Pete Townshend and the Gibson SG Special guitar
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Click to view larger version. Sotheby’s Sept. 1997 auction of Pete’s 1969 Gibson SG Special (serial no. 917512). Courtesy thewho.org. The guitar sold in a subsequent auction in Sept. 1998 for £5,750.
Click to view larger version. (96kb) 1963 Gibson SG Special (serial no. 105078) in Polaris White, for auction at Christie’s. Courtesy and © Christie’s.
Christie’s auctions Pete’s 1963 Polaris White Gibson SG Special for £85,000
Christie’s auction house auctioned one of Pete’s 1963 Polaris White Gibson SG Special guitars on 29 September 2004 as part of its Pop Memorabilia sale in South Kensington. The guitar was estimated at £35,000 and sold for £85,000 to a telephone bidder, a record for a Pete-owned guitar.
Christie’s description:
Lot 103
A 1963 Gibson SG Special, Serial No. 105078 (overstamped 128658), in Polaris White finish, with a black hardshell case stencilled on the outside with white lettering WHO — owned by Pete Townshend, circa 1972–1974, and played by him onstage during The Who’s U.K. Fallout Shelter Tour, October–November 1973.
In the late 1970s, the vendor obtained this guitar from a former employee of The Who who was learing to play, and to whom Townshend had given the guitar in the mid-1970s.
Information and photo courtesy and © Christie’s.
For further information, see www.christies.com/LotFinder/search/searchresults.asp?SN=9919&LN=0103.
Introduction
The guitar model Pete Townshend used (and abused) exclusively on stage from mid-late 1968 until 1971, and the guitar with which he’s most famously associated. This guitar model was used for the famous late ’60s/early ’70s live recordings, including Woodstock, Live at Leeds and Isle of Wight, as well as the recordings of Tommy and The Seeker.
First Use
The earliest appearance of Pete’s use of the Gibson SG Special (other than one he borrowed in 1966 from a support group the Tages) is July 1968, likely purchased at Manny’s Music, New York, though regular use wouldn’t come until late 1968. Throughout his use of this guitar from 1968–1971, he usually used 1966–1970 models, which feature the full black wraparound pickguard. He did, however, occasionally use pre-1966 models, which feature the small pickguard, especially in 1971 as the available supply began to dry up. In all, Pete likely went through dozens of these guitars between 1969 and 1971.
End of the line
Pete stopped using these guitars in 1971 when Gibson had changed the production specification and the existing supply dried up. In 1972, he switched to temporarily to factory custom-made Gibson SG Special, natural color, with stop tailpiece/bridge and Gibson Tune-O-Matic and the Gibson Les Paul Deluxe, then briefly, in late 1972/early 1973 and the first UK Quadrophenia shows in October/November 1973, to Polaris White pre-1965 Gibson SG Specials (as well as 1966–1970 versions with full pickguards also) and a Gretsch 6128 Duo Jet, until switching permanently to the Gibson Les Paul Deluxe in 1973.
The Signature Pete Townshend Gibson SG Special
In 2000, Gibson issued a signature Pete Townshend Gibson SG Special to commemorate this guitar.
Specifications
Gibson SG Special Details:
- Cherry finish
- Full black pickguard (1966–1970 models) or small black pickguard (1962–1965 models), white binding
- Bound dot inlay neck with rosewood fingerboard
- Schaller tuners
- P-90 “soapbar” pickups.
Modifications:
- Stock Gibson/Maestro Vibrola vibrato tailpiece removed (leaving visible screw holes)
- Strings attached directly to wraparound — or stop — “stairstep” tailpiece (bridge is not the Gibson Tune-O-Matic).
Gibson 340 Sonomatic strings, .012, .016, .016, .032, .044, .056.
Photo Gallery
Generic 1968 Gibson SG Special, with same modification (Vibrola removed) as Pete’s.
Generic 1962-65 Gibson SG Special, with small black pickguard.
Selected quotes from Pete Townshend
All quotes and references are copyright their original owners and are included for reference only.
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Click image to view larger version. Ca. 1969.
From 1980 Sound International article at Joe G’s site.
PT: Henry [Goldrich] at Manny’s (music store in New York) introduced me to a guitar which had just come out. I don’t know what you call them; it was a thin crimson-coloured guitar…
SI: The SG?
