Love to play, this here guitar. . .

March 24, 2010 7:55 AM

50 Guitars which you have heard.
posted by Danf (87 comments total)

Nice, though I kept wanting to grab the left-hand pane and scroll through it by hand. Seeing Buddy Holly's guitar made me a little sad for some reason.
posted by jquinby at 8:05 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yeah it would have been nice to have each pane break out into it's own page.
posted by Danf at 8:09 AM on March 24, 2010

I'll take Woody Guthrie's 000-18 (#50), thanks.

Email me for my mailing address.
posted by Benny Andajetz at 8:10 AM on March 24, 2010

"Noel Gallagher; Champagne Supernova"


Really?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 8:14 AM on March 24, 2010

This is the Woody Guthrie guitar to have.
posted by marxchivist at 8:14 AM on March 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

Today, I learned that the double-necked bass in "Big Bottom" was, in fact, based on a real bass guitar used by Yes (#23).
posted by Threeway Handshake at 8:16 AM on March 24, 2010

I don't know why, but I was disappointed by their choice of Andy Summers' weird harp-guitar. I was always a fan of the totally beat-to-shit Telecaster that he used; it was cool to know that such precise sounds were coming out of such a heap.

Also, no SGs? Come on, man. Show some love.
posted by COBRA! at 8:17 AM on March 24, 2010

"Noel Gallagher; Champagne Supernova"

Really?

Huh?
posted by Jaltcoh at 8:17 AM on March 24, 2010

"Noel Gallagher; Champagne Supernova"

Really?
posted by ZenMasterThis

I saw a clone of that- complete with repros of the signatures- for sale in a guitar shop and it was all I could do to keep from just standing there and making the wanky-wanky gesture at it.
posted by COBRA! at 8:18 AM on March 24, 2010

Huh?

Couldn't the LA Times have chosen a band less dreadful than Oasis for their "Top 50 Guitars" piece?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 8:20 AM on March 24, 2010

ZenMasterThis: "Huh?

Couldn't the LA Times have chosen a band less dreadful than Oasis for their "Top 50 Guitars" piece?"

It's an iconic guitar regardless of how bad Oasis are.
posted by minifigs at 8:22 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Did Billy Gibbons really record the song with that fur covered explorer or did he only use that for show in the video or on stage?
posted by bondcliff at 8:22 AM on March 24, 2010

I saw a clone of that- complete with repros of the signatures- for sale in a guitar shop and it was all I could do to keep from just standing there and making the wanky-wanky gesture at it.

This is also why Oasis broke up. That guitar was totally the Yoko of the band.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 8:24 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Couldn't the LA Times have chosen a band less dreadful than Oasis for their "Top 50 Guitars" piece?

I'm not a huge fan of Oasis or Noel Gallagher's guitar playing (I always feel like he's going on autopilot with the major pentatonic scale in a very crowd-pleasing but uninventive way). But they had at least 6 great songs, and Gallagher is better than some of the other guitarists in that list.
posted by Jaltcoh at 8:24 AM on March 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

Spent a few minutes drooling over these beautiful guitars. Then realized that no sexy high-end guitar will sound any better than my crappy Strat-clone, so long as I remain too busy to practice on it. :P Still, this is awesome.

The page definitely needed a "go three forward" button or a scrollbar on the scrolling bit -- the grid of links is 5 entries wide, so I couldn't even just move my mouse down one column to advance quickly! Boo, hiss, making me expend actual effort to see the pretty guitars.
posted by Alterscape at 8:24 AM on March 24, 2010

This would have been much better with larger photos and audio samples.
posted by Jaltcoh at 8:26 AM on March 24, 2010 [3 favorites]

I'm pleased to say that I've played (one of) BB King's Lucilles and one of Buddy Guy's polka dot guitars (with Buddy Guy attached, actually), all I need now is a moment alone with Number One and I'll consider my life complete.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 8:28 AM on March 24, 2010

#25 looks more like a Burns than a Gibson..
posted by the cuban at 8:28 AM on March 24, 2010

I read the FPP as "50 guitars you have never heard" and my first thought on seeing #1 was, "wait, I've heard that guitar!"
posted by slogger at 8:33 AM on March 24, 2010

Agreed, Jaltcoh. You are tantalized, but then frustrated because you can't see better or hear better. Historic photos would be cool too. I realize that I'm wishing for a serious archive, and this was just a cute newspaper feature.

