Guitarists aren’t so quick to reveal their secrets — until they have to.
And when the Who prepared for their 1989 25th anniversary tour, Pete Townshend was in no shape to keep his guitar secrets to himself. The Who co-founder was battling tinnitus and had brought Atomic Rooster guitarist Steve “Boltz” Bolton onboard to perform his electric guitar parts while Townshend played acoustic.
In the course of teaching Bolton his songs, Townshend told him the surprising details behind some of the guitars he used for classic Who tracks, including “My Generation” and “I Can See for Miles.”
“I learned quite a few things about Pete that I didn't know, especially with the correct way of playing the songs,” says Bolton, who previously told Guitar Player about how he had to endure Townshend’s temperamental ways during rehearsals.
“For example, on all the songs on the My Generation album including the title song, you’d think, because it’s bombastic, there’s loads of guitars. But there's only one guitar on every track, and it is a 12-string Rickenbacker [360-12].
“If you listen to it, all the main racket is coming from the bass. There are no other guitars, or any overdubbed guitars or anything. There may be a little piano on, but that’s it. It’s just how they sounded.”
Bolton recalls a moment during the tour’s stopover in Seattle where Townshend’s less-is-more modus operandi was further affirmed.
“I went into a record store and they had this fantastic sound system, and they were playing, ‘I Can See For Miles’ really loud,” Bolton recalls. “And it just sounded great with the drums, guitar and bass.
“I got back to the hotel and saw Pete and said, ‘Listen, I've got to tell you, I was in a record store and they were playing “I Can See For Miles.” And it was just the most amazing experience!’
“And he was just like a little boy. He said, ‘Oh yeah, should I tell you how I did that? And I answered, ‘Please do!’ He explained that it was just a Telecaster through a Fender Champ. And that was it. Yet, the guitar sounded absolutely enormous.
“I said, ‘My God, it sounds like 50 Marshall stacks!’”
The reunion tour also brought Bolton a glimpse into Townshend’s approach to songwriting and how jazz pianist Mose Allison inspired “My Generation.”
“In the ’60s, everyone used to do a song by Mose Allison, who was this white jazz piano player,” he explains. “And one of his songs, ‘Young Man Blues,’ was covered by the Who.
“Pete told me that when he wrote ‘My Generation,’ he actually wrote it and demoed it like a Mose Allison song. That was what was in his head. But by the time it got into the lion's den with Keith Moon, it turned into that bombastic anthem.”
In addition, Bolton learned the correct way to play “My Generation.” He says Townshend tuned his guitar down a whole step and played an A chord shape, which sounded as a G.
“It’s an interesting technique,” Bolton says. “Pete plays the main riff using his thumb on the bass string, then the thumb goes down to play the F.”
When it came to the gear for the tour, Bolton used a 1962 Fender Stratocaster that he first bought back in 1977.
“I bought it in London for 240 pounds and sold the Strat for 12,000 pounds only few years ago,” he exclaims. “So that guitar was my main electric for the tour, and I alternated between that and a 12-string Rickenbacker and my stack of Mesa/Boogie amps.
“Pete mainly played a Takamine acoustic, a 12-string Rickenbacker and a bunch of Eric Clapton Signature Strats. And he used rack-mounted channel-switching Mesa/Boogie studio preamps — one for the electric, one for the acoustic and two for backup. He primarily played acoustic guitar at the start of the tour, and the crew had built him a little gazebo onstage to protect his hearing.
“But by the time we got three thirds of the way through the tour, he was breaking out the Strats. So we were both playing Strats.
“They were recording the shows every night too. Pete came up to me one night as we came offstage and said, ‘I spent all night listening to the live recordings and it's fucking fantastic. Don't change a thing. I love what you're doing.’ Which was great to hear because he’s a tricky guy, you never know what’s going to happen with him.”
And what was one of the most surprising discoveries Bolton made from his time working with Townshend?
“He loves new guitars,” he says. “On that tour, he played a new Eric Clapton signature Strat. So, when he saw my ’62 Strat, Pete said, ‘What are you doing playing that onstage? It should been in a museum. Why don’t you play a new guitar?’ I was having trouble with the volume pot, it kept getting locked halfway, so I had to get it repaired.
“So he had a point. All my guitars are new now.”
