Description
Townshend’s choice of guitar changed throughout the years. He used Rickenbackers early in his career, then changed to a Gibson SG and Les Paul throughout the main period of The Who’s classic years of the late 60s through 70s. It was in this era that he also acquired a Gibson SJ-200 acoustic that became a big part of The Who’s sound.
In the 70s, Townshend received a Gretsch Chet Atkins Hollowbody as a gift from Joe Walsh that became his main recording guitar on several classic albums.
In the early 80s, Townshend used custom Schecter guitars, but eventually settled on using Fender Stratocasters for the past several years.
Townshend was one of the early users of huge stacks of amps for massive stage volume. He was the one that approached Jim Marshall about making a bigger, more powerful amp! It was this relationship that resulted in what is now known as the Marshall stack!
He’s used Fender, Marshall and Hiwatt amps throughout his career. He used very few effects, mostly relying on his amps, guitars & technique to get the sounds he wanted.
Lesson Info
