A Look At Pete Townshend's Sound On His 68th Birthday
. Townshend's electric guitar from the Who's first album, 1965's My Generation, through 1978's Who Are You had an indelible sonic thumbprint � a savage howl of angst, dissatisfaction, anger and ebullient joy discharged through stacks of Marshall, Vox and Hiwatt amplifiers. Of course, his acoustic six-string playing was and is still indelible, too, but it's his formative and most influential electric days that created an entire school of rock rhythm and lead guitar playing. Several of the things that made Townshend unique were within his physical approach to the guitar. His rhythm playing favors down strokes, with upstrokes often reserved for emotional punctuation. And his hybrid pick-and-fingers approach to striking the strings stems from his early experience playing banjo. That instrument gave Townshend a fundamental grasp of finger-picking and plucking, so he could palm or float a flat-pick on his fingers while tearing out, for example, the stuttering chords of "Who Are You." His skiffle music beginnings also developed the wrist work that defined his signature acoustic guitar strumming on the Gibson SJ-200. Another part of Townshend's magic is his chord voicings. He used thumb fretted seventh chords and sustained fourths unsparingly, and even added an extra D note � on the second string � for his G campfire chord. For the Who's first few years Townshend had been forced by poverty to play and plug into whatever he could afford. Initially, with his pre-Who group the Detours, it was a Harmony Stratotone he'd spray painted red, and then his first quality electric instrument, an Epiphone Wilshire he bought from Detours singer Roger Daltrey. When Townshend heard Cream and Jimi Hendrix, he knew that a new sonic order was being established in rock 'n' roll and that he had to find his place within it. Marshalls did little for him, although he used them for a while and was a driving force in getting Jim Marshall to increase the wattage of his amps and the size of his cabinets. more. Gibson.com is an official news provider for the antiMusic.com.
...end |
On the Blue: New Horizons Cruise Days 4 & 5: Starship Lands on the Pearl, Alan Parsons Takes It Home
Kandace Springs - Run Your Race
On the Blue: New Horizons Cruise Day 1: Marbin Gets the Fun Started
Hot In The City: Prog Band Tu-Ner Coming to Phoenix
blink-182 Launching North American Stadium And Arena Tour
Watch David Gilmour's 'The Piper's Call' Video
Check Out Powerman 5000 'Dancing Like We're Dead'
The String Cheese Incident Take Fans On Epic 'Roll Around The Sun'
Watch Motley Crue's 'Dogs Of War' Video
Richie Sambora Returns With 'I Pray', The First Of Four New Songs
The Smashing Pumpkins Reveal New Guitarist
Linkin Park Top Hard Rock And Vinyl Albums Charts With Papercuts