chatillion's list of iconic (and quirky) guitars...
No specific order, but I started playing guitar in the 1960's with memories of Chet Atkins playing a Gretch. He had several different models. Big, clunky usually orange with gold plated hardware. Some had a single cutaway and some double. Very iconic!
Expensive and only one guitarist in the neighborhood had one!
Comments (45)
Surfing music at it's finest!
Eric Clapton had a psychedelic painted SG in Cream that would sing when cranked up on a Marshall amp!
A generation later, it ended up in the hands of Todd Rundgren.
However, what makes the most significant difference to me, is how they are played.
Even the simplest of guitars in the right hands can be used to create a masterpiece;
I bought one and enrolled in a class. I even bought a pick (hope that is what it is call).
The teacher said that using the pick is for professionals.
He said that i have to play by using my fingers.
He told me that i must hold the strings tight until my fingers bleed.
He said after several bleeding, my fingers will develop callus and i will be ok to play.
I never returned to the class and gave away my guitar.
For many reasons, Les Pauls are among my favorites.
Not the most attractive guitar, but In my opinion the most iconic of his Les Paul series was the one used by Peter Frampton. Black Les Paul custom with 3 pickups.
The only other guitarist I recall using a 3 pickup Les Paul was Ace Frehley of KISS fame.
At the time, these guitars usually sold in the $3,000 price range. A guitar collector scooped up the 3rd one and listed it for $100,000.
Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones played the teardrop model.
It had a wide flattened wooden bridge and the strings would vibrate on the edge creating it's unique sound.
A few years later Roger McGuinn came along with a 6-string and a 12-string.
His 'Blue Angel' recently brought $563,000 at a Beverly Hills auction.
"Baltimore guitarist Carl Filipiak from the 1988 album 'Electric Thoughts,' an excellent underground '80s fusion LP"
Page of YouTubes of Filipiak from 1988 til now
His giant heart-shaped triple neck guitar did a cameo on David Lee Roth's Just Like Paradise video
A dozen 'Strats' in one!
I've seen a few others like this and one guy called it a 'Siamese guitar'
Sorry about the image, and the ads
There are several versions of this guitar, white, red, but this black one has been his main one for concerts.
As an upright ?
And why ??