Paul Weller

I got this from John Reed's book "Paul Weller: My Ever Changing Moods"..... It talks about the Jam recording their 2nd album "This is the Modern World", and Paul's becoming more and more frustrated with the meticulous tuning that a Rickenbacker guitar requires.

"Chris Parry explains: '...Paul got caught up with everything-on-a-Rickenbacker. If he'd been more open-minded, we could have moved the session on more fruitfully, with more time and care. It didn't acheive it's full promise.' Vic Smith remembers an incident when Paul completely lost his temper: 'The guitar suddenly disappeared off the mix,' he recalls, 'Then something catches my eye in the studio: it's Paul's Rick 15 feet in the air. He'd just got so frustrated over not staying in tune."

Regarding your photos & anecdotes on these artists, some of this may interest you. A model 330 Ruby Red was, in fact, Weller's first Rickenbacker. He played it on the very early Jam tracks along with Bruce Foxton who used his "matching" 4001. These can be seen quite clearly on most Jam video shoots from the "In the City" era and are in fact a colour called "RUBY" which was discontinued in the late 70's.

The shots of him with the Fireglo guitar are from the making of the video for "News of the World". This was an import model with violin soundhole and various vintage parts, a Model 1997.

The Jetglo 330 first appeared in the video for "When You're Young" and went on to appear on numerous occasions (including the video for "Going Underground"). This guitar was later modified with what appears to be a 3-ply black/white/black pickguard and black nameplate and toured with Weller on the Trans Global Express tour promoting their album "The Gift".

The same Jetglo guitar crops up again when a box set of 5 CD's was released. The top of the box features a battered and bruised Jetglo 330 (with same 3-ply pickguard etc.) tailpiece smashed off, clumsy repair job and off centre rear strap button. Inside the box is a feast for Rick-spotters with each CD being portrayed by a different guitar. These include the WHAAM 330 as well as the guitar given to Noel Gallagher on his Birthday. This particular 330 (the pink P) is not white but cream. I've not seen this colour before or since and would love to know how it came to be. I would also be interested in any info you have on theWHAAM 330.Anyway I've rambled on enough. Hope some of this was of interest!!!
Graham Frawley