By Alan di Perna

Keith Richards owns nearly a thousand guitars, so which does he typically use in the studio? Find out here.


(Image: © Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)

“Bring me the usual, plus surprise me.”

That’s what Keith Richards would generally tell his longtime guitar tech, Pierre de Beauport, before the start of a session for 2015's Crosseyed Heart.

It was de Beauport’s enviable job to visit Richards’ equipment storage locker and fill his car with a selection of guitars and amps to provide a basic, “go to” setup, while also throwing in a few more “out there” options for experimentation.

With nearly a thousand guitars in Richards’ collection, there’s quite a lot from which to choose. “The usual” will invariably include several of Richards’ iconic Fender Telecasters such as the 1953 model he calls “Micawber” and the ’54 named Malcolm. Both of these are set up in the guitarist’s trademark five-string open G tuning (low to high: G, D, G, B, D, with the low E string removed).

There are also always a few Teles set up in six-string standard tuning, such as Richards’ ’59 with rosewood neck. Note that Richards has been using Ernie Ball strings for several decades; the company even makes a custom five-string set (.11 .15 .18p .30 .42) for the guitarist. The electric guitar selection for the Crosseyed Heart sessions always also included one of Richards’ vintage black Gibson ES-355s and at least one of his vintage Les Paul Juniors. Richards’ guitar and amp choices all tend to be vintage. A Danelectro electric sitar is heard on “Suspicious.”

And as Richards played bass on all but one of the album’s tracks, another key electric instrument was a 1962 Hoffner hollowbody bass guitar used throughout the album sessions. Richards’ stock guitar amp setup in the studio is a tweed Fender Champ with an eight-inch speaker, combined with a tweed Fender Harvard modified with a 6L6 output stage tube and a 12” speaker, nicknamed “One Love.”

The modification makes the Harvard a single-ended or Class A amp, like the Champ. “The Harvard adds a little bottom end and clarity,” de Beauport explains. “And Keith is always plugged into Input 2 on the Champ, not Input 1. We turn the Champ up to about 4, no higher—to where it’s just starting to break up.” Amps for overdubs included a tweed Fender Bandmaster with three 10-inch speakers and an early-Sixties Watkins Joker. Less well known than the popular Watkins Dominator, the Joker is truly bizarre.

“It’s a four-channel amp with a Watkins Copicat tape delay build in,” says de Beauport. “It has this other effect that isn’t really reverb, called ‘Halo.’ I think that’s only on channel 4. And it has a mic stand that pulls out of the top. It’s one of the most whacked-out amps of the Sixties. There aren’t a lot of them. Finding one that works has been fun. They’re red.” Richards’ main acoustic guitar for the sessions was his 1958 Martin 00-21. But as the album delves deeply into his folk and country roots, many other acoustics came into play.

“Goodnight Irene” features a truly historic Keef guitar: his 1963 Harmony 1270 12-string acoustic, heard on classic Stones tracks from the Sixties such as “Good Times Bad Times,” “Play with Fire,” “Not Fade Away” and "Tell Me.” Also heard on “Goodnight Irene” is a cavaquinho, a small, guitar-like instrument used in Portuguese and Brazilian music. Richards’ guitar solo on “Robbed Blind” was played on a 2008 Vicente Carillo classical guitar. And the acoustic mix on “Just a Gift” includes one of Richards’ Martin tiples.

“A tiple is a four-course, 10-string ukulele with two triple courses and two doubles,” de Beauport explains. “But I changed the spacing on the nut to make it five double courses and tuned it to open G.” So, in essence, it’s an acoustic, short-scale counterpart to Richards’ open-G Telecasters—a completely unique instrument. As de Beauport notes: “You walk into the studio and it’s not just a room full of Teles. It’s everything…all over the place.”

