Fender Stratocasters
Pete Townshend’s use of Fender Stratocaster guitars on stage from 1966 to 1968.
Pete Townshend’s use of Fender Stratocaster guitars on stage from 1966 to 1968. Pete moved from Rickenbackers to Fender Telecasters for their durability and reparability. He began using Stratocasters for the same reason: they could handle the stage abuse. Moreover, it was Jimi Hendrix’s guitar of choice.
He likely used Fender pure nickel wrap #1500 Spanish Guitar [Smooth Round Wound] (.012, .016, .016, .034, .044, .052) strings on the Stratocasters.
Pete used various guitars through 1967, especially during the U.S. tours, which received equipment sponsorship, but by 1968 had settled on the Stratocaster as the primary guitar. In August 1968, during the U.S. tour, he began occasional use of the Gibson SG Special, and by the end of 1968, had completely switched over to that guitar.
In 1989 he would come back to the Stratocaster with the Fender Eric Clapton model Stratocaster.
Selected quotes from Pete Townshend
All quotes and references are copyright their original owners and are included for reference only.
From April 1980 issue of Sound International article, courtesy Joe G’s site.
I stayed with Rickenbackers for a long time and then I started to use Fenders. I never liked Gibsons at all — I still don’t very much (laughs). Then I started to get interested in a wide variety of guitars. … I flitted around a lot and then Hendrix came along and I started to use Strats again. But that didn’t last long because the sound of them wasn’t quite right for what I wanted.
1967
1967
1967
1967
1967, smashing a Stratocaster over a Marshall stack (Marshall 1982A, top, and Marshall 1982B, bottom).
1967, playing through two Sound City L100 amplifiers topped with a Grampian spring reverb unit, driving four Sound City 4x12 cabs.
1967, fitted with a rosewood Telecaster neck. Amps are one 1967 Marshall 1959 Super Lead, and one Sound City L100, topped by a Grampian spring reverb unit.
1967
Fillmore West, San Francisco, August 1968.
Recording Substitute, 1966.
1967
February 26, 1967. Courtesy Brad Rodgers, whocollection.com.
Singer Bowl, New York, August 1968.
Resources and Information
- Story of 1958 Fender Stratocaster owned by Mike Moore, broken by Pete on 15 July, 1968, at the Memorial Centre in Kingston, Ontario. On Joe G’s site: thewho.org/strat.htm
Fender links
- Fender: www.fender.com
- Vintage Guitars Info: www.provide.net/~cfh/fender.html