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Schecter Chandler Telecaster Ex The Who Pete Townshend
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A classic in the history of rock, the act of destroying an instrument at the end of a show became widespread in the 1970s, to the detriment of the most purist of lutherie who saw it as a veritable sacrilege. From Kurt Cobain to Pete Townshend, smashed guitars embodied an entire anti-conformist punk movement, summing up in one gesture their discourse against the tide of society. A master of the exercise, Pete Townshend made this gesture an integral part of his performances, usually at the end of the rock anthem My Generation. His surviving stage instruments from the second half of the 20th century are quite exceptional, and few have survived the Who's shows. Such is the case with this Schecter, played by Pete Townshend on the famous Who Are You tour in 1979. This Telecaster shaped guitar bears a scar on her flank. Perhaps it is an attempt at destruction on the part of the savage Townshend... In any case, it's a very rare Pete Townshend guitar that has been played live and stood the test of time.
Presented by David Schecter to Pete Townshend at Madison Square Garden while The Who were on tour, this guitar is a rather unusual Schecter Telecaster. It was played by the Who guitarist before he returned it to the UK to have a B Bender installed. He then picked it up and sent it back to London, where one Keith Page, Gary Moore's guitar man, bought it. This Schecter Telecaster was also used by Moore on a number of takes for the Run For Cover (1985) and Wild Frontier (1987) albums. This Schecter bears the marks of his very English rock'n'roll years, and remains a rare survivor of Pete Townshend's destructive playing!
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Pete Townshend
(1945)
Band: The Who
Main guitar: Fender Stratocaster
Compulsory listening: Won’t Get Fooled Again
Pete Townshend is electricity. He is destruction made into music, teenage angst turned into unforgettable riffs, rock brutality in its purest form. More than half a century after the Who’s first single, the British band of “Maximum Rhythm n’ Blues” is still on the road, playing timeless songs every night for sold out arenas. Pete Townshend’s riffs have influenced so many artists that the originals still sound unexpectedly fresh.
The band’s first hit came out in 1965, and I Can’t Explain already had all the elements that made the Who such a great outfit: a spastic angry riff with big chunks of silence and a pop voice with heavenly harmonies. My Generation, which came out the same year, took it even further to the point that it is often considered to be one of the first punk records in history, twelve years before that noisy nihilistic single was ripped off by the class of 77.
Then the Who’s music progressively became more complex as Townshend, the master and commander of the band’s ship, developed his recording technique in his home studio, a very rare commodity back then. A Quick One (1966) featured a nine minute mini opera, a concept that became fully blown in 1969 for the band’s most famous album, Tommy. That demanding double record became the rock opera archetype by developing a narrative continuity throughout the 24 songs it contains, while still managing to get a hit record with Pinball Wizard (another monster riff, on acoustic this time).
Live At Leeds in 1970 quickly became known as one of the best live albums of all time, a truly orgasmic explosion on which Townshend’s sound, a Gibson SG Special into a Hiwatt amp, is as close to fat perfection as can be. Who’s Next came out after it, a great album for which the band showed a little less conceptual ambition. But Quadrophenia took it again in the other direction in 1973 with another rock opera, darker than Tommy. Keith Moon, the Who drummer, died in 1978 and the band only lasted five years without him before splitting up. Eventually, after a few Townshend solo albums that really hold up, the band got back on the road in 1996 and, in spite of historic bassist John Entwistle’s death in 2002, Pete keeps on riffing around the world.
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