[www.guitarworld.com]

its just wrong for one man to own a thousand guitars
it's just wrong.
it's wrong.
it drives up the price of everything else.
what's he need the investment money?
jeepers that's selfish beyond reckonking.
it's abhorrent.

he could maybe just practice on ONE of them;
i mean he's a star casue he's great and has fought every battle
and done a wonderful job that shook the world; visually and otherwise,
he has so much natural funk and character;
but this to me personally is very wrong;
it staggers me.

his kids would do better in life to get jobs if that's his thinking.
whoa a thousand; i could maybe even understand several dozen
if he's a collector as well as player and all that; and it's
really none of my business and all of that; but here we are on the forum and i think it sucks to hear that.
maybe i'll mellow on the point; but it seems outrageous and not in a good way.
like a bad joke.
he could do a show with a few and do well.
he could do a show with ONE of em; any one of em stringed six;
or hey, the guy deserves a whole lot of teles and all that;
but doesn't it seem a little off to anyone else?
give that boy one solid body gibson;
he says he goes for super long periods without playing at all;
it's a gig; he shows
up with heart i respect; and it was always a business,
but there was something more to back it up; and they ; holy jeepers,,
i been trying to get a little work done on my Fender and can't afford it yet.
so it's personal ;keith; wtf....

I'm wondering if he could just lend me a few dozen for a session coming up I'e been asked to attend. I'll maybe get them all back to him.
except for one or two; hops not greedboy.

annd maybe that amp where the duck pops out goes on a rave or wave or halo
i don't know why you say goodbye i say halo
halo halo
i don't know why you sat goodbye i say halo
(halo goodbye, halo goodbe, halo gooed buy
i dunno why you slay uh oh!! , cuz Kay is bi
i don't why you say she's bi i say hello sugar
is bi i dunno why you say halo i say buhhhbbbyyyeeee
i donnnn knnnnn daissy daisssy givvee me dave dAVE you're not thinking rationally dave open the door hal frickazee dave it's bin a hard days nite
shut up hal
yeh, just try going thru that airlock without your helmet dave, good luck human scum
hey hal, i'm about to...

brb



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-04-24 00:40 by hopkins.

1,000 guitars to play three chords?

Hey, I love the Stones! Just thinking of Stu calling them "My three-chord wonders" and his disliking Some Girls because he thought its songs had too many I-IV-V chord progressions. My favorite album! Music for the canaille, so be it...

well two of them are sorta ringing; i'm on his side, i'm a keithist today
and absolutely abhor that mik guy; wtf, without keith that boy couldn't even sing.
cat lost me when he inducted the dam beetles...
'oh i heard love me do and lost my shit' here's the drummer, come get your trophy Bingo"
took balz but i dropped him for keith.

I'm really a billist but i can't say it without lisspthping.
DAMN!!



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2019-04-24 00:45 by hopkins.

Quote
hopkins
its just wrong for one man to own a thousand guitars
it's just wrong.
it's wrong.
it drives up the price of everything else.
what's he need the investment money?
jeepers that's selfish beyond reckonking.
it's abhorrent.

he could maybe just practice on ONE of them;
i mean he's a star casue he's great and has fought every battle
and done a wonderful job that shook the world; visually and otherwise,
he has so much natural funk and character;
but this to me personally is very wrong;
it staggers me.

his kids would do better in life to get jobs if that's his thinking.
whoa a thousand; i could maybe even understand several dozen
if he's a collector as well as player and all that; and it's
really none of my business and all of that; but here we are on the forum and i think it sucks to hear that.
maybe i'll mellow on the point; but it seems outrageous and not in a good way.
like a bad joke.
he could do a show with a few and do well.
he could do a show with ONE of em; any one of em stringed six;
or hey, the guy deserves a whole lot of teles and all that;
but doesn't it seem a little off to anyone else?
give that boy one solid body gibson;
he says he goes for super long periods without playing at all;
it's a gig; he shows
up with heart i respect; and it was always a business,
but there was something more to back it up; and they ; holy jeepers,,
i been trying to get a little work done on my Fender and can't afford it yet.
so it's personal ;keith; wtf....

That's one of the most ridiculous things I've read in eons, especially the flat earthing "it drives up the price of everything else" crap.

What, you gonna complain about Charlie owning cars he doesn't drive, next? Or how many houses Mick owns?

When Keith dies you'll most likely be able to get some of his guitars - you'll have to earn some money to be able to buy them but you'll have the opportunity to "drive up the price of everything else" yourself.

I wonder if Mathijs is going to tell us that Pierre is wrong and he knows more than him

Pierre's a good man ….
Treated me like a king the times I met him …



ROCKMAN

Pierre is good guy. I had some communications with him about a blown vt-22 and he steered me in the right direction. I appreciate that he was willing to speak to me at all let alone provide great technical Advice.