I did feel there were not enough acoustics. On the other hand, I learned that three of my heroes played a similar model guitar to mine. Go Martin!
posted by Miko at 8:34 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

The LA Times needs to work on getting these pictures down even smaller. 'Cause, y'know, I can still barely make out that these are guitars, and I'm sure that wasn't intended.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:35 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Cool site. But (as the Cuban points out) .... #25 (Bob Bogle of the Ventures' guitar) isn't a Gibson Melody maker. It's a Mosrite. Also, Randy Rhodes didn't play a Jackson on Crazy Train. This guitar was built for him more than a year after the album was recorded. Fuckers.
posted by tiger yang at 8:36 AM on March 24, 2010

No Jimmy Page Double-Neck Gibson?
posted by swift at 8:36 AM on March 24, 2010 [6 favorites]

Yeah, pish list tiger yang.

But it's sent me on an afternoon of looking at Mosrites and Burns guitars.
posted by the cuban at 8:39 AM on March 24, 2010

It was pretty awesome (or something) to see Flight of the Conchords stuck in there.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:40 AM on March 24, 2010

I seem to recall that Graham Coxon in an interview once criticized Noel Gallagher for worshiping his guitar too much, or something. Graham meant that to play guitar well you have to be willing to treat your guitar badly, to hate it to some degree. Since reading that interview I always get suspicious when I see ROCK bands with shiny guitars, that means they're not trying hard enough, right? If you want to ROCK you can't consider paint and polish, right? DRIED BLOOD on the FRETBOARD! CIGARETTE BURNS between the TUNERS! A BRIDGE held together by GAFFA TAPE! THESE are the things that make a ROCK'N'ROLL GUITAR!

I wouldn't say this has anything to do with this FPP, though.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 8:41 AM on March 24, 2010 [4 favorites]

Experience Music Project trumps the L.A. Times feature with a Guitar/Bass Timeline that traces the evolution of the instruments. "As you make your way along the Guitar/Bass Timeline you'll be able to strum rare instruments from the EMP|SFM collection, learn more about the guitars themselves and listen to a few of the famous riffs that they've recorded over the years."
posted by prinado at 8:45 AM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

you have to be willing to treat your guitar badly

I think Trigger is what you're after.
posted by swift at 8:46 AM on March 24, 2010

I think Trigger is what you're after.

Case closed, I'd say.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 8:47 AM on March 24, 2010

The guitar player that I have played with who had the most chops was this guy who played a Danelectro, back in the days when those instruments lacked the cache that they possess now.
posted by Danf at 8:59 AM on March 24, 2010

This is a bogus list without Old Black.
posted by chococat at 9:02 AM on March 24, 2010

Dang. I was hoping to see P J Harvey's red Gretsch.

And I'll never understand why most polls and lists single out Thurston Moore as if he's the sole reason Sonic Youth have an amazing guitar sound.
posted by Houyhnhnm at 9:25 AM on March 24, 2010

Huh.

I've heard a lot of songs by those acts, but there are many on that list whose titles don't ring a bell at all. And, like, that's got to be Woody Guthrie's other guitar, the Buck Owens one I only know because of Pat Smear, the ZZ Top one is a prop from a video and is clearly unplayable, the B-52's one is a prop from a (terrible) movie, etc.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:25 AM on March 24, 2010

The guitar player that I have played with who had the most chops was this guy who played a Danelectro, back in the days when those instruments lacked the cache that they possess now.

Jimmy Page?
posted by Sys Rq at 9:28 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Huh. Haven't heard many of these songs.

I guess I'm not the open-minded music fan I thought I was. Or maybe heavy metal is more popular in Los Angeles than in my head.
posted by kozad at 9:30 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Or Germany: Uli Jon Roth and his Sky Guitar.
posted by swift at 9:36 AM on March 24, 2010

I guess I'm not the open-minded music fan I thought I was. Or maybe heavy metal is more popular in Los Angeles than in my head.

