
There's only one guitar played in this song, not two (a filmed live version from November 1980 shows that.) The lower strings growl with overdrive without a pedal, but the higher strings aren't drowned out. The guitar had the Ventures I "Air Coil" pickup variant that I mentioned on page 1. He recorded this on a 1971 - 1975 Mosrite "V I" (1970s version of the Ventures I) model.


13s (I took after him in this regard) tuned to DADxBB (G string missing, higher 2 strings tuned in unison) in 444 Hz (slightly sharp) for this recording. Johnny normally used light strings, and this would have been one of the cheaper pickups (the kind on the Ventures II "Slab" model,) but it still seems to have a lot of wire in it:Īnd this other recording is why I even started paying attention to Mosrites as much as I do but it's not just the guitar pickups. They're not using thick strings like I do, though.Īlso, here's a live Ramones recording, to showcase them overdriving an amp. The recording was probably made with this guitar, or another similar model:


Here‘s his Mosrite (played by then-tech/second guitarist David Franklin) through a Marshall (probably a JCM 900): Most of his memorable tones have both big, roaring Marshalls and/or a Muff-style fuzz, so it’s hard to get a feel for how the guitars sound in isolation.īut generally I’d say a BIG, well-defined single coil, I guess? Kevn Kinney from drivin’ n’ cryin’ favored Mosrites until his collection of vintage examples became too valuable to tour (I assume, since he’s playing Danelectro Mosrite copies for the past few years).
