Pete Townshend's archives

Comp Lit, Pt. 2: Daddy Never Sleeps At Night

Posted by admin in Tuesday, April 27th 2010   
Topics: Jamie West-Oram/The Fixx, Pete Townshend    
No Comment 536 views

What a Compressor Can Do for You
by John Drenning
Now we move on to how a compressor can help your playing and tone.
First, let’s say you want the advantages of playing with gain, but you need a clean tone. We all know playing with distortion is “easier” because distortion compresses your signal – but you can’t [...]

PG’s Eye-Opening Townshend Interview

Posted by admin in Monday, March 22nd 2010   
Topics: Bassman, Boss/Roland, Demeter, D’Addario, Ernie Ball/Music Man, Les Paul, Marshall, Pete Townshend, Rickenbacker, SG, Strat, T-Rex, Vibro-King    
1 Comment 586 views

Advised Hendrix On His Rig?

Pete Townshend could never be accused of understating things. In some ways he always seems like the classic artist, in the “here’s the way I see it and F you if you don’t like it” sense. In a new-ish and excellent PremierGuitar.com interview, Pete is all that and says some stuff [...]

The Real Story Behind the Black Marshall Stack

Posted by admin in Monday, March 1st 2010   
Topics: Hiwatt, Marshall, Pete Townshend    
1 Comment 819 views

Pete vs. John, Hecklers, Feedback
You probably know that Pete Townshend had an important role in Marshall Amplification becoming what it is today. You probably have heard that Pete is responsible for the Marshall stack.
That’s all true, but you may not know the details (I didn’t). So here goes.

Believe It Or Not: Joe Walsh Loves Roland Cubes

Posted by admin in Friday, February 26th 2010   
Topics: Jimmy Page/Zep, Joe Walsh, Pete Townshend, Roland amplifiers    
No Comment 856 views

A Dang Solid-State Amp!

Joe Walsh isn’t a tone king, he’s a tone emperor. A couple examples: He insisted that Jimmy Page take (buy, whatever) the Les Paul that became Jimmy’s No. 1. And he hooked Pete Townshend up with what to this day is one of Pete’s favorite rigs. (More details on both of these [...]

Townshend’s Recording Rigs and Tips

Posted by admin in Wednesday, December 9th 2009   
Topics: Fender, Gretsch, Hiwatt, Joe Walsh, Pete Townshend, Telecaster    
4 Comments 903 views

All Fender Except the Joe Walsh Rig
I recently subscribed to Guitar Player’s GP2 on-line mag (subscribe here – it’s free) because this time I saw Pete Townshend on the cover. Had to read it, and glad I did. Following are some cool tone-making and tone-recording excerpts from the interview.

What Pete Townshend Is Using These Days

Posted by admin in Wednesday, August 26th 2009   
Topics: Pete Townshend, Strat, Vibro-King    
No Comment 2,297 views

Re-Bias While Playing, Blood on His Guitars…
Performing Musician recently posted an interview with Michael Kaye, who is Pete Townshend’s amp/electonics tech and is a guitar tech for other bands (Springsteen, Bon Jovi, others): Alan Rogan has been Pete’s guitar tech since 1977.
“Alan takes care of Pete’s guitars — the tuning, the guitar changes, the strings, [...]