Of the 50 guitars, I count only 5 metal bands represented - and they're all from 30 years ago.
posted by The World Famous at 9:37 AM on March 24, 2010

Yeah, this was cool - but where, if I may be so bold, was Jimmy Page's guitar?? I mean, I'm not trying to be a hater...but really - you got Oasis and Flight of the Conchords but no Jimmy Page?
posted by Lutoslawski at 9:38 AM on March 24, 2010

oops, sorry Swift. Didn't mean to steal your Where's Jimmy thunder. Lack of sufficient preview on my part.
posted by Lutoslawski at 9:40 AM on March 24, 2010

I think they didn't realize Slash and Jimmy Page are two different people.
posted by swift at 9:43 AM on March 24, 2010

And, like, that's got to be Woody Guthrie's other guitar

There are 2 surviviving videos of Woody that I can find on the internets. On one he appears to be playing a Martin, and on the other a Gibson.

(it's hard to tell, but that's the way it appears to me)
posted by Benny Andajetz at 9:44 AM on March 24, 2010

Nels Cline's Jazzmaster was sold to him by Mike Watt.

FN: Your Jazzmaster® accompanies you everywhere, and looks like it has seen some serious wear and tear …
NC: I bought it from Mike Watt (Minutemen/Firehose) in 1995 after our tour. He had it, and I was playing only Jaguar® guitars at that point and I had recorded Ball-Hog or Tugboat? with my ’66 Jaguar, and I saw Joe Baiza (Saccharine Trust) playing this guitar at a gig and he wasn't playing his sunburst Stratocaster® and I was like, “Joe man, what?” He said, “It's Watt's—he loaned it to me while my guitar's getting refretted.” I asked Watt, “Can I try it?” I didn't know the difference between the two guitars. I just wanted something with strings behind the bridge that felt great. He said, “I don't need this guitar.” He just kind of got it, I think, to blow up J Mascis when Firehose was out with Dinosaur Jr. He scooped him and went out and bought it from Guitar Maniacs of Tacoma. He said, “At the end of the tour, just buy it from me for what I paid for it.” So it was 800 bucks; a ’59. I think it is the original paint, very delicate paint. As it wears off, you can almost see that is eggplant. It's pretty worn, but it was in great shape when I got it.

When I got it, somebody had put pegs that were too fat and split the headstock, so it’s got these wood dowels and it’s glued. It’s always held, even touring with Watt. One time we were at Lollapalooza in Tempe, Ariz., and it was in the parked van, where it was 125 degrees­—he had a temperature gauge in the van­—and I thought, “This is the perfect test to see if this glue is going to hold.” It’s been fine. It’s been through everything in the just few years I've had it.

posted by Ironmouth at 9:44 AM on March 24, 2010 [2 favorites]

So what is everyone else here playing?
posted by Ironmouth at 9:45 AM on March 24, 2010

#25 looks more like a Burns than a Gibson..

Actually, I'm pretty sure that is a Mosrite. Compare the headstocks.
posted by chillmost at 9:45 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Was sort of hoping to see Link Wray in there for Rumble. In fact there where a number of people's guitars I would have rather seen
posted by edgeways at 9:52 AM on March 24, 2010

He just kind of got it, I think, to blow up J Mascis when Firehose was out with Dinosaur Jr. He scooped him and went out and bought it from Guitar Maniacs of Tacoma. He said, “At the end of the tour, just buy it from me for what I paid for it.” So it was 800 bucks; a ’59. I think it is the original paint, very delicate paint. As it wears off, you can almost see that is eggplant.

Heh.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:52 AM on March 24, 2010

14, 25, 27
posted by axismundi at 10:10 AM on March 24, 2010

So what is everyone else here playing?

Since you ask...

'77 Kramer 250G
'68 (?) Teisco Del Rey EP-8T
'08 Martin DX-1
an old Suzuki Violin Co. 3/4 acoustic

None of which made the list, somehow.
posted by swift at 10:12 AM on March 24, 2010

I'm not a musician but I've always admired the understated elegance of Bootsy's space bass. (And the sounds it makes when he plays it.)
posted by The Mouthchew at 10:21 AM on March 24, 2010

So, Ricky Wilson played that "Gibstone" in 1994, did he? Considering he died in 1985, that was quite a feat.

(I would have liked to see Wilson's four-string Mosrite in there, but rumour has it it was burnt after he died.)
posted by scruss at 10:36 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

I have played that same model 00-17 all mahoghany model that dylan played. Would sell my children for it....not...even...kidding.
posted by ExitPursuedByBear at 10:46 AM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yes, Bob Bogles guitar is certainly a Mosrite. The Ventures even had a signature model made by Mosrite.
posted by JBennett at 10:53 AM on March 24, 2010

I would have like to see one of Duane Allman's Les Pauls instead of some of these.
posted by tommasz at 10:54 AM on March 24, 2010

I learned to play on my dad's Martin 000-18 that he had since he was a kid. It's about the same vintage as Guthrie's. I still get to play it every now and then.