PT: Right. They just brought out a new model and this was in 1968 and it had a slightly larger wound pickup and it really suited my amplifiers. I started to use those and they were a bit weak, which was the only problem; I could actually break them with my bare hands. But that’s when I started to develop that technique because you didn’t need a tremolo arm. You could do it by just shaking the guitar. I got into this thing also of temper tuning the guitar with the second string flat, and pulling back slightly on the guitar all the time to bring it into pitch. So using that on some of the higher chords where you wanted that second string to voice a bit flat, you could relax the guitar and it would come out a bit flatter. No, sorry, I meant the G string. When you’re using a lighter G — I’ve never used light gauge strings. I’ve always used heavy strings — you can do that. The top string (high E) is an .012 downwards and I use two Bs instead of a B and a G string. I got that from Jimmy Burton, that’s what he used to use. I can’t stand light strings, you don’t have to struggle for it. Mickie Green, who is a guy who used to play with Johnny Kidd and The Pirates, was a great experimenter with the Jimmy Burton technique. He used to have this great lyrical string bending thing going on and I went up to him one day and said, ‘What kind of strings do you use?’ and he said, ‘What?’ And I said, ‘Do you have a plain third?’ And he said, ‘A plain what?’ He just had big hands; he used to bend the third, a wound third, right up and over the back of the neck. That was an affirmation to me that if you wanted to do it you fought for it. I hate that guitar sound where people sound like they can bend the string just by kind of thinking about it.
It fitted my sound and had a lyrical quality to it because the neck was so uncluttered at the top you could play high.
From May/June 1972 Guitar Player
GP: What about the Gibson SG, has anything been done to that?
PT: Well, 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. One I was using on this tour, the natural wood SG, is not modified except that it had a Tunomatic bridge on it. The SG that I use on “Baby Don’t You Do It” is a 1966 SG Standard. My favorite guitar now for the stage is the Les Paul Deluxe with the small epiphone pickups that you can buy on the shelf for $50.00. They’re like Humbucking, but they’re small, like what you have on Epiphones, and they’re really loud. I like those. I think that’s what I’ll probably end up using, either that or I quite like those Dan Armstrong pickups.
Photo Gallery
Ca. August 1968 at the Fillmore West, San Francisco. One of the earliest uses of the Gibson SG Special. Amps are three Sound City L100 into four Sound City 4x12 cabinets. Effects pedal is Dallas-Arbiter Fuzz Face.
December 10, 1968, the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus rehearsals, with early use of Gibson SG Special. Amplifier is Sound City L100 into two Hiwatt SE4122 4x12 cabinets. Effects pedal is Univox Super-Fuzz.
Ca. 1969 or 1970, in IBC studios with SG Special.
Ca. February 1969, with Sound City/Hiwatt rig.
Ca. August 1969, the first Isle of Wight festival, with 1968 or 1969 Gibson SG Special, with visible screw holes where vibrato was removed.
Sept. 29, 1969, Amsterdam, Concertgebouw, with clear view of vibrola screwholes. Courtesy The Who Netherlands Photo Gallery. ©Henk Hulstkamp.
Ca. 1971, backstage with three Gibson SG Specials, one capoed at the third fret.
Ca. 1971, with pre-1966 Gibson SG Special, featuring small black pickguard.
Ca. March 1973, Polaris White Gibson SG Special (pre-1966 model), with two P-90 pickups, small black pickguard. Maestro vibrato and tailpiece removed.
Ca. March 1973, Polaris White Gibson SG Special (pre-1966 model), with two P-90 pickups, small black pickguard. Maestro vibrato and tailpiece removed. Courtesy The Who Netherlands Photo Gallery. ©Henk Hulstkamp.
Ca. 1971, custom-made Gibson SG Special, natural color, featuring stop tailpiece and Gibson Tune-o-Matic bridge.
For more information:
- Joe Giorgianni’s thewho.org: www.thewho.org/sg.html
- Vintage Guitars Info: www.provide.net/~cfh/gibson.html
- Manny’s Music, New York: www.mannysmusic.com
Manufacturer:
- Gibson USA: www.gibson.com