These 10 guitars changed the world
1 Keith Richards – Fender Telecaster “Micawber” (1953)
Richards Blonde Tele has been his preferred instrument since “Exile on Main Street”. He bought her in 1971 and found that she fit his unconventional style exaggerated: the open GSt mood in which the deep e-string was removed. “It creates a wonderful response and a wonderful sound,” writes Richards in his autobiography “Life”. She plays Richards live with the Stones classics such as “Brown Sugar”, “Tumbling Dice” and “Jumpin ‘Jack Flash”. “She is a real all -rounder,” he says.
Geek-Fakt: The guitar is named after a figure from the Charles-Dickens novel “David Copperfield”. “It is as old as Dickens,” says Richards, “but still sounds excellent.”
These 10 guitars changed the world
2 Eric Clapton – Fender Stratocaster “Brownie” (1956)
Inspired by Buddy Holly and Buddy Guy, Clapton bought his Sunburst in 1956 Strat in a second-hand shop in London during his Cream period. He played her at Blind Faith, Delaney and Bonnie and at “Layla” by Derek and the Dominos. “She has this famous lead sound,” said Clapton about her. “But it is also so versatile that you can use it in any rhythmic area. For fat, powerful chords, but also the light sound of the TAMLA-Motown chords.”
Geek-Fakt: Clapton paid 150 pounds for “Brownie”, which is now exhibited in the Experience Music Project in Seattle. In 1997 it was sold on a charity auction for $ 497,000 to the billionaire Paul Allen.
These 10 guitars changed the world
3 Chuck Berry-Gibson ES-350 T (1957)
From coffee-colored Cadillacs to Ford T8 models: Chuck Berry always had a weakness for carefully searched cars-and its roundly curved and smoothly polished Archtop Gibson ES-350 t is in no way inferior to its automobiles. If you played her through a Fender tweed amplifier, she created a deep, hollow sound that perfectly suited the berry double-string attacks and stakkato bendings, which shaped Berry’s groundbreaking fifties hits.
Geek-Fakt: The Gibson was actually intended as a jazz guitar, so it is no surprise that Berry felt attracted to her. He once said: “My style is Carl Hogan, Charlie Christian, T-Bone Walker-mixed with everything else.”
These 10 guitars changed the world
4 Bo Diddley – Gretsch “Big B” (1958)
As one of the biggest hobbyists and Fummler in rock history, Bo Diddley built his own guitar from a cigar box at seventeen. Previously, blues guitarists such as Blind Willie Johnson and Lightnin ‘Hopkin’s cigar box -shaped instruments had already played, but Diddley built these things all his life and often left her friends. In 1958 Gretsch made “Big B” after Diddley’s designs. Even today, the company sells a reproduction of the model, the G6138.
These 10 guitars changed the world
Geek-Fakt: Once Diddley Dick Clark gave a self-made, cigar box-shaped guitar and gave his career a sparkling thrust.
5 BB King-Gibson ES-355 “Lucille”
The story has long since been a blues legend: in 1949 BB King played in a spelunge in Arkansas when two men got a fight because of a woman named Lucille. They threw a lamp over, a fire broke out. King ran back in to save his guitar. His courage paid off. “Lucille” is as famous as King itself, the perfect instrument for his smooth style and its golden vibrato. “Lucille lives,” said King. “When I hear her, it’s almost like talking to me.”
Geek-Fakt: There have been at least sixteen lucilles over the years.
These 10 guitars changed the world
6 George Harrison – Gretsch Duo Jet (1957)
Harrison bought his duo Jet in 1961 for seventy pounds from a Liverpool taxi driver, which made him one of the few English musicians who had an American guitar. He used them at the appearances in the Cavern and on the early albums of the Beatles before he retired in 1963 in favor of the more flexible Gretsch Country Gentleman. But the rugged sound of the duo Jet characterized the sound of the early Beatles. “The duo Jet was my first American guitar,” he told the magazine “Guitar Player”. “She was second -hand, but I polished her up because I was so proud to own her.”
Geek-Fakt: In 1963 he gave the guitar to his friend Klaus Voormann, but plagued by nostalgic longings, he asked for it in the mid-80s. On the cover of the 87-album “Cloud Nine” he holds it in his hand and plays them on various pieces, including the Beatles homage “When We Was Fab”.
These 10 guitars changed the world
7 Jack White-Airline Res-O-Glas (1964)
White’s futuristic guitar is responsible for the brittle garage noise on all white-stripes albums. Originally driven over the Montgomery Ward mail order catalog, the airline consists of a special, res-O-glass fiberglass, which was not used, however, to make it sound better, but to make it more durable than an ordinary wooden model. “I wanted to prove that you don’t need brand new guitar to develop your own sound and play what you want to play,” explained White. “It works just as well with a piece of plastic as with a piece of wood.”
Geek-Fakt: The airline res-O-glass looked quite taken in 2004 until Mega fan Frank Anselmo bought a new one on ebay for $ 3,000 and presented White at a appearance in New York. Jack was speechless. Anselmo revealed the Rolling Stone: “Then he said, ‘Frank, when I did a good act as a little boy, my father always said’ Jackie, you are a gentleman and a scholar. ‘
These 10 guitars changed the world
8 Jimi Hendrix – Fender Stratocaster (1968)
Hendrix bought his blonde, right -handed 1968 Fender Stratocaster – which he turned over and spanned the other way around – nine months before Woodstock, where his appearance made her the most famous guitar ever. In 1990 Sotheby’s sold the strat at a record price of 198,000 pounds. It still has cigarette brandies and color spots from Hendrix ‘psychedelic shirts.
Geek-Fakt: In honor of Hendrix ’60th birthday, Fender made four exact replica of the Woodstock guitar as collector’s pieces. John Mayer has one of them.
These 10 guitars changed the world
9 Jimmy Page – Gibson Les Paul Standard “Number One” (1959)
Page bought his sun-painted Les Paul from Joe Walsh in the early 1970s. She got her nickname because she became a favorite guitar on stage and in the studio. He played her over a Marshall amplifier tower and scored the rich tone, which perfectly matched the heavy LED Zeppelins. Page used the “Number One” for the Reunion 2007. “I am married to this guitar,” he said. “She is my lover and my wife, and I don’t even have to pay maintenance.”
Geek-Fakt: The guitar was strongly modified. Walsh grind the middle of the neck to achieve better playability. Page replaced the original potentiometers with gold-plated and changed the tone button to integrate a phase reversal effect.
These 10 guitars changed the world
10 Duane Allman – Gibson Les Paul Goldtop (1957)
Allman acquired his Les Paul Goldtop in 1969. He learned the slide and played it with the Allmans during the first eighteen months. In 1970 he exchanged the gold top with guitarists of the opening against a Les Paul Sunburst, which he played at the historical appearance “At the Fillmore East”. After Allman’s death, the gold top went through three different hands until the guitarist Scot Lamar bought it for $ 475 in a shop in Florida. In the meantime she can be visited in the Allman Brothers Band Museum in Macon/Georgia.
Geek-Fakt: The guitar can occasionally be rented. Guitarists from Derek Trucks to the Edge to Vince Gill have played live recently.