I'm generally not one for getting too attached to material things (or I try not to be). But there is really something special about having a guitar that perfect be connected to so many memories and significant family relationships. I grew up listening to my parents play and sing old folk and blues songs all the time on that guitar - stuff like Leadbelly, Ian & Sylvia, the Beatles, Cream, the Kingston Trio, and a lot of older, traditional music. When I started learning to play and reached a certain point of proficiency, he let me use it for lessons and occasional practice. I didn't really get that it was a valuable guitar. It was all I knew. There are a lot of important moments of my life connected to that guitar - good ones and bad ones. In some ways, it is a symbol of my relationship with my dad. It has been through a few knocks, but it is in incredibly good condition.

In high school, I was careless and put a crack in the lower bout. I did a lot of dumb things as a teenager. But that one felt worse than anything else. An amazing luthier fixed it so well that experts who have looked at it since have been unable to find the mend. But my dad and I know it's there. Maybe he doesn't think about it anymore. After all, it has been more than 20 years. But I do, and I'm still sorry.

When a guitar is played regularly for 50 or 60 years, it changes the tone; improves it. It gets warmer and more "alive." I told myself as a teenager that someday I would get an acoustic 6 that would be my equivalent of my dad's 000-18. But I have never played anything that comes close. Every time I go into a guitar store, I head to the acoustic room or section and try out a few - some high end ones and some low - looking for my own version of that 000-18. I've played thousands and still haven't found it, for any price. By comparison, everything else feels dead.

I have an old Seagull S6 that has been my "until I get the good one" acoustic guitar for a long time. Its top is far from flat, the bridge is coming apart, the tuners don't match, the nut is full of graphite from my attempts to make it not stick, and there's a spot near the hole where the wood is wearing almost through. And now I realize that it is starting to get that "broken in" sound and sounds better than any new Martin, Taylor, Gibson, or whatever that I play. Not as refined a sound, obviously. It's a Seagull S6, after all, and it will never be a Martin. But those years of playing and of being associated with my life are changing the instrument for the better.

And now my son, not yet big enough to really play a full-size steel-string acoustic, knows the Seagull like I knew the 000-18 when I was his age. It makes me wonder what memories he will associate with that guitar. And it makes me even more desperate to find a good Martin to buy so that his memories can be attached to it instead of that cheap old brilliant Seagull.

Ultimately, it probably doesn't matter if memories are connected to an incredibly crafted instrument or to a piece of junk. But there's something magical about playing that particular 000-18 and having the memories and personal significance of the instrument overshadow its stature as one of the greatest acoustic guitars ever made. And no matter how many guitar shops I go to, I'll never find its equal.
posted by The World Famous at 10:59 AM on March 24, 2010 [12 favorites]

I've always appreciated the amount of "character" Willie Nelson's guitar has.
posted by Edward L at 10:59 AM on March 24, 2010

This was created by somebody who didn't know the importance of Eddie Cochran's guitar.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:04 AM on March 24, 2010

The World Famous they actually have guitar agers that claim to age a guitar twenty years in two weeks.

You know I always get so sick when I see performers smash their instruments, to me that's like burning books. Always had conflicted feelings about the who over that.
posted by ExitPursuedByBear at 11:07 AM on March 24, 2010

So what is everyone else here playing?

97 Gibson SG
97 Telecaster (which used to sport an Evidence sticker)
2000ish Dot Deluxe, although it's on loan to a friend
Fender JP-90 bass (which Fender seems to hate but I adore)
Epiphone "Skunk" Baxter acoustic, which I originally hated but I'm slowly developing the sort of love for that The World Famous was just talking about.
posted by COBRA! at 11:16 AM on March 24, 2010

This auction is breaking my heart this week. That's been my dream guitar(/bass) ever since I saw Rockette Morton play on in this Beefheart clip years ago. I've never seen one ever come up for sale anywhere, and it's just a few thousand out of my immediate price range.
posted by anazgnos at 11:20 AM on March 24, 2010

The guitar player that I have played with who had the most chops was this guy who played a Danelectro, back in the days when those instruments lacked the cache that they possess now.

Jimmy Page?

No. . no one anyone's heard of. . .he went by the name of "Spot." Never knew his name. African-American guy.

