Keith Richards with his famous '53 Tele, "Micawber"
Another labor of love for me today. And a reminder/refresher course for
you younger players who might not have been well exposed to him.
The immortal Keith Richards. He’s a little forgotten these days, but he
is almost certainly the greatest “riff” guitarist who ever lived. A pillar in the Temple
of Rock ‘n Roll. To be a well-rounded guitarists, you simply MUST spend
some time with “Keef”.
The Rolling Stones had probably the greatest career of any rock band.
They released over two dozen studio albums. Ten of those albums are among
Rolling Stone magazine's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, with their 1972
double album 'Exile on Main St.' placing seventh. My personal fav Stones albums
are Beggar’s Banquet, Let It Bleed, and Some Girls.
Keith has a massive love affair with guitars. He has a collection of over 3,000 instruments.
He is most associated with a 1953 Telecaster, which he named “Micawber” (after
a character in Dicken’s novel ‘David Copperfield’) – pictured above. He used many
different tunings but is most famous for his use of Open G.
He tunes D-G-D-G-B-D, then removes the low E string. He summed up his playing
as follows, “5 strings, 4 bars, 3 chords, 2 fingers, 1 asshole!”. He takes most of
his playing style from Chicago blues, and 50’s-60’s American Country music.
Not surprisingly, his two biggest influences were Chuck Berry and Muddy Waters.
He detests flashy playing, and praises players with “unpretentious” styles.
He seldom uses effects (but is famous for his use of the very first fuzz pedal,
the Maestro Fuzz, on "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"). He states his formula for great
sound as, "the right guitar thru the right amp". For amps he has been most famous
for his live use of Ampegs, Mesa Boogies, and Fender Showmans (and lately Fender
Tweed Twins, like Clapton). But in the studio he always favors small to mid-sized
Fender tweed amps. So that’s what you’ve got in the below patch. A stereo pair
of honky, grind-y, mid happy tweeds. Enjoy.
EDIT: 01/06/2012 Amended patch to include very big-sounding vintage trem, ala' "Gimme Shelter".
You must bypass both Drive blocks and un-bypass both Trem blocks, at the end of the signal chains,
for it to work as intended.