Keith owning a 1k guitars? I surprised he doesn’t own 3k. People give and send him guitars As gifts, for endorsements and have been since the sixties. That alone is probably a full time job just dealing with those. Let alone him buying guitars that what he wants for the guitar’s sake. Guitar players mostly seem to acquire or trade for guitars. Look at Joe Bonamassa, a fraction of keith’s success but he is well known to have enough vintage gear and could open a museum. Gluttonous? Perhaps but not abnormal for a guitar player of their success. Not to mention there are many historic and vintage guitars that as a result of beings owned by Keith are being restored and well cared for simply because Keith owns them. Many of these guitars would have been lost to time. I Remember the National (I think) electric that Pierre repaired and fixed for Keith to use on this album, played on Blues in the morning?

Go Dawgs!

Quote
More Hot Rocks
I wonder if Mathijs is going to tell us that Pierre is wrong and he knows more than him

If you are talking prior to Pierre's time as a Keith tech, I would not be surprised if Mathis knew more than Pierre. But it is a good joke.
Rockandroll,
Mops

Quote
More Hot Rocks
I wonder if Mathijs is going to tell us that Pierre is wrong and he knows more than him

If you are talking prior to Pierre's time as a Keith tech, I would not be surprised if Mathijs knew more than Pierre. But it is a good joke.
Rockandroll,
Mops

At some point in your life you downsize and have your old guitar by your side.
As Neil Young simply says


It's brought a tear and a smile
It's seen its share of dreams and hopes
And never went out of style
The more I play it, the better it sounds
It cries when I leave it alone
Silently it waits for me
Or someone else I suppose
This old guitar
This old guitar
This old guitar
This old guitar has caught some breaks
But it never searched for gold
It can't be blamed for my mistakes
It only does what it's told
It's been a messenger in times of trouble
In times of hope and fear
When I get drunk and seeing double
It jumps behind the wheel and steers
This old guitar ain't mine to keep
It's mine to play for a while
This old guitar ain't mine to keep
It's only mine for a while
This old guitar
This old guitar
This old guitar
This old guitar
This old guitar
This old guitar
This old guitar

No telling how many guitars Ric Nielson owns!

[www.guitarplayer.com]



[www.guitarplayer.com]

[www.guitarworld.com]

I remember that in 1980 or so Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen owned 2,000 guitars. Soon after that his house burned down and some got lost, apparently. Later on he got rid of most of them but kept around, what, 200, because he "needed money". The good thing about Rick is that he actually uses (most of) them, whereas Keith doesn't. Personally I'd love to see Keith go back to the Gibson days of the late 60s but I figure that that won't happen.

Willie doesn't mess around with all those bells and whistles:

"One of the secrets to my sound is almost beyond explanation. My battered old Martin guitar, Trigger, has the greatest tone I've ever heard from a guitar. ... If I picked up the finest guitar made this year and tried to play my solos exactly the way you heard them on the radio or even at last night's show, I'd always be a copy of myself and we'd all end up bored. But if I play an instrument that is now a part of me, and do it according to the way that feels right for me ... I'll always be an original"

Video: The story of Trigger



_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

players like Keith or Steve Howe ( can you tell them apart??? ) like a lot of variety in their sounds so they need different tools. I loved that idea when I first started playing ( 40 plus years ago now) and so I have a variety of guitars and amps so I can get all the sounds I want. I have only sold 4 guitars in all that time ( and had one stole after a gig) so my pile of gear is pretty large. I enjoy making music and listening to music more than being a gear head but there is an element of that to how I have amassed my collection.

I do play MY main guitar daily in any event.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2019-04-24 22:46 by dadrob.

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More Hot Rocks
I wonder if Mathijs is going to tell us that Pierre is wrong and he knows more than him

Mathijs has the same scope of knowledge as Pierre.

by the way, I thought Micawber was a '54..? it is, according to the exhibit now at the Metropolitan Museum, where it hangs (on loan from Keith .)

Quote
duke richardson

Quote
More Hot Rocks
I wonder if Mathijs is going to tell us that Pierre is wrong and he knows more than him

Mathijs has the same scope of knowledge as Pierre.

by the way, I thought Micawber was a '54..? it is, according to the exhibit now at the Metropolitan Museum, where it hangs (on loan from Keith .)

Lol