When you hang out on the (furthest possible) outer fringes of the LA music scene, you meet a lot of interesting people.
posted by Danf at 11:29 AM on March 24, 2010

Woulda been nice to see a Charlie Christian, or Wes Montgomery, or Jim Hall, but I guess nobody ever heard them.
posted by charlesminus at 11:31 AM on March 24, 2010

No. . no one anyone's heard of. . .he went by the name of "Spot." Never knew his name. African-American guy.

When you hang out on the (furthest possible) outer fringes of the LA music scene, you meet a lot of interesting people.

You're not talking about SPOT, the house producer for SST, are you?
posted by anazgnos at 11:39 AM on March 24, 2010

@marxchivist YES! Thank you...I have always loved that Woody Guthrie image.

Otherwise...YAWN. "Fifty guitars" (and oh, yes, we included basses, too!) ... sorry, but this is "The Best of the Web"? Come on, Blue, we can better than this ...

"MetaFilter: Not Enough Acoustics"
posted by aldus_manutius at 11:45 AM on March 24, 2010

anazgnos. . .gosh I am not sure. The age is right. This was around 1974 or so. I might figure out how to email him and see if he ever lived in Hermosa.
posted by Danf at 11:56 AM on March 24, 2010

I thought for sure the psychedelic-ly painted SG Clapton used in Cream would make it before "Blackie".
posted by jara1953 at 12:04 PM on March 24, 2010

If you are interested in old guitars, the book Million Dollar Les Paul: In Search of the Most Valuable Guitar in the World is an interesting read about the hunt for original sunburst Les Pauls. It talks a lot about the history of the first Les Paul guitars and some of the most famous players of them like Jimmy Page and his sunburst Les Paul.
posted by chillmost at 12:12 PM on March 24, 2010

The LA Times needs to work on getting these pictures down even smaller.

It's pretty bizarre. That red text is right at the edge of illegible too. I imagine this is a two page spread in the magazine so it works better there.

Given that, on the newer ones from this series, you can click to make them bigger. MUCH bigger. For instance, 50 handbags.
posted by smackfu at 12:23 PM on March 24, 2010

I'm guessing Jimmy wouldn't take #1 out of the vault for the article. I never saw Stevie play that guitar they're calling Lenny. I never saw him play anything besides #1, other than the custom guitar that he uses in the Couldn't Stand The Weather video, the one with his name inlaid in the neck, and he only played it for about 2 minutes, until the guy who made it for him left the room. (I picked up #1 once while I was cleaning the rehearsal room, but I couldn't really play it -- it had, like, telephone pole wires on it for strings -- I think the high E was a 13.)

I have also briefly held Ronnie Lane's bass -- the one that he played on all the classic Faces stuff, & Every Picture Tells a Story.

I have a Jazz bass that used to belong to Jeff Baxter, but that guy's a Nazi now. Feh.

You know I always get so sick when I see performers smash their instruments, to me that's like burning books. Always had conflicted feelings about the who over that.

I'm pro-smashing -- mostly. However, Entwistle used to play Thunderbirds, and went through quite a few of them (15? 20?) in their heyday. There were less than 1000 made all total (before the re-issues), and now they're rare as hen's teeth. Basically, I have to keep mine in a vault because it's too expensive to get out and play any more.
posted by Devils Rancher at 12:52 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Woulda been nice to see a Charlie Christian, or Wes Montgomery, or Jim Hall, but I guess nobody ever heard them.

Those people are all great.
posted by Jaltcoh at 1:04 PM on March 24, 2010

Ah, at number 8 they have the Red Special, the guitar that Brian May and his father built in the early '60s.

Most of Queen's songs were originally performed on it.

In my personal geek world, this would be described as a "+3 Guitar of Epic Rocking".
posted by quin at 2:03 PM on March 24, 2010

Actually, they have a Guild copy of the Red Special, for no apparent reason.
posted by The World Famous at 2:06 PM on March 24, 2010

Did Billy Gibbons really record the song with that fur covered explorer or did he only use that for show in the video or on stage?

I don't know whether he recorded with it but I've seen all three members of ZZ Top use the fur-covered guitars on stage back in the day. When I saw them again a couple of years ago, they weren't using them.

While I'm sadly not playing anything (although wandering around SXSW's gear alley made me think about getting a student guitar and learning to play all over again) in my fantasies I know how to play Beppe Gambetta's awesome harp-guitar (links to pics).
posted by immlass at 3:18 PM on March 24, 2010

As others have said, I think quite a few of these were seen in videos, but weren't used in the studio.

