wound strings. That was my main guitar until 1981, when it got stolen.

Had Peter mentioned before that his first Rickenbacker came to him with flatwounds?

Mitch Easter posted in a few other threads that Peter Buck used heavy flatwounds when they recorded with him, and I've always been curious how Peter found his way to that setup. If you look closely at the picture of them playing at the UGA in late 1980, Peter's blackguard Telecaster has a plain 3rd string, which seems uncharacteristic of him to us, now:



But in listening to their early gigs (like this one a month or two prior to that picture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZKzkPP8LPg), he was plenty willing to do simple 1960's garage-band guitar solos with oblique bends on the 3rd. I wonder if that first Rickenbacker was more formational on his style than we realize, the heavy strings preventing wanky solos and allowing him to focus on his pick/strum rhythm playing...

Another thing that I hadn't gleaned before was that he's a big Grateful Dead fan. (From the old story about pissing off his hippie roommates with Sex Pistols records, I had figured he wasn't.)

So I wonder if Peter Buck's brass bridges and nuts come from Jerry Garcia's influence.

scott_s wrote:Another thing that I hadn't gleaned before was that he's a big Grateful Dead fan. (From the old story about pissing off his hippie roommates with Sex Pistols records, I had figured he wasn't.)

So I wonder if Peter Buck's brass bridges and nuts come from Jerry Garcia's influence.

I seem to remember brass replacement parts were very popular during the late 70s and early 80s. Even Fender came out with a line of brass parts.

To get "200 people to come see you play on a Friday night," these days?
Ha, that would be awesome!

PBuck, one of my top-two favorite guitar players ever, side-by-side with JMarr.

I never believed anyone would ever surpass Ace Frehley and Mick Ronson to me, but Peter and Johnny did it!

...wisdom

Meant to upload these a while back, this was Peter Buck with the Baseball Project in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 9, 2019. Beautiful vintage Rickenbacker 375, along with a 330/12 with toasters. Sounded glorious.

Cool shots, Jerry! Interesting to see that Buck is using his neck pickup both times.

I went on YouTube to see if any of the performance was there, and found this:


Bar gig that night:

Yep! That was the show! I didn't know anyone got it on YouTube, thanks for sharing it. And yes, they played the Happy Dog in Cleveland while they were in town too, but I couldn't make that one. Peter used a very spartan signal path for that show, just a Boss TU-2 tuner, ProCo Rat and one other small silver pedal that I couldn't make out any details on. A great sound, just straight, awesome signal. Spoke to Peter, Mike and Scott after the show and they were very gracious.

blueburst330 wrote:Yep! That was the show! I didn't know anyone got it on YouTube, thanks for sharing it. And yes, they played the Happy Dog in Cleveland while they were in town too, but I couldn't make that one. Peter used a very spartan signal path for that show, just a Boss TU-2 tuner, ProCo Rat and one other small silver pedal that I couldn't make out any details on. A great sound, just straight, awesome signal. Spoke to Peter, Mike and Scott after the show and they were very gracious.

Man, that is awesome! Very envious.

scott_s wrote:

Folkie wrote:Thanks, Werner. I only wish the interviewer would have asked him more questions about his gear on the early records. Still a fascinating read!

I'm a couple years late in reading this interview -- thanks to Werner for posting it here, and to David for linking it from his page! I found a minor revelation in this little bit:

Peter Buck wrote:Yeah. I was playing a Telecaster in 1980; it got stolen out of my house. And there was a little music store in town called Chick Piano; they had a blond Rickenbacker 360 with flat-wound strings. That was my main guitar until 1981, when it got stolen.

Had Peter mentioned before that his first Rickenbacker came to him with flatwounds?

Mitch Easter posted in a few other threads that Peter Buck used heavy flatwounds when they recorded with him, and I've always been curious how Peter found his way to that setup. If you look closely at the picture of them playing at the UGA in late 1980, Peter's blackguard Telecaster has a plain 3rd string, which seems uncharacteristic of him to us, now:



But in listening to their early gigs (like this one a month or two prior to that picture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZKzkPP8LPg), he was plenty willing to do simple 1960's garage-band guitar solos with oblique bends on the 3rd. I wonder if that first Rickenbacker was more formational on his style than we realize, the heavy strings preventing wanky solos and allowing him to focus on his pick/strum rhythm playing...

And I think he was borrowing that tele in the pic! Not 100% sure, but I think that is what I read.