Re: Pete Townsend and the Rickenbacker
Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 4:40 pm
My memory said Pete got out of Strats because of Hendrix...he stopped using them because they were too clean:
"The SG story is a bit disappointing. The first time I started to use the Gibson SG model guitar is when I got fed up with Fenders, because they were too clean, but I liked them because they were tough. In guitar smashing days, the Fender would last two or three shows and ten minutes if I wanted to smash it up. And I was into Jimi Hendrix, it was a fuzz box number. It was clean until you hit the fuzz box and then it was dirty. So I went to the manager and said I really need an alternative to this and he said I think you’d like the newest SG and I looked at it. I played it and it rang, it sang to me, not humbucking pickups, the plain pickups, and I’ve used SG’s ever since. They took the old SG off the market like about a year ago, so we used up every old SG in the country. I don’t break them deliberately any more, but when I spin them around, when I’ve had a few drinks, I bang them and they crack and they break. They’re made out of really light wood, it’s a light guitar. That thing I do with the neck (bending it back to stretch the strings as the chord rings) you don’t need any strength to make the whole guitar bend, because it’s made out of such a light-weight wood, but the factory stopped making those particular SG’s. So we said, “You’re going to have to make ’em for us, you’re going to have to customize them for us,” and they said okay, but it’s going to be about $300.00 a guitar. So anyway, we had four of them made for the beginning of the tour. They brought them up to us but the guitars were totally different. The pickups were in a different position, and on and on, so we said, “Forget it.” So I raided every music store in the country practically, looking for old SG’s."
http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/gear/guitar/sg.html
It was all an IIRC, and I should have said that. I've often wondered what a Strat sounds like through a Hiwatt, but anyway...
But, to try and get back on topic, the picture is from '66 when Hendrix asked Pete for advice on equipment, and what Pete said about taking advice and his routine was quoted loosely from Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere: The Complete Chronicle of The Who 1944-1978, which is a great, well illustrated and accurate book if you're a die-hard Who fan
http://www.amazon.com/Anyway-Anyhow-Any ... 597&sr=1-1
"The SG story is a bit disappointing. The first time I started to use the Gibson SG model guitar is when I got fed up with Fenders, because they were too clean, but I liked them because they were tough. In guitar smashing days, the Fender would last two or three shows and ten minutes if I wanted to smash it up. And I was into Jimi Hendrix, it was a fuzz box number. It was clean until you hit the fuzz box and then it was dirty. So I went to the manager and said I really need an alternative to this and he said I think you’d like the newest SG and I looked at it. I played it and it rang, it sang to me, not humbucking pickups, the plain pickups, and I’ve used SG’s ever since. They took the old SG off the market like about a year ago, so we used up every old SG in the country. I don’t break them deliberately any more, but when I spin them around, when I’ve had a few drinks, I bang them and they crack and they break. They’re made out of really light wood, it’s a light guitar. That thing I do with the neck (bending it back to stretch the strings as the chord rings) you don’t need any strength to make the whole guitar bend, because it’s made out of such a light-weight wood, but the factory stopped making those particular SG’s. So we said, “You’re going to have to make ’em for us, you’re going to have to customize them for us,” and they said okay, but it’s going to be about $300.00 a guitar. So anyway, we had four of them made for the beginning of the tour. They brought them up to us but the guitars were totally different. The pickups were in a different position, and on and on, so we said, “Forget it.” So I raided every music store in the country practically, looking for old SG’s."
http://www.thewho.net/whotabs/gear/guitar/sg.html
It was all an IIRC, and I should have said that. I've often wondered what a Strat sounds like through a Hiwatt, but anyway...
But, to try and get back on topic, the picture is from '66 when Hendrix asked Pete for advice on equipment, and what Pete said about taking advice and his routine was quoted loosely from Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere: The Complete Chronicle of The Who 1944-1978, which is a great, well illustrated and accurate book if you're a die-hard Who fan
http://www.amazon.com/Anyway-Anyhow-Any ... 597&sr=1-1