The most glaring mistake I caught was #36. Eddie Van Halen didn't start using Kramers until the eighties. The original "Frankenstein" guitar used on the first VH album was made from Charvel parts. In fact, at that point the body & neck were most likely made by Boogie Bodies and sold through the Charvel repair shop. Very few (if any) actual Charvel bodies, necks, or complete guitars were made until Grover Jackson bought out Wayne Charvel in 11/78. The guitar was originally white with black stripes & black pickguard, as seen on the album cover. Over time, it morphed into a red, white, and black monstrosity with a partial pickguard, which that Kramer model was based on.
posted by gimli at 4:11 PM on March 24, 2010

I love 4 (Bo Diddley) 13 (Brian Jones/Stones) and 29 (bass guitar from Tom Petty band) because of those shapes: rectangle (harkening back to the cigar box guitar) and eggish/ovalish. There should have been more electric guitars that didn't mimic the shape of the acoustic.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:35 PM on March 24, 2010

Metafilter: Your favorite band's guitar sucks
posted by bpm140 at 6:59 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

Why pick Pete Townshend's Les Paul? Why not the Gretsch 6120 given to him by Joe Walsh that he used to record Who's Next?
posted by awfurby at 7:17 PM on March 24, 2010

The original "Frankenstein" guitar used on the first VH album was made from Charvel parts.

I first read that as Carvel parts. For a second there I was picturing Eddie Van Halen playing a guitar shaped like a Cookie Puss.
posted by Sys Rq at 7:53 PM on March 24, 2010

The story of the recover of my favorite custom guitar.

He played it in 2009, too.
posted by SansPoint at 10:06 PM on March 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

I thought for sure the psychedelic-ly painted SG Clapton used in Cream would make it before "Blackie".

no matter. have a look at this.
posted by peterkins at 6:19 AM on March 25, 2010

no matter. have a look at this.

That guitar was in Rundgren's studio when XTC were there recording Skylarking -- Dave Gregory used it to play the solo on That's Really Super, Supergirl -- which was about the best 15 seconds he ever laid down on tape. He was, according to interviews, imbued by the significance of the moment and made sure it was something special because it was Clapton's guitar.
posted by Devils Rancher at 7:40 AM on March 25, 2010

Well, I was in the process of convincing Ms. Ovvl to watch The Song Remains The Same a while ago, and I realized that if Jimmy Page had ALL of the pick-ups ON on the double-necked-SG, then there could be this really interesting resonance happening from the other sets of strings, something vaguely like what one might hear from a Coral Electric Sitar.

You think?
posted by ovvl at 7:54 PM on March 25, 2010

It would probably just feed back really bad, actually. Or the sound of his bejeweled sleeve brushing the strings would come through and sound terrible.
posted by The World Famous at 8:02 PM on March 25, 2010

I remember reading somewhere in my Zepcentric youth (it was probably Hammer of the Gods) that he would leave at least one pickup from each half on when he played the double-neck, because he liked the resonance. But I think (and this is foggy) that this is something he worked out later, so I don't know if he was doing it during the stretch filmed for Song Remains the Same.
posted by COBRA! at 8:41 AM on March 26, 2010

But the SG is a solid body; there wouldn't be any resonance.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:02 AM on March 26, 2010

If I remember right, the line was something about Page liking the way the open strings on the unplayed neck would resonate. But anyway, the solid body of an SG resonates; that's why the wood choice in an electric affects sustain, etc.
posted by COBRA! at 9:17 AM on March 26, 2010

But anyway, the solid body of an SG resonates; that's why the wood choice in an electric affects sustain, etc.

The sustain comes from the lack of resonance. Resonance kills sustain. SGs are usually made of really heavy, really solid wood for that reason. Anyway, even if it did resonate, it wouldn't resonate nearly enough to shake strings on a doubleneck so that they'd be audible.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:34 AM on March 26, 2010

Let's agree to disagree. On the issue of Page, I'm working from the memory of a book I read like 15 years ago (and the book was just reporting Page's subjective belief). On the issue of electric guitar resonance, I agree that there's an inverse relationship between how much the body resonates and sustain, but the body's still resonating- vibration's moving through it.
posted by COBRA! at 9:47 AM on March 26, 2010